Web service to get the GPS Coordinates

Question

I'm developing an web application (jsp/strtus2) which requires the GPS coordinates of a place. What I want to know is, whether there are any free web services that I can get GPS coordinates of a place by passing address or zip code to the server.

Thanks in advance, Nuwan

Answer 1

Yahoo's Geocoder is easy to use. Basically change a few query strings and it outputs an easy to parse xml file.

Google's had a few issues in our area with the coordinates being returned being incredibly inaccurate at times. Yahoo tends to actually land on the street in question, but probably wont hit the parcel itself.

That said, just note these services aren't going to be the most accurate.