Editing ZIP Code (section)

=== Internet ===
A 1978 proposal for a nationwide system of community networks suggested using ZIP Codes for [[routing]].<ref name="wilber197802">{{Cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1978-02/1978_02_BYTE_03-02_Hardware_Projects#page/n15/mode/2up | title=CIE Net: A Design for a Network of Community Information Exchanges | work=BYTE | date=February 1978 | access-date=17 October 2013 | author=Wilber, Mike | page=12}}</ref>

ZIP Code data is an integral part of dealer / [[Online locator service|store locator]] software on many [[website]]s, especially [[Bricks and clicks|brick-and-click]] websites. This software processes a user-input ZIP Code and returns a list of store or business locations, usually in the order of increasing distance from the center of the input ZIP Code. As the ZIP Code system is confined to the U.S. Postal network, websites that require ZIP Codes cannot register customers outside the United States. Many sites will purchase postal code data of other countries or make allowances in cases where the ZIP Code is not recognized.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

ZIP Codes are regularly used on the Internet to provide a location where an exact address is not necessary (or desirable) but the user's municipality or general location is needed. Examples (in addition to the store locator example listed above) include weather forecasts, television listings, local news, and [[Online dating service|online dating]] (most general-purpose sites, by default, search within a specified [[radius]] of a given ZIP Code, based on other users' entered ZIP Codes).