How should I approach geocoding for my app?
===

I have an app that will list businesses by type (there will be around 500 different types of business). I envisage each type (or category if you like) to have no more than one or two thousand listed businesses (obviously a lot less to begin with). You can think of it like a cut down version of Yellow Pages, where we only cater for certain businesses.

I'd like to let users browsing the site enter their postcode (or town) to sort the listings by distance - i.e closest to them first.

- Is using a geocoding gem my best option? (Before 'geolocation' apps could be sorted by distance relative to postcode - are those techniques dead now?)

I've looked at the RailsCasts episode on Geocoder (gem) (http://railscasts.com/episodes/273-geocoder) but am concerned about Google's limit of 2,500 requests per day.

- If I use Geocoder with Google, will the 2,500 limit pose a problem? Will it cache lon/lat queries so, the 2,500 limit per day will only be used on _new_ queries?

- Should I consider using Yahoo with Geocoder instead? Their limit is 50,000 a day. Are they reliable? Are they recommended?

- Do I have any other options?

- Any other recommendations or best practises I should be aware of?

Thanks.



