How to Use Google Address Validation API
Address validation is a critical part of most business processes. It improves user experiences by removing the friction of typos and incomplete addresses at account signup or checkout and saves businesses time and money by mitigating the negative impact that bad addresses have on shipping costs and customer support.
Google offers an API to validate addresses, however it’s lacking a number of crucial features. Unlike other address validation tools, Google only validates addresses by matching them against real maps, which means that some valid addresses are incorrectly identified and returned as “Plausible” (the equivalent of “I don’t know”).
Another problem with using Google is that its terms of service limit storing, caching, prefetching, or indexing data beyond 30 days. This is a huge drawback for companies that need to store and analyze large amounts of address data for longer periods of time.
Finally, Google’s API is missing a key piece of information: RDI (“Resident Duplicate Indicator”). This is a unique code that determines whether a person lives in a multi-family dwelling, or if they live alone or with other people. It’s important for many different business purposes, including providing accurate shipping quotes, and ensuring that delivery drivers can accurately locate the address to deliver to.
All in all, it’s difficult to justify paying for Google’s Address Validation API, especially when there are several high-quality alternatives available. Thankfully, there are address validation services like onleeaddress that offer a better price-performance ratio and more useful features.
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