Question

This question is already answered. I discovered what the problem is.
But, I’m posting the Q&A here because others may be in the same predicament.

My google map code came from samples I found on the web.

In the “bad” code there was a line that looked like this:

var latlng= new google.maps.LatLng(results[0].geometry.location.Ua, results[0].geometry.location.Va);

This code worked until last night.
Using firebug to inspect the objects, it turns out that location is now of the form: {Ta: number, Ua: number}

My immediate fix was to use the lat() and lng() methods whenever I required the lat and/or lng.

The other fix was to instantiate my map in a more intelligent fashion.

Yes, it was silly rely upon properties uncovered deep in an object using the firebug inspector. Yes, being a google maps noob and relying on copy paste with little or no knowledge reaped its just rewards.

But, doing a quick google seach found many folks (other than the “sample” I borrowed from) also using the .Va property directly.

Hence the post here in case this is their problem too.

Answer 1

In case you’re interested in why this happened, it’s simple: the sample was using undocumented internals of the API, so when Google updated the Maps JS file, it broke.

More specifically, Ua and Va were auto-generated variable names resulting from minification. It looks like Google removed a variable in the original source and the labels shifted up (Ua,Va → Ta,Ua).

I’ll bet I know exactly how the author of the bad sample came up with his code. He inspected a LatLng (the type of object in location in your example) in his browser’s dev tools, saw that those two oddly-named variables contained the data he wanted, and just went with it. Since the lat and lng methods are “hidden” in LatLng‘s prototype, he didn’t notice them.

There are two lessons to be learned here:

1. Always use documented API methods; anything else is an implementation detail that is subject to change.
2. Don’t trust the code on some dude’s website is a good or even competent example of how to do things. This is especially true in the case of Google Maps, where there’s extensive documentation and official examples.