how to do location based search

Question

I need to develop a solution that will provide the ability for a user to search based on a city and state. The user should have the ability to request that the search result

Answer 1

You'll want to start with a database of cities, states and zip codes with their corresponding latitude and longitude. Here's a link to a site where you can download such a database for free.

Next you'll need an algorithm to find which cities/zip codes are within an X mile radius of the city/zip the person entered. Here's another link that should explain how to do that.