I have 5 businesses located within one state. I'd like for users to be able to enter their zip code and see via google maps how far they are from my businesses. Is there a current tool for doing this?
See this entire article: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/services.html#Geocoding It's not particularly hard, hell you can even get directions with a fairly short script. The Google Maps API is fantastic. E.g: http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=94043&output=xml&sensor=true_or_false&key=abcdefg Would get the details for ZIP 94043. This returns the coordinates, once you have these you can use Pythagoras theorem to work out the distance from your businesses. (You do need to enter a Google Map API key though.) Dan
Or, instead of pythagoras, you can use the Haversine formula. A bit more accurate, as it takes into account earth curavture (Pythagorean Theorum is for a flat space, where as Earth is curved, obviuosly). Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haversine_formula Not sure radius of the Earth, but I know i've used this formula before... You can probably find this fairly easily via Google. Good luck.