Intelligent geocoding of location information

1. A method of preprocessing user input location information before the user input information is translated to a specified format, the method comprising:

receiving user input location information for a particular location, the location information including a plurality of components;

generating multiple candidate locations based on the plurality of components;

comparing the multiple candidate locations with information in a location information database.

2. The method of claim 1 , ranking the multiple candidate locations in a ranking order before comparing.

3. The method of claim 2 , comparing the multiple candidates in the ranking order until matching one of the multiple candidate locations with information in the location information database.

4. The method of claim 1 , removing information from the user input location information, the information removed not supported by the database location information.

5. The method of claim 1 , identifying the components of the descriptive information before generating the multiple candidate locations.

6. The method of claim 1 , generating the multiple candidate locations from combinations of the plurality of components.

7. The method of claim 1 , normalizing at least one of the multiple candidate locations relative to the database location information.

8. A method in a geocoding entity coupled to a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving input location information for a particular location, the input location information including a plurality of components;

identifying components of the input location information;

generating multiple candidate locations from combinations of the components identified;

comparing the multiple candidate locations with reference location information until matching reference location information is found;

providing location information in a specified format based upon the matching reference location information.

9. The method of claim 8 , ranking the multiple candidate locations in a ranking order before comparing.

10. The method of claim 8 ,

the input information components includes number information and descriptive information,

separating the number information from the descriptive information before generating the multiple candidate locations.

11. The method of claim 10 , removing information from the input location information, the information removed not supported by the reference location information.

12. The method of claim 11 , removing information includes removing punctuation from the input location information.

13. The method of claim 8 , normalizing at least one of the multiple candidate locations relative to the reference location information before comparing the multiple candidate locations with the reference location information.

14. A method in a geocoding entity, the method comprising:

receiving input location information for a particular location, the input location information including a plurality of components;

identifying components of the input location information;

generating multiple candidate locations from combinations of the components identified;

comparing the multiple candidate locations with reference location information.

15. The method of claim 14 , ranking the multiple candidate locations in a ranking order before comparing.

16. The method of claim 14 ,

the input information components include number information and descriptive information,

separating the number information from the descriptive information before generating the multiple candidate locations.

17. The method of claim 16 , removing information from the descriptive information, the information removed not supported by the reference location information.

18. The method of claim 14 , normalizing at least one of the multiple candidate locations relative to the reference location information before comparing the multiple candidate locations with the reference location information.

19. The method of claim 14 ,

comparing the multiple candidate locations with the reference location information until matching reference location information is found,

providing location information in a specified format based upon the matching reference location information.