There is a lot that goes into building an Address Database and the continuous maintenance to keep up with real world change. Development growth and decline can change any component of a street address. Adding new infrastructure, subdividing land parcels, emergency service updates, honoring influential people (Martin Luther King Blvd), and changing postal boundaries are a few examples that contribute to the constant management of physical addresses. In addition, the same location could have multiple vanity, alias, or abbreviated names associated. Check out the three valid addresses below that have different city names but all represent the same location:
- 3001 Abby Way Loveland, OH 45140 – Primary City Name
- 3001 Abby Way Montgomery, OH 45140 – Secondary City Name
- 3001 Abby Way Murdock, OH 45140 – Vanity City Name
Lately I have heard the statement that "Address Data is now commoditized" and I would like to try to change this perception. When I perform a google search to find a comprehensive, nationwide, stand-alone Address Point dataset in the US; containing a street address and coordinate for both postal and non-postal addresses… the results are surprising! I can find postal mailing list providers, but these do not usually contain a coordinate location or non-postal street addresses. I can find individual state and local GIS/Tax Assessment datasets but these are not aggregated into one Nationwide dataset, and usually do not include secondary address information because their use case is tied to property assessment. In addition, there are still many state and local governments that do not have the funding to build this data. There are only a handful of companies that build quality nationwide address data to support both asks of "Where is this location?" and "Can I mail to it?".
So I ask these questions to the Community…
- What do you consider as an address and what attributes do you look for in Address Data?
- What value do you find with stand-alone address data?
- Does Anyone have any fun and unique address data they like to share?
- What about other countries building address data? Remember the Address scheme and formatting of an address are specific to each Country.
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Amy Metz, PMP, PMC-III
Product Manager - Address Data
Pitney Bowes
White River Junction, VT
802-698-3571
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