An interesting problem: distance estimating

[David Kramer]

markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
>> markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
>>> I've been thinking about an issue:
>>>
>>> How do you estimate the distance between two points?
>>>
>>> We all know that geographical "as the crow flies" calculations are wrong
>>> with regards to distance of travel.
>>>
>>> We also can not estimate a truly *real* number without knowing the
>>> actual
>>> rout and roads taken.
>>>
>>> So, what do you think would be a practical algorithm for estimating
>>> distance?
>> Use google maps' web services api ;-)
> 
> That would be "easier" in a sense, but not the best solution for a high
> volume web site.

Why do you say that?  If you use AJAX to fetch the distance so the whole
page is not waiting for it, scalability should not be an issue,
especially since your server is not involved in the distance calculation
at all.




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