How Geocoding Works

Forward geocoding (commonly known as geocoding) is the process of taking a physical address and converting it into GPS coordinates. For example, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC (the White House) geocodes to 38.898748, -77.037684. You can use the latitude/longitude to plot the location on a map (just one example).

Reverse geocoding is taking a set of coordinates (latitude/longitude) and converting it into a physical address. iBegin Geocoder not only gives you the closest physical address, but also the nearest intersection and nearest major intersection. For example: 43.671849, -79.388433. The actual address is 4 Collier Street, the nearest intersection is Yonge/Yorkville Avenue, and the nearest major intersection is Davenport/Yonge.

The data we use is a mix of government GIS, commercial, and auxillary data. We then collate all of this together, and clean and filter out the data for inaccurate and inconsistent data. While we take every step to have the most accurate and upto date data possible, please note that there is no central authority for road information in the US or Canada. Due to this, there may be some addresses we cannot geocode.

The following flowchart shows how you can use iBegin Geocoder:

For more information, see our pricing page and also our documentation.

Ready to start? Head on over to your account page to get started.