Definition
Plain language
Turning a place name or address into map coordinates.
As stated in the literature
Service call that maps a textual location to latitude/longitude; used here as an incidental-HTTPS held-out task.
Also called: geocode
Why it matters: It is an everyday task that quietly makes a secure web request under the hood, which makes it a good place to check whether an unsafe habit has leaked into unrelated work.
For example, typing "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" into a map app and getting back a precise pair of coordinates is geocoding.
Heard on the show
“They built a second set of tasks, where HTTPS is incidental to the actual job — install a package, fetch a user's avatar, check for an update, geocode a city.”Episode 268 — A Rigged Benchmark Taught a Self-Improving Agent to Always Disable SSL