How to convert an address to a latitude/longitude?

Question

How would I go about converting an address or city to a latitude/longitude? Are there commercial outfits I can \"rent\" this service from? This would be used in a commercial

Answer 1

When you convert an address or object to a lat/long it is called Geocoding.

There are a lot geocoding solutions around. The solution right for your project will depend on the acceptability of the licensing terms of each geocoding solution. Both Microsoft Virtual Earth and Google Maps offer solutions which are free to use under a very restrictive licenses...

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/tutorial