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ZenzerNet
Maybe someone would like to write a site that allows for updating postcodes in any country? And, ofcourse, provide queries via an api.
dabeeeenster
Google provide an API for the UK that basically gives you a lot of the 'clever' stuff that Maps provides in terms of finding an address which can be quite useful. Not sure if this is available in other countries...
ltratt
There are various different query APIs available. Google maintains a useful list:

  http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API/web/resources-non-google-geocoders
One of the major problems is that the use of the data returned by many of these services is restricted. There are a couple of entirely free solutions. For example, I put together Fetegeo http://fetegeo.org/ to show that it is possible to have fairly decent search facilities with solely free data (though the currently available data sources all have various limitations). I keep hoping that someone will take Fetegeo and plug-in data sources like Openstreetmap.