Today we're releasing version 2.56 of API v2, which includes two bugfixes for the Maps API geocoder:
- Improper escaping of the ampersand character ('&'). This has been fixed. The ampersand character is now correctly being returned as '&'.
- Internet Explorer crashing when you hit the back button. This was happening because of the way that Internet Explorer caches JavaScript based on its URL. When a script node is created, IE checks if it already has seen the script, using the script's src attribute. If so, the control is passed to the cached script, even if it is going to disrupt the flow dictated by the surrounding code.
Here's what we plan to work on next to improve the geocoder:
- Invalid JSON formatting. Because some JSON parsers cannot accept key names without quotation marks, we plan to change our JSON format to include quotes. So instead of returning
request: "geocode", we'll return"request": "geocode". Since this increases the output size, we'll try to compensate a bit by removing any unnecessary spaces. Thus the amount of data you receive should not increase significantly. - Simpler HTTP response. Some developers have asked that we return a simpler geocode response that just contains the latitude and longitude, minus the extra information such as address components. We'll work on that.
Thank you to everyone who's been checking out the geocoder and sending feedback to the Maps API discussion forum. Keep the feedback coming!
API v1 Current: 1.31
API v1 Default: 1.31
API v2 Current: 2.56
API v2 Default: 2.55a
