title: Use MySQL spatial ability or lat-long lookups for Rails 3 "Store Locator" functionality?
body: <p>I have a Rails 3 application and I have a couple of use cases to support.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Store Locator given an address or zip code.</p></li>
  <li><p>Graphical display of where users are originating from.</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>On the first one, I need speed and accuracy for a "Where to Buy" type of function.</p>
  
  <p>On the second one, I don't need super accurate data, taking whatever the IP service returns is good enough. I basically want to put up a Google map with a bunch of pins stuck in it.</p>
  
  <p>I have zero experience in this right now. I'm happy to write Javascript, and I have installed GeoKit to do the geocoding (a word which I can spell but which I don't really understand yet).  I appreciate any help you can offer.</p>
  
  <p>I know MySQL has spatial extensions and the updates look like they would be really simple. Maybe this is a split decision where I use the spatial information to store the store locations, then just get the location of a user from their IP address.</p>
  
  <p>For the site usage use case, does it make more sense to scan a log file live, or to store hits in a database?</p>