TECH: Find more about Yahoo! PlaceFinder a geocoding Web service

''Yahoo! PlaceFinder is a geocoding Web service that helps developers make their applications location-aware by converting street addresses or place names into geographic coordinates (and vice versa).

PlaceFinder recognizes a large number of place formats and returns rich geographic data about each result, including geographic coordinates, address components, and WOEID. The WOEIDs returned by the service can be passed to Yahoo!'s GeoPlanet API for further geographic enrichment and discovery.

PlaceFinder replaces the Yahoo! Maps Web Services Geocoding API, which has been deprecated.

In addition,the PlaceFinder web service allows you to convert street addresses (like “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC”) or place names (like “Washington, DC”) into geographic coordinates (like latitude 38.898717, longitude -77.035974) that you can use as the center of a map or the position for a map marker. This conversion is called “geocoding” and can be used to make your applications location-aware.

The service also allows you to convert geographic coordinates into street addresses or place names. This conversion is called "reverse geocoding" and can be used to provide user feedback when only coordinates are known.''BY TAATJENE