Changes average about 10 a month, in my experience: new ZIP codes and
split ZIP codes, plus quite a few that go away. So you are working
with a database that's probably around 2% wrong. I've never seen a
*free* source of current accurate data: the USPS charges a lot for
this, so generally the only place to get it reasonably cheap is a
reseller like the one I posted that does high volume. There are
numerous old databases all over the web like the one you posted, but
as I've found in every case, they're too wrong for commercial use.
What's $15 to a real business that needs their app to give correct
results. :)
If anyone does know a free source of CURRENT data (updated at least
monthly) please post it - just cuz I can't find one doesn't mean it's
not out there! :)
On Jun 27, 2005, at 8:21 AM, Scott Gifford wrote:
> Brian Dunning <brian@stripped> writes:
>
>
>> Dude, that's more than 5 years old.
>>
>
> Yup, but it's worked fine for every application I've used it for. ZIP
> codes don't tend to get moved around very often, and when they do it's
> not very far...
>
> ----ScottG.
>
> [...]
>
>
>>> As I said below, you can download a free database from the US Census
>>> Bureau. Specifically, the data here:
>>>
>>> http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/zcta5.txt
>>>
>>> contains ZIP codes and lat/lon information. I've not used that
>>> data,
>>> but I've used this file from 1999 with good results:
>>>
>>> http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/zip1999.html
>>>
>
> [...]
>
>
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