Eircode - its implemetation (merged)

ukoda · 02-09-2016 09:39PM

I checked a load of non unique addresses and they worked for me. So it's not a case that Google have only done unique addresses so far.

sondagefaux · 02-09-2016 09:42PM

ukoda wrote: »

I checked a load of non unique addresses and they worked for me. So it's not a case that Google have only done unique addresses so far.

Yeah, edited my post to take that into account.

Eircode should start doing TV ads about this - I think letting news of this spread by word of mouth isn't going to be enough.

The advantages for rural businesses are very clear but they need to know about it if they're going to start using Eircodes in their publicity materials.

ukoda · 02-09-2016 09:46PM

sondagefaux wrote: »

Yeah, edited my post to take that into account.

Eircode should start doing TV ads about this - I think letting news of this spread by word of mouth isn't going to be enough.

The advantages for rural businesses are very clear but they need to know about it if they're going to start using Eircodes in their publicity materials.

I'm sure the media will pick up on it shortly too, there will probably be a press release once it's "official" we only know about it by accident from an eagle eyes poster

sondagefaux · 02-09-2016 09:50PM

I'm not entirely convinced that the Irish media will. There's been such hostility and scepticism towards Eircodes in the press and on TV/radio, that I think it'll take paid advertising and PR campaigns to get the word out.

Maybe Eircode could also send letters to rural businesses, explaining how Eircodes are now working on Google Maps, and encouraging them to add their Eircodes to all their publicity materials, including websites etc.

sondagefaux · 02-09-2016 09:55PM

Just tried it there with the Eircode for a B&B that's just up the road from my sister's house in the same rural townland in Co. Cork.

Worked perfectly and I was able to get directions from my house in England to the B&B.

Looks like Google Maps have already done a lot of work on adding Eircodes to rural townland addresses, so a lot of what I said in my earlier long post is probably redundant!

I hope that B&B knows about this and starts putting its Eircode all over the place...

sondagefaux · 02-09-2016 10:02PM

And again, this time using an Eircode for a business in the same townland - worked perfectly.

sondagefaux · 02-09-2016 10:19PM

I can see one of the beta issues now:

Tried to get directions from P72 XXXX to D03 X123

Got directions from P72 XXXX to P72 X123 instead...

Seems to be very unstable at present.

sondagefaux · 02-09-2016 10:38PM

MBSnr wrote: »

gctest50 wrote: »

Probably works if you do this too :

https://www.google.com/maps/place/D01+N971

Nope.

Got H65 N971 instead. Same last 4 digits...

Used D01 N971 as starting point, trying to get directions to a Galway city (H91) address.

Got directions instead to a Dublin 7 (D07) address, with the same last four characters as the Galway city address.

It seems to default to the nearest address with the same last four characters when you request directions from one Eircode to another.

sondagefaux · 02-09-2016 10:47PM

GJG wrote: »

I've just tested the directions function to route between two non-unique rural addresses. Worked perfectly. I used one address that is particularly difficult to find, on a warren of rural roads that all share the same address.

I have stuck in two Eircodes into this sample search, try your own on either field. Anyone get any anomolous results?

[font=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]https://goo.gl/maps/SrjzjyvAcxn[/font]

Tried it with a Dublin 3 Eircode, using it to get directions to/from an address in Galway city - worked fine when the Dublin 3 Eircode was typed in as D03XXXX.

Then I put a space between the D03 routing key and the last four characters of the Eircode (i.e. D03 XXXX), and it gave me directions to an address in Co. Galway (H91 XXXX) with the same last four characters as the D03 address.

Tried it again without the space (i.e. D03XXXX) and got correct directions to the D03 address.

There seems to be a problem with its ability to recognise the correct routing key, especially if there's a space left between the routing key and the last four characters.

MBSnr · 03-09-2016 12:23AM

sondagefaux wrote: »

Used D01 N971 as starting point, trying to get directions to a Galway city (H91) address.

Got directions instead to a Dublin 7 (D07) address, with the same last four characters as the Galway city address.

It seems to default to the nearest address with the same last four characters when you request directions from one Eircode to another.

I noticed that earlier in the day as my eircode routing key was changing to one in Galway, where I was doing the lookup, and not in Mayo where it actually was. Good though that you confirmed it as I wasn't sure if others were seeing exactly the same.

