Being able to be found is important. Finding other people is just as important. These days, there isn't a networking web site out there that doesn't have some kind of robust search system, to some degree. The one thing that all of these systems have in common is that members need to tell the site where they are. You can't tell someone how far away they are from someone else if you don't know where both of them are. But how do you let users specify their location?
One solution, buying a huge database with every city in it, is somewhat nonsensical. First, those databases are expensive, if you get one that’s actually decent. If you go for a cheap database, you end up with gaps in your cities, at best, and incorrect information, at worst. Can you imagine deploying a database of cities around the world and including a city that was sacked and burned to the ground over a thousand years ago?
There are good databases, too - but at over $3,000 for a subscription to a worldwide database, that’s an option that just won’t fly. That, plus those databases still don't have every city, some are named wrong, and some that are large actually pad your radius searches by up to 30 miles! Combine that with constant maintenance, and it's a nightmare.
Like most sites, we chose to do a latitude/longitude solution, but without the database. Until now, we mapped zip and postal codes, but for the rest of the world, had to presume that our users knew (or could figure out) their latitude and longitude. Yes, it's not rocket science, but we didn't want to have to make that presumption. We wanted to make it as easy as possible.
So we chose a mapping solution and leveraged the power of Google, once again (as we did with our TFP.me search engine). With this solution, you simply put in as much of your address as you want, anywhere in the world, and click “Map It” to bring up the Google map. Place the marker on your location, close the map, and hit save.
Done.
Anywhere in the world, named or not. With incredible accuracy, up to 12 decimal places.
Once again, we leverage the power of an existing solution, inexpensively, and better. That's the whole idea behind Model Insider - we're learning from years of experience, figuring out what works (and what doesn't), and implementing it. One feature at a time, we are consistently becoming the most feature-rich and most reliable modeling and photography networking site on the web. And with what we have planned over the next few months, we think we'll really knock your socks (or other items of clothing) off!
