There have been locator services available for sites for various fees, but just a couple years the only way to build an inexpensive store locator application was using zip code longitude and latitude data. This data was available from a variety of sources, but it is all the same data from the United States Postal Service and US Census Bureau. This data worked well, but lacked street level detail. Each zip code had a center-point (long. & lat.) based on population and as a result, distances of locations close to each other were inaccurate and the data was only for the US.

Recently released scientific data allows us to simply create very accurate and detailed world-wide, store locators by using new technologies:

Google Maps API  - This cool API is a free service that allows one to easily embed Google Maps into web pages with JavaScript. It’s still in beta and has a few bugs, but generally works very well.

MapQuest Open API - This API also uses JavaScript to easily integrate routing, geocoding and mapping into your website.

Maybe it's time to upgrade that old store locator.