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by lukeqsee 418 days ago
Since this article was written, we've (Stadia Maps) also launched and made significant progress with our own Geocoding API: https://stadiamaps.com/products/geocoding-search/

It was originally based on Pelias, but we've since augmented with additional data sources (such as Foursquare OS Places) and significantly improved the baseline for performance and accuracy.

Happy to answer questions on the topic!

2 comments

Can I store the latitude/longitude points I get back from your API forever or is there a caching time limit?

Can I keep those points if I'm no longer a customer?

Can I resyndicate those stored points via my own API?

https://stadiamaps.com/terms-of-service/

> permanently storing results for future use (e.g., as a database column), in part or in whole, from the Stadia Maps Geocoding APIs without an active Standard, Professional, or Enterprise subscription with appropriate permissions;

Thanks - that quote is from a list under the heading "Furthermore, you herein agree not to make use of Stadia Maps, Inc.’s Services in any of the following ways:"

(Having scanned those terms I'm still not 100% certain I can confidently answer all three of my questions though. A classic challenge with this is that terms often have language that relates to map tile images, but it's hard to derive if those same terms apply to geocoded lat/lon points.)

Yes, without an active subscription.

https://docs.stadiamaps.com/geocoding-search-autocomplete/bu...

> Can I Store Geocoding API Results?

> Unlike most vendors, we won't charge you 10x the standard fee per request to store geocoding results long-term! However, we do require an active Standard, Professional, or Enterprise subscription to permanently store results (e.g. in a database). Temporary storage in the normal course of your work is allowed on all plans. See our terms of service for the full legal terms.

In the case of OpenStreetMap-derived geocoding, of course, their terms of service can say "we won't continue to sell to you if that's what you're doing". But the data itself is ODbL-licensed so once you've got it, you can keep it.
I wonder if you can sign a contract with them that locks in your subscription pricing for all time (I imagine not) - without that you risk them jacking up the price on you once you're heavily invested (after they sell the company to Oracle.)
The new V2 reverse geo-coding API is excellent. But it occasionally doesn't have a formatted_address_line, even when the v1 has a full label.

Is that something I should report as a bug, or is that the way it is supposed to be?

Thanks for the compliment!

Definitely drop us a line. Our v2 response structure is still undergoing some iteration, especially around the particulars of labeling, so this may be intended (depending on the specific query), but we can certainly look into it to confirm that.