BigDataCloud Blog

IP Geolocation accuracy has been one of the heavily debated topics for many years across many platforms. We can find many complaints on forums such as IP addresses not showing the correct location or only country-level data being reliable. One of the most popular myths is that the IP Geolocation is inaccurate because it is based on public data and that it usually points to the organisation’s headquarter location rather than the real user’s location. The reality varies widely because not all IP Geolocation services are made the same, and they often utilise different technologies to source their data. Please see our blog post here for more details on how conventional IP Geolocation services operate. The goal of this article is not to compare different IP Geolocation providers. But that will be coming soon, stay tuned!

As we make our way through the global pandemic, the Internet is playing a crucial role in normalising our day to day activities. Businesses have been going through rapid digital transformation, contributing to increased online financial transactions, shopping, communication, education, and entertainment. 

We are also witnessing an increase in cybercrime and other malicious online behaviours. There is a growing concern among people about online security. As more and more news of scams and fraud make their way into our everyday conversations, we are continuously made aware of the danger of being the victim of cybercrime. To make matters worse, the rising concern of being monitored by government agencies and tech corporate giants have also created an uneasy sense of being watched 24/7, resulting in paranoia and speculation.

Most modern mobile and web apps have location-based features enabled for content personalisation and customer targeting. These features are transforming the way we shop online, stream digital content, and read news. Almost all online commerce and social networks are driven by these hyper-local targeting features.

At the heart of these features, lies an algorithm that converts a user's geo-coordinates into readable location properties, called reverse geocoding. Based on this data, businesses are optimising and targeting their campaigns for maximum conversion.

There are many reverse geocoding service providers with various features and pricing models. Among them, Google has the most popular reverse geocoding API and is known to lead the industry. Upon in-depth research, you will find that these APIs have a lot of restrictions that impact the scalability and speed of your apps. 

In this blog post, we have highlighted the major advantages of BigDataCloud’s reverse geocoding API, over Google’s API, and a few other well-known service providers’ APIs.

Learn about various methods of verifying email addresses and how you can use BigDataCloud's FREE email verification API for your application.

These days it is quite common to see websites asking permission to access user locations. There are multiple use-cases of using location data to personalise your web content and deliver targeted messaging. 

This feature can be enabled in any website by using HTML 5 Geolocation API and is widely supported by all current web browsers including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE and Opera.

How often have you opened your customer database and spent hours cleaning and formatting phone numbers? It is the most common problem hampering the efficiency of your business. Yet, many companies still ignore them and end up collecting invalid or duplicate data. 

At the heart of this problem, lies a simple question - should you store a phone number as an integer or as a string in a database. But, the Internet forums are divided on this topic leading to confusion. Most of these arguments are one dimensional and ignores the real challenges behind storing phone numbers.