I am looking for the same functionality as Yahoo!Maps provides it to
return for two given addresses the distance in miles and the
travelling time in minutes as well as a corrected addresses if
necessary (e.g. completed zip+4 code).

I'd like to be able to include this as part of C, Matlab or SQL
application, so basically an API or a library would be great. I need
this to do some automated tour planning with let's say 5 addresses.

I am aware of the various zip code distance algorithms and web sites
mentioned in earlier google questions. However, I haven't found any
amongst these which deals with address data. Some zip areas can be
quite big, so the distance between two addresses with the same zip
code can be large as well, relatively speaking of course.

Hagen

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Request for Question Clarification by studio32-ga on 10 Sep 2002 22:25 PDT

Is this a commercial project?  That is, is it worthwhile for you to
purchase a library that meets your needs, or do you require
open-source code and freely-available published algorithms?

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Clarification of Question by hagen-ga on 11 Sep 2002 08:36 PDT

It is a commercial project. So I expect certain costs involved.
Especially, the address data will cost something. Algorithms may be
open source but should be cheap compared to the data considering that
those should cover the whole US. However, if certain areas can be
choosen then this would also be interesting like San Francisco Bay
Area or Greater Houston and so on.

Basically, what I am looking for is an API a client program can use to
get the information over the internet for a set of locations resulting
in the distances in time and miles as well as driving directions. So
exactly what Yahoo gives back, but I don't want to sit there and enter
5 locations in the browser, that's what a program can do for me. Since
Yahoo uses the Navtech service exactly the way I want that there
should be other providers which do the same.

you may be better off just calling the pages on yahoo or mapquest &
passing the form vars in & retrieving the results from there;
certainly a lot easier than doing it yourself; also; store results so
you don't have to keep hitting their site for the same addresses

Have you considered MapQuest?

MapQuest.com
http://www.mapquest.com/

Yes, I checked them out. However, their round-trip planning facility
requires that I establish the order of the addresses, something I
would like to optimize based on the shortest route criteria. So they
do not allow quickly different permutations in the order.

Apart from checking their web site I didn't contact them directly to
see if they have other arrangements and products available for my
needs - but I guess if they have they would market that on their web
site, wouldn't they?!