# Web site to map a bunch of different addresses **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2006, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833 "2006-04-01T11:05:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/1 "2006-04-01T11:05:26Z")
Anyone know of a site where I can input a list of addresses, and output a map with all of them marked? Extra points if it can find the shortest route between them. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/2 "2006-04-01T13:20:09Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > Anyone know of a site where I can input a list of addresses, and output a map with all of them marked? Extra points if it can find the shortest route between them. No website, but Microsoft has a software package that’ll do what you want. I forgot the name. I had installed it on my old computer, but it crashed. I was a route driver for a dry cleaning pickup/delivery service, with about 150-200 customers that I had to drive by every day. With the software, I positioned the first and last customers, then asked the program to optimize it either for distance, time, or cost. I could also specify a start time, and it would figure out when I’d get done. Sometimes it’d come up with some wild routes that I’d have to manually adjust or just plain reject. Darn if I can’t remember its name, but I do remember that it was a Microsoft product. It had US/Canadian street database, and was fairly accurate. There were only two new subdivisions that I had to fudge with to get it to include them on my routes. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/3 "2006-04-01T15:22:15Z")
Download [Google Earth.](http://earth.google.com/) You can mark addresses on the map using push-pin locators icons. Each icon will have an address associated with it, as well as any other information that you want. You can print out maps showing the icons, and you can choose any two icons and Google Earth will quickly find the shortest route between them. Here’s a [screenshot](https://jshare.johnshopkins.edu/mhender4/public_html/gen_images/google_earth.jpg) of a little project i’ve been doing. The addresses here represent Baltimore homicides in the first four months of 2005. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/4 "2006-04-01T19:28:14Z")
[http://www.mapsonus.com/](http://www.mapsonus.com/) will give you driving directions with a maximum of 5 intermediate stops. Choose shortest distance or fastest. No idea how good it is. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/5 "2006-04-02T02:16:30Z")
Are you a AAA member? You can do this from their Web site - make your own “TripTik.” ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/6 "2006-04-02T03:32:18Z")
[Yahoo! Maps Beta](http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/) can plot several sequential points on a map and it’ll plot the driving directions between every point and the next, but it can’t automatically calculate the closest route betwee all points. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/7 "2006-04-02T05:49:37Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > Extra points if it can find the shortest route between them. I take it you want the shortest route between all the addresses? If anyone could solve this, they’d be [really, really famous](http://www.tsp.gatech.edu/problem/index.html), not to mention rich. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/8 "2006-04-02T15:23:38Z")
**Terminus Est** , There’s a BIG difference between route optimization in the computer science sense & route optimization in the ops research or commercial sense. A greedy algorithm that gives an answer within 10% of the NP-complete optimal for most cases but fails spectacularly on pathological cases is a wonderful commerical “optimization”, but a total bust as far as true CS optimization is concerned. There are lots of those greedy algorithms out there today providing decent answers to most cases at a very reasonable cost in CPU cycles and RAM. If the OP or anyone else is interested in what we’re talking about, you can start here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complexity\_classes\_P\_and\_NP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complexity_classes_P_and_NP) & keep reading & following the links until it gets deeper than you want to go. Back to the OP … Assuming you’re in the USA, Cceck out [randmcnally.com](http://randmcnally.com). The website won’t do it for you, but it does describe the software they sell to the trucking industry for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/web-site-to-map-a-bunch-of-different-addresses/350833/9 "2006-04-03T06:47:53Z")
Thanks everyone. The software mentioned by **AWB** seems like the closest match to what I want. The [mapsonus.com](http://mapsonus.com) site will go from one place to the next, to the next, to the next (unless I missed a feature), as will all the others, and that’s not quite what I want to do. The Rand McNally stuff is just overkill (I don’t need to choose my routes based on Hazmat restrictions). INTERESTING overkill, and something I’d definitely play around with if it was free (besides the trial), but overkill. The completely innocuous reason I’m even interested: garage sales. I love 'em, but I hate driving all over town. Nothing terribly important, as you see. Again, thanks for the help.