title: Access to Google Maps Geocoder
body: <p>There are <a href="https://developers.google.com/maps/faq#geocoder_differences" rel="nofollow">geocoder differences</a> between the <a href="https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/intro" rel="nofollow">Google Maps Geocoding API</a> and the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps" rel="nofollow">Google Maps</a> geocoder. </p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to access the Google Maps geocoder rather than that of the Geocoding API?</p>
  
  <p>What prompts me to ask this is the fact that the <a href="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Department%20of%20Homeland%20Security" rel="nofollow">following query</a>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Department%20of%20Homeland%20Security
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>yields the "Office of Homeland Security/Civil Defense, Aspinall Ave, Hagåtña, 96910, Guam."</p>
  
  <p>However, searching for "Department of Homeland Security" on Google Maps yielded <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/search/Department+of+Homeland+Security" rel="nofollow">this</a> instead, which is a better (for our use case) result than the one from the query to <code>maps.googleapis.com</code>.</p>