Geocoder getFromLocationName is not finding address

Question

Geocoder getFromLocationName is not returning anything if I'm searching for business places. Here are my finding so far:

• grocery places, commercial buildings -> no result
• schools -> finding results, but only returning Latitude and Longitude. I have to do reverse geocoding in order to get the address based on the coordinates, but the address wouldn't be accurate.
• complete address -> same as school, only returning Latitude and Longitude
• hospital and pharmacy -> returning Latitude and Longitude

I've tested this on 1.6, 2.1 and 2.2 devices that has Google Maps.

I'm trying to find if there's a limitation explained somewhere on the SDK, but there is none except:

The amount of detail in a reverse geocoded location description may vary, for example one might contain the full street address of the closest building, while another might contain only a city name and postal code. The Geocoder class requires a backend service that is not included in the core android framework. The Geocoder query methods will return an empty list if there no backend service in the platform (http://developer.android.com/reference/android/location/Geocoder.html)

[update] So after nights of research, I can't seems to make it work - Google simply wont give me the result. Some discussion on android-developers points a fact that getFromBusinessName was omitted when Google Navigation came out. So I'm starting to assume that Google is pulling back some of their geocoding service.

I can always create a webpage that use Google Geocoder API, but its limited to 2500 api call - and I dont think it will be legal (lol). So what are my alternatives here?

Answer 1

Hi !

I have the same problem since last few days.

I found this post : http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1537

I don't know if the bug is fixed, but I don't think so because we have this problem again !

Answer 2

Did you find any answer ? Or something to get around this problem ? I tried to find a webservice or something like that, but something free for business search is not so easy to find. Moreover, SOAP is a real shit to use on Android, even with Ksaop.

Look what I found in my logCat :

For the business search, I have this error :

LocationMasfClient forwardGeocode(): no feature in GLocation.

But for exact search, when I ask for my address, this error is not present !