HTTP Geocoding Accuracy

[Josh]

Hi,

We have been evaluating Google Maps against other APIs.

I'm seeing some weird results from the HTTP Geocoder. Inaccurate
results seem to be more prevalent since the recent data update.

For example, geocoding "4401 Morella Avenue Studio city CA 91607"
gives results in Spain!

But if I search for this same address on maps.google.com it shows up
in the correct place.

Here is the url sent and the xml results received:

http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=4401+Morella+Avenue+Studio+City+CA+91607&output=xml&oe=utf8&sensor=false&key=<KEY>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0";>
  <Response>
    <name>4401 Morella Avenue Studio City CA 91607</name>
    <Status>
      <code>200</code>
      <request>geocode</request>
    </Status>
    <Placemark id="p1">
      <address>Carrer de Morella, 08223 Terrassa, Spain</address>
      <AddressDetails Accuracy="6"
xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:ciq:xsdschema:xAL:2.0">
        <Country>
          <CountryNameCode>ES</CountryNameCode>
          <CountryName>España</CountryName>
          <AdministrativeArea>
            <AdministrativeAreaName>CT</AdministrativeAreaName>
            <SubAdministrativeArea>
              <SubAdministrativeAreaName>Barcelona</
SubAdministrativeAreaName>
              <Locality>
                <LocalityName>Terrassa</LocalityName>
                <Thoroughfare>
                  <ThoroughfareName>Carrer de Morella</
ThoroughfareName>
                </Thoroughfare>
                <PostalCode>
                  <PostalCodeNumber>08223</PostalCodeNumber>
                </PostalCode>
              </Locality>
            </SubAdministrativeArea>
          </AdministrativeArea>
        </Country>
      </AddressDetails>
      <ExtendedData>
        <LatLonBox north="41.5555227" south="41.5492275"
east="2.0222318" west="2.0159366" />
      </ExtendedData>
      <Point>
        <coordinates>2.0186227,41.5520669,0</coordinates>
      </Point>
    </Placemark>

    (2 more placemarks...)

  </Response>
</kml>

Firstly, am I doing anything wrong in the request?

And if not, what can be done about these problems?

We are seeing many, many inaccurate results like this - so my
confidence in HTTP Geocoding is low.

Also, I did look at the FAQ and saw that sometimes there are
differences between the two geocoders (http://code.google.com/apis/
maps/faq.html#geocoder_differences).

Has the recent data update exacerbated these differences?

Many thanks in advance for you comments!

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