Geocoding

This guide briefly describes what geocoding is and links to world wide web sources where you can access free place name databases and geocoding processors.

The guide also describes how to inquire about and access geocoding capabilities the University of Oregon has through its ArcGIS licenses with the company ESRI.

The remainder of this page describes what geocoding is. The Free Place Name Databases page of this guide describes and links to websites where you can submit and receive place names and addresses for free. The Free Online Single Address Geocoding page of this guide describes and links to websites where you can geocode single addresses at a time. The Free Online Bulk Geocoding page of this guide describes and links to websites where you can use or request access to bulk geocoding capabilities for free. The Geocoding at UO page of this guide explains capabilities the University of Oregon has for geocoding and who to contact to learn more about accessing geocoding services.

Geocoding converts street addresses into approximate geographic coordinates (like latitude and longitude). This process sometimes is also used in reverse (aptly named reverse geocoding), where geographic coordinates are used to approximate street addresses.

Geocoding can be performed by entering a single address. However, sometimes it is desired to process multiple addresses simultaneously. The processing of many addresses into geographic coordinates at once is known as batch geocoding. The terms batch geocoding and bulk geocoding are often used interchangeably to refer to the same process.