[squeaky-clean]

I've used this for a place database and really liked it. They provide data dumps of the database (as well as diffs between previous dumps) so we don't need to rely on their web APIs, and still have the data in case geonames ever shuts down. They also offer a paid service, which should guarantee some sort of protection against a random shutdown.

AFAIK they don't have path/street data, just a massive location dataset, so you can't use it for directions by itself.