This is a small C# wrapper of the Google Maps geocoding service.

Simply put, the API exposes a method that takes an address string as input and returns a list of any matching geographic coordinates.

Usage

Restrictions

There are some restrictions on usage of Google's geocoding service, most notably the following:

Note: the geocoding service may only be used in conjunction with displaying results on a Google map; geocoding results without displaying them on a map is prohibited.

More information is available at Maps API Terms of Service License Restrictions and Google Maps API Services - Geocoding.

App.config or Web.config

Your application's App.config or Web.config will need the following <appSettings /> elements:

<add key="GeocodingApi.Key" value="{your_api_key}" />
<add key="GeocodingApi.Url" value="http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?" />

You will, of course, need to replace "{your_api_key}" with your actual Google Maps API key.

Sample code

private static readonly List<string> Addresses = new List<string>
{
    "1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043",       // Google
    "1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052",                       // Microsoft
    "1601 S. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 95304",             // Facebook
    "701 First Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94089"                        // Yahoo
};

// The API is rate limited.  1 request every 0.5 seconds seems to keep Google happy.
private static readonly int DelayInMs = 500;

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    foreach (string address in Addresses)
    {
        Geocoding.Geocode(address)
            .ForEach(coordinate => DisplayCoordinate(coordinate, address));

        Thread.Sleep(DelayInMs);
    }
}


private static void DisplayCoordinate(GeographicCoordinate coordinate, string address)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Geographic coordinate for '{0}':", address);
    Console.WriteLine(
        "\t* Latitude: {0}, Longitude: {1}",
        coordinate.Latitude,
        coordinate.Longitude
        );
}

Requirements

This library uses Json.NET, which requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1; hence, this library also requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.