Blog about the GeoNames project.
GeoNames.org is compiling a worldwide database of public domain geographical data from various sources. The GeoNames database is not only searchable and downloadable, but also directly accesible via numerous webservices free of charge. The database contains more than 6 Million toponyms in several layers, whereof ca 2.2 Mio populated places. For numerous countries postal code information is available and may be used for address geocoding.
The rss feed for the blog is here :
GeoNames Blog 
Hi there,
I have a question: could it be, that the database you’re using for the georss-service is a different one then the one you are offering on http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/ ? Because there are several cities I can get by using the rss-service, but not when I download the database.
And second, out of curiousity, your service is quite fast, but you must be searching through a database of millions and millions of records. How do you do that, in terms of performance?
thanx, Robert
Hi Robert
The database is exactly the same. Do you have an example for a city you are missing in the dump?
The search engine is using an inverted index. It is the same technique google and other search engines are using.
Cheers
Marc
I’m searching for a webservice which allows one to find a city via latitude and longitude.
Since you have all the information which is nessasary to implement such kind of service I would like to ask you to expand your http://ws.geonames.org/search interface with the parameters latitude and longitude.
Kind regards
Lutz
Hi Lutz
What you are looking for is called ‘reverse geocoding’. Geonames has a couple of reverse geocoding web services :
http://www.geonames.org/export/reverse-geocoding.html
Kind regards,
Marc
Hi Marc,
thank you – that is exactly what I was looking for.
Thankx
How should we show attribution on our site if we use the GeoNames database?
thanks,
Stephanie
Hi Stephanie
A link on your site would be nice. You can put it where and how you see fit.
Kind regards
Marc
The current rssToGeoRSS web service includes the optional Country parameter. Could this service be extended to include an optional ‘Region (within Country)’ parameter ?
The problem is large countries (eg. Canada) with same (or similar) place names that exist in multiple regions (ie. provinces).
I’ve been experimenting with the rssToGeoRSS web service to show RSS newsfeeds on GoogleEarth. There are a number of cases where the identified place is either:
1. found in the wrong province (because my selected newsfeeds are province-specific), or
2. a secondary placename in the news article, but found ‘first’ by the web service.
You are right, Steven. An additional parameter could really help with focusing the parser on a particular region. There are many other way how the parser could be improved and I hope we will find the time to work more on it.
Marc
Hello Marc,
We are trying to correct some mistakes for areas in Greece and also to add some beaches in Greece but we are facing a problem. The ADM1 details of them are not updated correctly and are shown as GR.undefined although we have chosen a valid AMD1 element. To see what I mean, check these two search pages:
http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=ADM2&country=GR
and
http://www.geonames.org/advanced-search.html?q=beach&country=GR&featureClass=T&continentCode=
Thank you in advance.
George.
The thread about the administrative divisions in Greece is continued on the mailing list:
http://groups.google.com/group/geonames/browse_thread/thread/3223ff966c928145?hl=en
Don’t know if this is right forum for this, but I am trying to do genealogy for father, born Sweden, emigrated USA 1921, age 19. Can find little stateside except passenger manifest of arrival listing Holmbergat Filipstad Sweden. Can’t locate “Holmbergat” or “Halonbergat” (latter listed as origin of aunt’s passenger documentation) anywhere. Anyone know where this was exactly relative to Filipstad? Appreciate all help.
Not sure if you’re going to get this, but “Halonbergat” looks like a transcription error, or perhaps it uses a regional dialect form which is no longer in use. The name should likely be Hallonberget (Hallon = raspberry, berget = the mountain, giving ‘The Raspberry Mountain’). The other one should be “Holmberget” would mean something like “The Islet Mountain.” Note that in Swedish those have to end with “et” and not “at” as you’ve written.
I checked with a Swedish mapping site but could find no modern reference to either one near Filipstad. It would likely be the name of a parish or homestead, and may no longer exist.
Hello, Andrew ~ Just now saw your most helpful reply to my query of last year. Thank you so very much for your help! Appears you’re right about the transcription error; it was Holmberget, and yes it’s technically no longer in existence. Interestingly, I “bookmarked” on Genline’s FamilyFinder records database several GID’s which contained vital information on my Swedish ancestors. But until recently I didn’t have a printer to print them out. Well, I got the printer but then my computer suddenly crashed, and when I got it running again, my saved GID records on Genline had been cleared! (And foolishly, I’d never gotten ’round to making a backup flash drive of the contents of my hard drive.) I’m having to reconstruct several months’ work on Genline, a very hard lesson for me. I just hope I can find all the record pages I found before. Thank you once again for your help. Best regards, Sue
You have a very wrong population number for Huntsville Ontario Canada (7972). The number should be 19579, as quoted on the town website http://www.huntsville.ca/business/demographics_pop.htm using figures from the Financial Post (FP Markets
Canadian Demographics 2007
Financial Post}
Thanks Eric, I see that someone has corrected the population number following your posting.
