The API geocoder is a postal address geocoder. Things like "brussels (this is a nice place)" are not well-formed postal addresses, and the geocoder struggles with them. You do have to look at all the results returned, not just the first one. They may not be in the order you expect.
The geocoder at maps.google.com extends its search to business and institution listings and so on. It's much more likely to come up with matches against things like resteraunts in Brussels, BE, to help it along. This is a convenience for the non-programmer user. If you want API behaviour to include non-postal addresses you need to incorporate other services yourself, the programmer has the option. For example, if you want results for things like city or province names, the postal address geocoder is not really the right tool. Look into Geonames or similar specialised services. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps JavaScript API v3" group. To post to this group, send email to google-maps-js-api-v3@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to google-maps-js-api-v3+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-js-api-v3?hl=en.
