Geocoding addresses to geographic coordinates

Question

I am writing a research proposal for a project on voter turnout as related to proximity to mass transit. The first part of my project would require geocoding hundreds of thousands of addresses, but I'd rather not have my laptop running ArcGIS for days on end to do it. My school's supercomputer does not have GIS software but it does have Mathematica Version 8. Is there a way to geocode addresses in Mathematica? I've found several workaround solutions online, but nothing that I think would get the approval of the campus IT office.

Answer 1

This is a very simple geocoder that I wrote some time ago.

cleanString[string_] := Module[{l1,l2},
    l1 = Characters@"ŠŽšžŸÀÁÂÃÄÅÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÐÑÒÓÔÕÖÙÚÛÜÝàáâãäåçèéêëìíîïðñòóôõöùúûüýÿ";
    l2 = Characters@"SZszYAAAAAACEEEEIIIIDNOOOOOUUUUYaaaaaaceeeeiiiidnooooouuuuyy";
    StringReplace[string, Thread[l1 -> l2]~Join~{" " -> "%20", "," -> "%2C"}]
]

geoCoder[address_] := Module[{getGeo, geo, cod = 0, i = 0, link}, 
    link = cleanString@address;
    link = "http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=" <> link <> "&output=csv";
    StringSplit[Import[link],","]
]     

Testing it with:

geoCoder["Av Paulista, 510, Sao Paulo, Brasil"]

you get the right coordinates:

{"200", "8", "-23.5680096", "-46.6482837"}

Here is the Google Documentation about request limits. The free one has a limit of 2.500 requests per day.