Best
Marc
Hello,
Could you supply the IP ranges needed to access geonames from behind a firewalled server that is not open to internet in general?
Thanks
Hi.
I thought you might be interested in a project I’ve been working on: the CityNewsGlobe.
This software is a new way of browsing international news. By focusing on cities and highlighting places where news is increasing, this software highlights news differently than what you might see on CNN. The idea is to leave users with a real sense of what is happening *all over* the world.
http://woj.com/citynewsglobe
I’m curious what you think of it.
Ian
I am trying to get labels for water bodies to show up in Google Earth and ended up on this GeoNames web site. I can’t find a “help” or FAQ link on how to use GeoNames. Is there something I’m supposed to download and install into Google Earth?
Rob
There is a network link for googleearth here:
http://www.geonames.org/kml/feature-networklink.kml
Click on ‘hydrographic features’ to activate the layers with water bodies.
Best
Marc
Thank you – that was enough that I could figure it out from there.
Fact sheet of Soderbarke, Sweden.
Sirs, in your fact sheet of Soderbarke, Sweden, you say it lies at about 79 m height.
Sorry, but this is not correct. At the official map for Sweden,
the Church of Soderbarke has a height of 106,34 meters.
I would appreciate if you’d correct this figure.
Lennart Stalberg
please feel free to add missing data:
http://www.geonames.org/manual.html
The ‘about’ elevation is an estimated elevation derived from satellite based digital elevation models. It is displayed when we have no other information.
Hello Geonames,
I was interested in finding out if you have determined if there is any country code, even an unofficial non-ISO one, that is being used for reference to South Sudan?
Rob
Hi Rob
I am afraid I have not yet heard of any country code used for the Republic of South Sudan.
Best Regards
Marc
Your entry for the capital of Ontario on this link http://www.geonames.org/CA/administrative-division-canada.html is incorrect, Ottawa is the capital of Canada, Toronto is Ontario’s capital city.
Thanks
thanks. fixed.
Can you please let me know why
“Koekenaap” is a railroad siding and not a small town.
Saken din er oppdatert. Hvis du vil legge til flere kommentarer, kan du svare på denne e-posten.
NRK (Yr)
Apr 14, 14:25
Hi,
Thank you for your feedback for the location Koekenaap. In the location database (Geonames.org) we are using, Koekenaap is now registered as “railroad siding”. “Railroad siding” is not one of the location categories we import into our location system.
If you think this is not the correct category for Koekenaap, it is possible to update at Geonames.org. This location database is also used by other websites and services.
Regards,
Hilde,
NRK/Yr
NRK (Yr)
Apr 5, 14:50
Hi,
Thank you for your feedback, and great to hear you like our weather service. We have registered the problem with the missing location and will look into it. Our new mobile web page should include more locations than the previous, so we hope you find the forecast for another location nearby until we have solved the problem.
Regards,
Hilde,
NRK/Yr
Guyfox
Apr 4, 14:15
Your service is the best ever. I cant find Koekenaap any more. It just says no such place.
This email is a service from Yr.
[JM9LYX-86E1]
Hi Guyfox
I have changed it into PPL. Will probably take some time before being visble on nkr/yr:
http://www.geonames.org/3365354/koekenaap.html
Best Regards
Marc
Hi, are there any plans to enable SSL on the API https://api.geonames.org ? You could use Let’s Encrypt. Thank you!
an ssl endpoint for the free services is now available on secure.geonames.org (different domain as not all servers are configured).
Hi Marc,
there is a mistake in the http://api.geonames.org/postalCodeLookupJSON?postalcode=01349&country=US&maxRows=1&username=demo
service – it returns “Turners Falls” as city for zip 01349. the correct name is “Millers Falls”
the file you use is not updated it seems. the file from US census (2014) looks up to date:
https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/datasets/2014/zbp14totals.zip
thanks for pointing out the error and the link to the file.
I have update this and other issues with the file.
Best Regards
Marc
Hi there,
I have a question: could it be, that the database you’re using for the georss-service is a different one then the one you are offering on http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/ ? Because there are several cities I can get by using the rss-service, but not when I download the database.
And second, out of curiousity, your service is quite fast, but you must be searching through a database of millions and millions of records. How do you do that, in terms of performance?
Please rply
Hello,
I have created 3 separate accounts now in order to receive an activation link so I can access an account. I haven’t received any activation links for any of the accounts I created and I need to access the api key. If someone could help figure that out then that would be great! Thanks!