Best way to find the closest address given multiple addresses

August 7, 2006 12:10 PM

What's the best way to find the closest address out of multiple addresses given a website that doesn't do the mileage/time calculations for you?

Lots of websites these days do a nice job of telling you how far away places (usually stores but not always) are located from you. For example, the Barnes and Noble website will tell you how far away locations are from you in miles. The Borders website, on the other hand, will just tell you the locations, often with towns that you haven't heard of before. Usually the more obscure the interest you have, the more likely you'll be looking at a webpage with addresses with no distance calculations.

So far, I have fairly tediously plugging these addresses into a mapping website one by one to tell which location is closest. Is there a website that addresses this problem or can you think of a less tedious way than plugging the addresses in one by one?

posted by mrkohrea to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

The Google Toolbar allows you to highlight and map any address on a webpage.

Also, this Google Maps Hack lets you calculate the distance between any two points.

Google Maps "Find Business" option works well for me, most of the time.
posted by blue_beetle at 12:24 PM on August 7, 2006

like the beetle, i usually enter "book stores near city, NJ" or "starbucks near city, NJ" in Google Maps and it usually works very very well for me. i rarely use store locators anymore, Google does a good enough job
posted by exhilaration at 3:00 PM on August 7, 2006