Geocoding in classified-ads websites

I am acting now as a sort of Spanish reporter for Google Maps Mania where I have written about a new Spanish project: Vivirama. What Housingmaps does with Craigslist ads, that's what Vivirama does with Loquo ads from Barcelona.

The creator, Xabi Caballé, uses a GIS to geocode addresses. Cannot reach to other Loquo cities for now, because address geocoding is a expensive and propietary thing in Europe. In the US looks easier, as there is Geocoder.us there.

However, in my opinion the future for Craigslist and Loquo lies not in letting others do the geocoding thing, but in geocoding addresses by themselves, and offering them in the RSS feeds. That way, the ones like Vivirama or Housingmaps will proliferate in a much easier way: the ads will be featured in maps and local/locative services smoothly. Geocoding the whole of Europe is certainly expensive for Xabi Caballé, but might be a sensible step for Loquo. I guess that there might be resources there, as Loquo was acquired by eBay (which also has a stake in Craigslist) some months ago for its Kijiji network of city-classified sites.

I posted this opinion at Ubaldo Huerta's blog (he is the creator of Loquo) and he seems to agree...