Get Into This

Have you ever tried to create a multilingual site? How about a community or dating type site where you needed US Zipcode information and a way to determine distances between the zipcodes?

Sure, there are plenty of websites out there that will provide you with this service, but it's not free! Well, I for one refuse to pay for something that SHOULD be free. US Zipcode information SHOULD be free. A way to calculate the distances between them (using Latitude and Longitude) should be well documented and free. IP to country information (to determine from which country an online user is from) should be free. Small tiny images of flags for each country in the world should also be free.

So a while back I took some time and went "googling" for some free resources. It's amazing how many sites out there are selling this type of FREE information. Prices ranged from $5 for a US zipcode database to nearly $300! Well, you search enough and you will eventually find someone out there who will give out the goods for free (because it should be free.)

For anyone who is interested, I have scoured the web and found all of the above mentioned and compiled them into a single zip file. This took me a few hours to do, so I hope you appreciate it :-)

Included in the zip file:

• IP-to-Country lookup file - used to determine what country a user is from. Not 100% accurate, but it works.
• US Zipcode databse - not sure how recent the information is, but its good enough. I don't think new cities are popping up too often.
• Country Flags - these are tiny little icons you can use on your site.
• Zipcode Distance Calculator - small bit of PHP code that will determine the distance between 2 zip codes given their logitude and lattitude information. The math and logic is there, so it can easily be converted to another language.

Here is the file, zip_country_stuff.zip, enjoy!

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