Data Points

What does the term "Address Data" mean to you?   When I find myself talking about Address Data to various people, it's clear that an address doesn't always mean the same thing depending on one's use case.  However, it almost always boils down to two main asks: 1. Where is this address? and 2. Can I mail to it?  I've been building address data for a long time, but whenever I think of these two functions, my brain immediately associates them with physical and static address locations.  The concept of an address has changed greatly in the last decade to not only include physical street locations but also consumer digital addresses, like emails and social handles.  

Sticking with a physical address...we can answer the questions of where is this address and can I mail to it by carrying out two distinct functions.  If I want to find the latitude and longitude of an address, I can use geocoding software, and if I want to know if the local post will deliver a mail piece or package, we often use postal address validation tools.  Check out the examples below.  Simple, right?  In both cases, these tools rely on an input address from a customer database.  But do you ever think about the underlying reference dataset used to geocode or validate an address and how this data is collected and updated? What do you consider as an address and what attributes do you look for in Address Data?

What does the term "Address Data" mean to you?   When I find myself talking about Address Data to various people, it's clear that an address doesn't always mean the same thing depending on one's use case.  However, it almost always boils down to two main asks: 1. Where is this address? and 2. Can I mail to it?  I've been building address data for a long time, but whenever I think of these two functions, my brain immediately associates them with physical and static address locations.  The concept of an address has changed greatly in the last decade to not only include physical street locations but also consumer digital addresses, like emails and social handles.  

Sticking with a physical address...we can answer the questions of where is this address and can I mail to it by carrying out two distinct functions.  If I want to find the latitude and longitude of an address, I can use geocoding software, and if I want to know if the local post will deliver a mail piece or package, we often use postal address validation tools.  Check out the examples below.  Simple, right?  In both cases, these tools rely on an input address from a customer database.  But do you ever think about the underlying reference dataset used to geocode or validate an address and how this data is collected and updated? What do you consider as an address and what attributes do you look for in Address Data?