Results Filtering is the process of intelligently reducing and refining address lookup results so users only see valid, deliverable, real-world addresses — not theoretical, inferred, or non-postable locations.
When a user starts typing an address, raw datasets can technically match hundreds of possible records. Results filtering applies rules and logic to remove entries that should never be presented to a user. Fetchify's initial results filtering step is handled through Geo-IP detection - the end user's country location is preset by the Fetchify Address Auto-Complete search based on the location of the end user's IP address, or, in the case of eCommerce stores or other sites where a user has pre-selected a country-specific site or shipping destination, the default search country will match to that location, greatly speeding up the search process by deliberately not providing results for countries other than that which the user is actually in.
What Results Filtering does
Fetchify applies results filtering to ensure that returned addresses are:
- Real addresses
Present in authoritative postal or government datasets, not guessed or synthetically generated. - Deliverable premises
Linked to locations that can actually receive mail or goods, not landmarks, road segments, or coordinate-only points. - Not map-inferred
Addresses are not created by snapping map coordinates to nearby roads or buildings, which is common in pure geocoding or autocomplete systems. - Structurally consistent
Address components appear in the correct order and format for the country in question, avoiding mixed or malformed results. - Locally valid
Country-specific rules are respected — for example, UK sub-building logic, Irish Eircode behaviour, or regional addressing conventions.
Why Results Filtering matters
Without results filtering, address lookups often return:
- Roads without buildings
- Fields, car parks, or industrial zones
- Duplicate or near-duplicate addresses
- Addresses that look valid but cannot receive deliveries
- User-confusing variations of the same location
This leads to:
- Failed deliveries
- Higher carrier surcharges
- Increased customer support tickets
- Poor checkout completion rates
- Dirty CRM and order data
Results filtering prevents bad addresses before they ever reach your database.