OpenCage Guides to Geocoding and Geosearch

Background, examples and recipes for common use cases and questions

General Background

Why Open Data?
- What benefits does open data offer?
Geocoding vs Geosearch
- What is the difference between geocoding and geosearch?
Reverse Geocoding
- All aspects of converting coordinates into location information

Geocoding Questions and Scenarios

Comparing and testing geocoding services
- Evaluating geocoding services.
Formatting your query
- Clean up your geocoding queries to get the results you want.
Speed up your geocoding
- Run your geocoding faster.
Geocoding large datasets
- Points to consider when processing massive volumes of locations.
Geocoding accuracy
- Is this the result you're looking for?
Migrating from Nominatim
- Switch to OpenCage from Nominatim.
Migrating from Google Maps
- Switch to OpenCage from Google Maps geocoding.
Limit API results to a certain country or region
- Only get the geocoding results you need.
Geocoding and postal codes
- Common questions and misunderstandings related to post codes.
Formatting Addresses
- Presenting location information in the format users expect.
Putting results on a map
- How to display geocoding results on a map.
Browser Geolocation
- Determine a user's location with browser geolocation.
IP Geolocation
- What is IP geolocation? How does it differ from geocoding?
Show an imprecise location
- Show only a rough or imprecise location to preserve privacy.
Writing an SDK or integration
- Step-by-step guide to writing an SDK for our geocoding API.
Convert image GPS coordinates into location information
- How to turn image coordinates into useful location information.
Convert coordinates to country
- Determining which country coordinates are located in.
Determine the ISO codes for a location
- Map coordinates or addresses to ISO 3166 codes.
Determine the county for an address
- Which county is this address in?
Replacing your geocoding API key
- How to deactivate an API key and create a new one.
Protect your API key
- Best practices for keeping your API key safe.

Geosearch (location autosuggest) Background

What is Geosearch?
- Helping users turn search queries into locations.
Why is geosearch needed?
- Location search is not the same as traditional web search.
Consumer expectations for location search
- UX challenges in building a location autosuggest.
Geosearch: Technical Considerations
- Technical challenges in building a location autosuggest.