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Put the zip code first

zipcodefirst.com

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Re: Put the zip code first

#311

Post by benhurmarcel »

birdsongs wrote: post #62
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #10

US-centric. I typed a Mexico postal code (it’s five digits) and got routed to somewhere in Maine. So - yeah the whole “I can tell you’re in the US just by the zip code” premise is entirely flawed.

The best times are when US ecommerce sites try to confidently lint foreign addresses, even when they allow shipping there. I've had them tell me I need 5 digits for my postal code in Norway, which uses 4 digits. I selected Norway in the shipping web form. Or when they tell me special characters aren't allowed, yet the "special characters" are just letters in the Norwegian alphabet. My address contains ø. These aren't…

I routinely have websites force me to put my street number after the street name, when here it's written before.

Re: Put the zip code first

#313

Post by sevenseacat »

efitz wrote: post #241

Im reading through all these comments and it amazes me how the perfect is the enemy of the good, for many computer people. Ofc there are edge cases. So since there exist a handful of edge cases where a zip code maps to two states, or the more frequent (but irrelevant in the US) case of two or more city names per zip code, we should make everyone suffer? Ofc if you are making a web form you should ask for the zip code…

Edge cases like every non-US country in the world???

Re: Put the zip code first

#314

Post by sevenseacat »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #165

I like how instead of just rephrasing the website’s premise to make it clear he only cares about the US, he added some ip-based geolocation to select a snarky response based on where you are. Essentially the site argues back to you if you’re not in the US or something. Why did this person even bother creating the website if he’s so hostile and angry.

I didn't get a snarky response viewing it from Australia!

Re: Put the zip code first

#316

Post by ezfe »

mttjj wrote: post #105
ezfe wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal address doesn't matter for mail, and all of this stuff is about mail/shipping. This includes billing addresses. I would have assumed that you knew that. I know people whose ZIP code belongs to a neighboring town (because mail works that way) and it basically becomes their de-facto address.

Probably not safe to assume my level of knowledge about any subject matter

If that's a self-own then fair enough.

But if you get mail to an address with a ZIP code listed to another city then surely you're aware of this as it comes up constantly for anyone who ever receives mail or packages.

Re: Put the zip code first

#317

Post by Sharparam »

8organicbits wrote: post #121
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #84

Le sigh. It has now a disclaimer at the top. “Hello from across the pond (or whichever body of water separates us). This is a US ZIP code website. We are aware that other countries exist.” This guy just keeps digging himself into a hole of ignorance - is he aware of Mexico? Canada?

There's a few messages it can show: const msgs = [ `Yes, we know ${country} exists. We're very proud of you. This site is about US address forms — the ones that make Americans scroll past Turkmenistan 200 times a year. You have your own postal code problems. We believe in you.`, `We see you're visiting from ${country}. Welcome. We regret to inform you that this rant is specifically about American address forms, which…

I think the author is spending more effort on this international banner system now than the rest of the site. I got one that seems to be tailor-made for Sweden (mentioning our furniture (IKEA)).

Re: Put the zip code first

#318

Post by Sharparam »

exmadscientist wrote: post #29

Related, on the country drop-down front: please put the United States (or whatever your customers' main country is) at the top. You can probably tell I want the US from a combination of, you know, 99% of your sales being to the US and my language being set to English. And, sure, put Canada and even the UK next to it. Go wild, have the top ten English-speaking countries there if you like! It makes things so much easie…

> and my language being set to English

Absolutely not. Language should never have any merit at all on country selection.

As a Swede that prefers the English language for tech and internet stuff, sites that try to be smart about country selection based on browser language or language selection based on IP location can kindly go die in a fire. An extra hot fire if they don't even let you manually override the automatic "detection".

Re: Put the zip code first

#319

Post by exmadscientist »

Sharparam wrote: post #318
exmadscientist wrote: post #29

Related, on the country drop-down front: please put the United States (or whatever your customers' main country is) at the top. You can probably tell I want the US from a combination of, you know, 99% of your sales being to the US and my language being set to English. And, sure, put Canada and even the UK next to it. Go wild, have the top ten English-speaking countries there if you like! It makes things so much easie…

> and my language being set to English Absolutely not. Language should never have any merit at all on country selection. As a Swede that prefers the English language for tech and internet stuff, sites that try to be smart about country selection based on browser language or language selection based on IP location can kindly go die in a fire. An extra hot fire if they don't even let you manually override the automatic…

That's why I also mentioned US companies with primarily US clienteles. I think that in that case, "browser is sending en-US language" and even say "IP geo-resolves to the US" is a strong enough signal to justify prioritizing "United States" in a country dropdown. It helps a decent fraction of your customers, and for the ones where it's wrong, they go from picking their country in the full drop-down to... picking their country in the full drop-down. The downside is microscopic on this one.

It's not evil like forced language/region selection with no fix available.

Re: Put the zip code first

#320

Post by reincoder »

twodave wrote: post #188
prima-facie wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The postcode doesn't tell the whole story. But what you can do is use an IP geolocation service which should narrow down your location enough, so that typing in the entire address is no longer necessary. I.e. using something like https://ipinfo.io/json and then typing in a full postcode and street name + number should work well in most cases.

IP geolocation is increasingly not useful for anything, especially for mobile users. The best it can do is give you the correct country and maybe get you in the right region.

I work for IPinfo. Has our data been inconsistent for you? We actually invest heavily and continuously in data accuracy. I think for hosting IP addresses we are nearing the highest level of accuracy possible, especially with data center addresses. We are investing in novel, cutting-edge research for carrier IP geolocation.

I am curious about your experience with us so far.

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