MBSnr · 03-09-2016 12:30AM

ukoda wrote: »

I'm sure the media will pick up on it shortly too, there will probably be a press release once it's "official" we only know about it by accident from an eagle eyes poster

Thanks! I was in the habit of sticking an Eircode into Google maps every now and then just to see if by chance they released the feature without letting anyone know and today I just checked. Could have been 'live' a few days beforehand but no one knew...

sondagefaux · 03-09-2016 01:57AM

MBSnr wrote: »

sondagefaux wrote: »

Used D01 N971 as starting point, trying to get directions to a Galway city (H91) address.

Got directions instead to a Dublin 7 (D07) address, with the same last four characters as the Galway city address.

It seems to default to the nearest address with the same last four characters when you request directions from one Eircode to another.

I noticed that earlier in the day as my eircode routing key was changing to one in Galway, where I was doing the lookup, and not in Mayo where it actually was. Good though that you confirmed it as I wasn't sure if others were seeing exactly the same.

Try putting Eircodes in without any space between the routing key and the last four characters. It seems to be a lot more consistent.

03-09-2016 12:25PM

sondagefaux wrote: »

Try putting Eircodes in without any space between the routing key and the last four characters. It seems to be a lot more consistent.

That makes sense as there is officially no gap there, it's probably only those of us who know that the code has two parts who put it in with a space.

MBSnr · 03-09-2016 12:56PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

That makes sense as there is officially no gap there, it's probably only those of us who know that the code has two parts who put it in with a space.

But the official cards sent out have the space.... Most places write it with the space. It needs to work 100% with the space otherwise people will try it once and then give up....

ukoda · 03-09-2016 12:58PM

MBSnr wrote: »

But the official cards sent out have the space.... Most places wire it with the space. It needs to work 100% with the space otherwise people will try it once and then give up....

Yes it does need to work with the space, they need the algorithm to check for a routing key if it finds a unique indentifier and not just default to the closet unique identifier ignoring the routing key, which seems to happen a bit now. It should be an easy enough fix

Sam Russell · 03-09-2016 01:51PM

MBSnr wrote: »

But the official cards sent out have the space.... Most places write it with the space. It needs to work 100% with the space otherwise people will try it once and then give up....

The Eircode finder puts a space in - you cannot more official than that.

However, it should be an easy fix - the software just needs to remove it when parsing.

03-09-2016 03:46PM

I stand[space]corrected

just most search algorithms use [space] as a word separator, it should work OK with " " around the code.

PDVerse · 03-09-2016 03:51PM

The official advice is it should always be stored in a database field as 7 characters and always presented with the space (8 characters). The reason for the DB advice is to ensure data can be easily matched without worrying whether one source has a space or not. The reason for displaying to users with the space is for readability and ease of recall (memory chunking). It may be inputted either way, lower or upper case, and have obvious input errors (letter O instead of number 0), so these all need to be handled. I'm sure it won't take Google long to sort out their teething issues.

ukoda · 15-09-2016 12:12PM

Nightline's boss says 'the logic of Eircode' has allowed it to roll out new services
The logistics firm is hiring 150 staff following a €3 million investment in delivery facilities.

https://fora.ie/nightline-jobs-3-million-investment-2979252-Sep2016/?utm_source=twitter

L1011 · 15-09-2016 12:58PM

But but but loc8 told us couriers wouldn't and indeed couldn't use it?

Bray Head · 15-09-2016 01:11PM

Firms that fail to adapt basic labour-saving technology eventually just go away and die.

As I argued on the other thread the opposition to eircode was from incumbent firms which were afraid of more productive entrants coming and eating their lunch.

Two years ago you could not run any kind of delivery operation in Co Mayo without a high degree of local knowledge in your drivers' heads. In a few years you will be able to.

byrnefm · 15-09-2016 07:27PM

I called AIB today to ask they were using Eircodes yet. I was told not really but that they could add mine to my address if I wanted, so I did. I did the same, twice, with Digiweb and they tell me it is on their records.. but never appears on my telephone bill. I wonder if AIB will be the same?

ukoda · 15-09-2016 08:34PM

Bray Head wrote: »

Firms that fail to adapt basic labour-saving technology eventually just go away and die.

As I argued on the other thread the opposition to eircode was from incumbent firms which were afraid of more productive entrants coming and eating their lunch.

Two years ago you could not run any kind of delivery operation in Co Mayo without a high degree of local knowledge in your drivers' heads. In a few years you will be able to.

And it amazes me that people claim An Post sabotaged the postcode to keep their competitive advantage (local knowledge) when in fact eircode removes the need for local knowledge!

