Accuracy and similarity aspects in online geocoding services: a comparative evaluation for Google and Bing maps

Abstract

Geocoding is a method used to convert address information into geographical coordinates. It plays a vital role in displaying the relationship between geographic features and semantic information expressed in texts. The objective of this study is to reveal the quality of online geocoding from postal addresses in Turkey provided by Google Maps and Bing Maps services. The quality of geocoding services in urban areas is evaluated using two particular metrics; positional accuracy and address similarity. Positional accuracy measures the distances between point features obtained through the online geocoding and reference data. Address similarity indicates the relationship between two postal addresses based on a similarity index known as the Levenshtein distance. The same performance assessment was also made with the United States' address data to make comparisons and discussions. The results show that services have different geocoding capabilities in both countries because of the differences in the addressing formats.

Geocoding Applications for Social Science to Improve Earthquake Early Warning

“…Geocoding works best when starting with an accurate street address (e.g., Yang et al, 2004;Kilic and Gülgen, 2020), either provided by the individual directly or through the identification of a landmark from which a street address can be obtained. From a street address, I use the Google Maps Geocoding API to obtain geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) for mapping purposes.…”

Challenges in Geocoding: An Analysis of R Packages and Web Scraping Approaches

“…This technique allows researchers and other economic and social agents to carry out analyses and identify patterns based on spatial information. It is a technique that has its uses in multiple areas and fields of research; for example, in: (i) market analysis, where the behavior and trends of various agents can be analyzed according to their geographical location [17]; (ii) tourism, in identifying the behavior patterns of tourists to optimize the offer of certain services [18]; (iii) logistics and transportation, in identifying the locations of distribution centers and facilitating the optimization of routes [19]; (iv) emergency services, to obtain the location of an emergency quickly and accurately [20]; (v) urbanism, in assisting with urban development planning and improving the quality of life of citizens [21]; and (vi) scientific research, in facilitating the study of spatial patterns and the interactions of natural phenomena, as well as carrying out epidemiological analyses [22].…”

Effects of reverse geocoding on OpenStreetMap tag quality assessment

“…They evaluated the precision level by comparing the retrieved addresses with the reference addresses. Kilic and Gulgen (2017) examined the accuracy of online reverse geocoding using Google and Bing Maps for accommodation providers in a selected study region in Turkey and the USA. Similarly, Kilic and Gülgen (2020a) conducted a comparative evaluation of four different reverse geocoding services (ArcGIS Online, Bing Maps, Google Maps, and Yandex Maps) specifically focusing on POIs in urban areas.…”

“…Geocoding is the process of assigning geographic coordinates on the Earth's surface to associated georeferenced textual information, such as postal addresses and place names (Goldberg et al, 2007; Kilic & Gülgen, 2020b; Zandbergen, 2008). The inverse process, known as reverse geocoding, involves assigning the postal addresses of a place to its geographic coordinates (Kilic & Gülgen, 2020a; Kounadi et al, 2013; Li, 2018).…”