Tips for locating addresses

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05-02-2013 08:40 AM
PaulBreding
New Contributor III
Does anyone have tips or tricks for locating addresses in Business Analyst, specifically using the Find Point By Address wizard? The geocoder seems to be super picky about how addresses are input. Probably about half the time when I put in an address, BA says it can't find it. So I end up just going to Google Maps, finding the address, then coming back to BA and finding the location by clicking on the map instead. This seems like an extra step that I shouldn't really have to do.

Most of the time, the addresses I need to find are given to me like this:

I-294 & Mannheim Rd, Hillside, IL
Clark & Foster, Chicago, IL

As you can see, they are typically intersections and don't usually include the ZIP code. I've found that adding a directional or adding the ZIP code sometimes helps, but since that isn't information I'm usually given, I have to go to Google Maps to look up that information anyway.

Just wondering if there are some settings or anything else I could be doing to help make this process easier. Thanks!
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PaulVastag
New Contributor III
I've also been frustrated with the ineffective geocoding results of the "Find Point by Address" wizard.  Instead, I just use the Geocoding toolbar, using the "World Geocode Service (ArcGIS Online)" locator.  Then I "add a point" to mark the location, then use the BA "click on the map" tool to add the "store" point.

In BA Desktop 10.1, I've found that the "World Geocode Service (ArcGIS Online)" locator has much better success finding intersection locations than the standard USA Geocoding Service locator.    The "USA Geocoding Service" locator seems to be expecting Address, City, State, Zip, while the "World Geocode Service (ArcGIS Online)" locator is a "single line input" and can handle a variety of address strings.

You can set "World Geocode Service (ArcGIS Online)" locator as the default in the Business Analyst preferences, in the Dataset tab.
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