Secure Geocoding Comes To WordPress

The Store Locator Plus® WordPress plugin gets an upgrade to the geocoding process that the MySLP SaaS service users have been enjoying for the past month.    With the release of 5.0 version of the Store Locator Plus® plugin for WordPress, all geocoding requests including those coming from the JavaScript embedded map are now routed through the web server to Google.

Security Through Anonymity

Prior to Store Locator Plus® 5, every time a user visited your map page and typed in an address to be searched — typically the zip code for their town or their home address, this request was sent directly to Google.    That means Google now has all kinds of great information they are going to store about your site visitors.  They know that the user visited your site, when they visited, that they were looking at your location map, and the address where they were looking for your shop.

Fewer Geocode Requests With Store Locator Plus® 5

Our Store Locator Plus® 5.0 WordPress plugin is out today with some notable changes.   

What Store Locator Plus 5 does have is an improved map rendering process that reduces geocoding requests.    Since Google switched over to a 100% pay-as-you-go system for EVERYONE , no “free map views or geocoding” even for long-time users, we decided to focus on helping users reduce their monthly Google fees.     WPSLP 5 is the first release to work towards that goal.

Store Locator Geocoding Privacy

The late November 2018 updates to My Store Locator Plus® add a new level of data privacy for your site visitors.     Until now whenever a user typed in an address on your locator that search was sent directly from the user’s browser to Google.  This is how the vast-majority of locator software applications work.

Until now.

In an effort to provide a better user experience AND protect user privacy, all address lookup requests (aka geocoding requests) are now directed through the My Store Locator Plus® dual-layer proxy server.    Unlike Google, and many other online services, we do not track or retain identifiable data that associates this lookup with a user or their IP address.

Address Lookup
Address lookup used to send your address data as well as browser info and IP address to Google directly. Not with MySLP.

By doing nothing more than employing the MySLP embed code on your site to provide locator or directory services for your customers you are giving them an extra level of privacy and security.    Google can no longer directly associate an address they type into the search with their web browser.

Privacy.  That is something we think everyone can use more of these days.

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