I have a requirement to geocode data using Google’s geocoding service. Google’s geocoding services

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Asked: May 17, 20262026-05-17T01:05:05+00:00 2026-05-17T01:05:05+00:00

I have a requirement to geocode data using Google’s geocoding service. Google’s geocoding services

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I have a requirement to geocode data using Google’s geocoding service. Google’s geocoding services aren’t as friendly to consumption via .NET as, say Bing’s (no surprise there) so while I could go all out with ContractDataSerializers, WCF, JSON and a whole other pile of acronyms is there anything wrong with something like the below if all I need is, say, latitude and longitude viz.

string url = String.Format("http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=blah&region=ie&sensor=false", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(address));

XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
xmlDocument.Load(url);
XmlNodeList xmlNodeList = xmlDocument.SelectNodes("/GeocodeResponse/result");

if (xmlNodeList != null)
{
   // Do something here with the information
}

Other than a lot of upfront development effort what precisely will the other approach buy? I am very comfortable with WCF, DataContracts, ServiceContracts etc. but I can’t see what they’ll bring to the table here…