Batch reverse geocoding

Question

Recently I found myself in need to perform large batch reverse-geocoding operations.
Large means something about 20k points per request.
I was looking at Nominatim as standalone server. But there is no clue in docs about batch requests (or I just couldn't find it).

Thus the questions is:
1: Could I perform something like this with Nominatim
2: If not - is there other standalone solutions [Not service. May be proprietary]. Main zone of interest is Europe, if it's relevant.
3: What will be approximate time consumption of such request.

Or I am facing building own geocoder above pgsql + postGIS?

thx in advance.

Answer 1

Not a current question, but in the absence of any answers.. There seem to be 2 main solutions. You can either:

1. use the Google geocoding API, but this will limit you to a check every few seconds, which will make large bulk geocoding very slow, or

2. download a comprehensive database of place names (such as http://www.geonames.org/), and use a GIS to calculate the nearest points to your data at whatever hierarchical level is most appropriate.