GJG · 16-09-2016 08:38AM

byrnefm wrote:

I called AIB today to ask they were using Eircodes yet. I was told not really but that they could add mine to my address if I wanted, so I did. I did the same, twice, with Digiweb and they tell me it is on their records.. but never appears on my telephone bill. I wonder if AIB will be the same?

What you are seeing here is the pattern of how new tech gets adopted. To be honest I doubt if your action will have any effect. People are generally conservative and if your job works in a particular way, you are motivated to resist any change. There are usually only a handful of people who have the vision to go in a new direction, but once they act, they change the paradigm.

Google maps have eircode search in beta already, and this will put unbearable pressure on the satnav makers to include it or get out of the market - single use devices are on their way out anyway.

When, say, one insurance company using Eircode to calculate risk, the crude calculations of the others will start costing them money and they will act.

Bray Head wrote:

Two years ago you could not run any kind of delivery operation in Co Mayo without a high degree of local knowledge in your drivers' heads. In a few years you will be able to.

I would say in weeks rather than years, when Eircode is fully uploaded into Google maps. The local knowledge is only good until the local fella retires. Then the company that relies on it, unlike before, will have to compete with a service that doesn't need that knowledge, and must either adopt Eircode or go through months or years of giving terrible service while the new fella learns the ropes. Except this time it's different because customers can compare the service to the company that uses Eircode, and will be complaining about late deliveries, saying that they will use the more advanced company any more. It's pretty obvious that they either adapt or die.

It's the same with the insurance company; better risk calculations mean lower premiums for good risks and higher ones for bad risks, so a company that doesn't use Eircode will suck in all the worst customers and repel the best. Pretty clear what will happen there.

There will be some holdouts who can't stand to change, but they just don't matter. You can follow the Twitter headbanger going through the five stages of grief. (They may never complete them, but ultimately if they don't, the rest of us just move on anyway.)

Remember that one friend who swore they would never get a microwave or a mobile phone? Said everyone else would die of cancer? In the end, maybe they got one, maybe they didn't, but they didn't change the adoption path for new technology one whit.

MBSnr · 16-09-2016 10:05AM

^^^
I mentioned that Eircodes work with Google Maps now to quite a few people at work, friends and the family. Most seemed unimpressed or indifferent. I guess had they worked in Google Maps from day one in July 2015, things would be a lot different at this stage after 12 odd months of adoption. I recall a lot of larger online companies putting on the web their store locations with Eircodes listed in mid 2015, but that initial flurry of activity and knowledge of getting an Eircode in the post has long passed. How many know their Eircode now I wonder? Going to take a little longer to gain traction again than it would have 12 months ago.

There's a young fella due to come to our house to pick some stuff up and I asked if he used Google maps at all, being as he has a smartphone. He said he did. I said I can give you our Eircode and it'll bring you to the door. He said he'll ring for directions when he gets close. I was surprised at that but maybe some people, whatever their age, just don't use technology or can't see the benefits as much as others.

oscarBravo · 16-09-2016 10:13AM

MBSnr wrote: »

There's a young fella due to come to our house to pick some stuff up and I asked if he used Google maps at all, being as he has a smartphone. He said he did. I said I can give you our Eircode and it'll bring you to the door. He said he'll ring for directions when he gets close.

I'm getting dangerously close to the point where I'd reply to that: "Grand so, I'll give you my Eircode then."

plodder · 16-09-2016 10:19AM

I wouldn't be drawing attention to google maps until they fix the problem with multiple codes at the one location. The Autoaddress app is currently a better solution for any serious navigation/delivery users.

oscarBravo · 16-09-2016 10:24AM

plodder wrote: »

I wouldn't be drawing attention to google maps until they fix the problem with multiple codes at the one location. The Autoaddress app is currently a better solution for any serious navigation/delivery users.

I'd agree; more generally, I wouldn't bother drawing attention to Google Maps until they've actually announced support.

ukoda · 16-09-2016 10:26AM

The anti eircode crowd are spinning the nightline story into "nightline forced to hire more people because eircode is so inefficient" !!!! It's just ridiculous now.

Fastway also invested in eircode btw:

http://irishtechnews.net/ITN3/fastway-couriers-announces-plans-for-expansion-opportunities-for-up-to-100-new-franchises-coming-on-stream/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

chewed · 16-09-2016 11:59AM

I wonder will Google Maps eventually be able to display the actual house number/name when an Eircode is searched, once it's fully rolled out? Currently it just seems to display the town land and town.

Eircode - its implemetation (merged)

Comments