A Toronto-based software company has updated its location-based mapping software to work with Google’s search service
The company, NAC Geographic Products Inc., has developed a mapping and address standard called Natural Area Code. Using a precise string of digits, the system should be able to find any building in the world.
The system has been in existence for about a decade, said NAC Geographic Products spokesman Lixin Zhou, and more than 20 countries have been mapped with NAC codes.
Its advantage over conventional addresses is that it is not bound by local languages, he says. To most Canadians, a Chinese address would be incomprehensible.
The system has not been widely adopted, said Zhou.
Now NAC Geographic Products aims to make its service more popular by making it work with Google.
Google recently made a Javascript library called the Google AJAX Search API readily available so that its search technology can be embedded into other online services such as NAC.