Today I overhauled the search system in OurAirports to use Google’s free geocoding service. Geocoding takes an address like “Algonquin Park” or “1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC” and converts it to a latitude and longitude — it doesn’t sound like much, but it completely changes the way you can use OurAirports.

Previously, you could search for a town or city in OurAirports only if that city had an airport; for example, you could find Smiths Falls, Ontario, but not Perth, Ontario. With geocoding, OurAirports shows the closest airports to any address, and that’s now the default search mode. You can also filter the search results to show only airports with scheduled airline service, only seaplane bases, etc.

For example, for a commercial air traveler, here are the closest airline airports to the Grand Canyon; for a film-star bush pilot, here are the closest seaplane bases to Hollywood, California.

There’s a lot more information, and many more examples, on the new search help page