Geocoding

We have been highly focused on Address Matching algorithms over the last two years and I was just reviewing some of the "challenge addresses" that the PB Geocoder finds that we cannot find using other products. This is important because the customer address data is frequently of very poor quality. Here are some of the real-world address we received from customers that we can find:

6065 WHITEHALL PUN SUWANEE GA 30024

28 RHEA TENR FAIRMONT WV 26554

83 CHURCHILL RD WEBSTERVILLE VT 05678

137-13 2 AVE South Ozone Park NY

W399S6012 CRZ WI53118

1 100 #1 10025

1053 Thornton Lake 97321

I'd love to hear from folks who cannot get their address matching software to get all their matches so I can try it in my demonstration site. My objective is to continue this work and continue to improve the address matching algorithms to get as many challenge addresses as possible.

One of the biggest problems we find with addresses is the way duplexes are entered. Too often someone (mortgagee? agent? insured?) wants ALL the unit numbers displayed, like:

113 & 115 Quincy St

113 A&B Georgia Ln

Our solution, which is allowed by USPS standards, is to put all the extra info after a # sign:

113 Quincy St #115

113 Georgia Ln #AB

Hi Steve, this question is coming up quite frequently at the moment.

A lot of companies have been using what appears to be a ranged address (i.e. 113-115 Quincy St) for this as well and ranged addresses don't formally exist despite what might be written on the side of a building - there are hyphenated addresses in Hawaii, but they are not ranges.

We treat each address (either a primary address or secondary address) on it's own, discreetly. And we give each one a pbKey, and then we relate them together using a new product called "pbKey Genealogy".

As standard if you take your two examples: 113 & 115 Quincy St would standardize, match and geocode to 113 Quincy St and 113 A&B Georgia Ln would standardize, match and geocode to 113 A Georgia Ln.

So the way to get each individual address point is to write a parses (in spectrum or not) that converts:

113 & 115 Quincy St to 113 Quincy St AND 115 Quincy St

113-115 Quincy St to 113 Quincy St AND 114 Quincy St AND 115 Quincy St

Another approach might be to use Genealogy, go from 113 Quincy St and work out the building or parcel then return all the addresses in either that building or the parcel. These are the features of Genealogy.

I can demonstrate this to you on a call if you need Steve.

Mike