geo this, geo that: easy acquisition of KML files with BatchGeo

Geolocation/geocoding is so "hip" these days. Everyone's so obsessed where where they and other things are. There's almost a comparison with 3-D filmmaking ... Funny. Not too many folks seem all that concerned with when things are. Anyway ... At work, we have a database with all the libraries we serve and their addresses. And the other week we needed to quickly make a map with all their locations. If necessity is the mother of invention, laziness is it's favorite uncle. Enter BatchGeo [http://batchgeo.com/]. We were able to take those values from our database and get a map generated in minutes. But it gets better. One of the nice things about this process is that in addition to a map, you also get a KML [http://code.google.com/apis/kml/] file download option. Taking this little XML file, it's a simple process (via XSL or other) to make a delimited file containing the inputted names of institutions and their latitude and longitude (altitude is also available). From there, it's not brain surgery to get those coordinates into a database and using an SQL JOIN to be able to push out an institution's name and now its coordinates, too, whenever. Just in case someone wants/needs to do something similar with an address book or a list of businesses, etc.