From fcc333ee0e60b9a06fbffaf1eb029d9a1cf199a2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Riordan Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 00:12:20 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Tried to explain a general overview of everyhing the service offers. A bit glossary-like --- getting-started/000-getting-started.md | 16 ++++++++++------ 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) diff --git a/getting-started/000-getting-started.md b/getting-started/000-getting-started.md index ac39416..4d1003f 100644 --- a/getting-started/000-getting-started.md +++ b/getting-started/000-getting-started.md @@ -1,16 +1,20 @@ Get started with Mapzen Search -Mapzen Search is a modern geocoding and place search service based on [Pelias](https://github.com/pelias/pelias), an experimental open geocoder from [Mapzen](https://mapzen.com) and powered by open data. It's used to transform the way people talk about places - with names and addresses - into geographic coordinates. +Mapzen Search is a modern geocoding and place search service based on [Pelias](https://github.com/pelias/pelias), an experimental, open geocoder from [Mapzen](https://mapzen.com) and powered by open data. It's used to transform the way people talk about places - with names and addresses - into geographic coordinates, and to translate geographic coordinates into recognizable names of places. -[REWRITE] Mapzen Search can be used to: - geocode addresses, points of interest, neighbourhood, cities, and regions - power real-time search autocomplete for places -- turn a list of addresses into coordinates to plot +- turn a list of addresses into coordinates that can be plotted on a map or computed - Take location coordinates and turn them into human readable places, like an address - find the neighbourhood, cities, states, and countries of location coordinates to quickly classify where your data is coming from Mapzen Search offers: -- Advanced Geocoding tools -- Coarse Geocoding -- +- Forward Geocoding for Addresses + Venues: Used to find a particular place based on the rules of an address, or the name of a landmark or business +- Forward Coarse Geocoding for Neighbourhoods, Localities, regions, and countries: Used to find and localize a service to a particular area or region. Searches only for these places, but with worldwide coverage +- Restricting searches to a known area or radius +- Focusing a search: Searches all known places, but prioritizes places closer to the user (when the user's current location or approximate location is known) +- Autocomplete searches for forward geocoding: Allows a developer to build interfaces where an end-user can search for places and match against Mapzen Search's data in real-time +- Limiting results to a particular country: Allows the scoping of results to a particular country +- Reverse geocoding addresses + venues: Tries to find the name/address of the closest matching place to a geographic coordinate pair (a longitude and latitude). This can be used to take abstract location data (e.g. an end-user's device location) and find the closest address (often used in a weather or deliver app on someone's phone) +- Coarse reverse geocoding: Converts a geographic coordinate pair into the regional hiearchy for that particular place (e.g neighbourhood > locality (city/town) > Local Administrative Area (County, Prefecture) > Region (state/province) > country). This can be used to determine the general region of geographic data and can be quite useful in filtering for places in non-geographic databases that represent things that happen in places From e840be2d3e3c06399c26c95a250b737b01b7b606 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Riordan Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2015 11:33:54 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 2/2] Added @missinglink copy for general description --- 000-getting-started.md | 10 +++++----- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/000-getting-started.md b/000-getting-started.md index 4d1003f..baf7441 100644 --- a/000-getting-started.md +++ b/000-getting-started.md @@ -3,11 +3,11 @@ Get started with Mapzen Search Mapzen Search is a modern geocoding and place search service based on [Pelias](https://github.com/pelias/pelias), an experimental, open geocoder from [Mapzen](https://mapzen.com) and powered by open data. It's used to transform the way people talk about places - with names and addresses - into geographic coordinates, and to translate geographic coordinates into recognizable names of places. Mapzen Search can be used to: -- geocode addresses, points of interest, neighbourhood, cities, and regions -- power real-time search autocomplete for places -- turn a list of addresses into coordinates that can be plotted on a map or computed -- Take location coordinates and turn them into human readable places, like an address -- find the neighbourhood, cities, states, and countries of location coordinates to quickly classify where your data is coming from +> - quickly localize your users so they can discover locally relevant content. +> - provide a super-fast typeahead solution which feels intuitive for non technical users. +> - improve your database by adding geographic columns, such as `home_city` and `country` to your users table. +> - store numeric co-ordinate data instead of strings, for later use in reporting, analytics and machine learning. +> - improve existing geographic data by augmenting it with information about the enveloping `country`, `city` or `state`. Mapzen Search offers: - Forward Geocoding for Addresses + Venues: Used to find a particular place based on the rules of an address, or the name of a landmark or business