Difference results between Geocoding services and search on gMap

Question

I want to get the latitude and longitude for this adress : Boulevard de la Marne Zone industrielle, COULOMMIERS, 77120, France

I'm adding the api to my page with :

<script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?v=3.exp&sensor=true"></script>

When I use gmaps the result is good but when I want to retrieve it by the API :

 geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
 geocoder.geocode({ 'address': myAdress, 'region': 'FR'}, function (results, status) {...});

It does the following request :

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js/GeocodeService.Search?4sBoulevard%20de%20la%20Marne%20%20Zone%20industrielle%20%20COULOMMIERS%2077120%20&7sUS&9sfr-FR&callback=_xdc_._lsoj9s&token=53058

and the result is near Bamako...

If I use the viewport bounds it does the following request :

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js/GeocodeService.Search?4sBoulevard%20de%20la%20Marne%20%20Zone%20industrielle%20%20COULOMMIERS%2077120%20&6m6&1m2&1d40.513799&2d-5.844727000000034&2m2&1d51.727028&2d10.854491999999936&7sUS&9sfr-FR&callback=_xdc_._c84svr&token=29019

It's better (it's in France) but it's not that

The query works well on the website google map : https://maps.google.fr/maps?q=Boulevard+de+la+Marne++Zone+industrielle,++COULOMMIERS,+77120&hl=fr&ll=48.487486,3.922119&spn=1.541855,4.22699&sll=50.485474,25.620117&sspn=23.748757,67.631836&hq=Boulevard+de+la+Marne++Zone+industrielle,++COULOMMIERS,+77120&radius=15000&t=m&z=9

It seems that the only way to get it is by doing the following request : http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=Boulevard%20de%20la%20Marne%20Zone%20industrielle,%20COULOMMIERS,%2077120&components=country:FR&sensor=false

I don't understand why the result are different when I use the viewport and not the country (the two results are in the bounds of the viewport)

Answer 1

Boulevard de la Marne Zone industrielle, COULOMMIERS, 77120, France is not an address, it is a "place".

The geocoder finds the location of Via De La Marne from that input:

http://www.geocodezip.com/v3_example_geo2.asp?addr1=Boulevard de la Marne Zone industrielle, COULOMMIERS, 77120, France&geocode=1

Found 1 results for Boulevard de la Marne Zone industrielle, COULOMMIERS, 77120, France
[ 0 ]: Av De La Marne, Bamako, Mali (12.6417952, -7.988396299999977)

The first result from the Places API looks more correct:

http://www.geocodezip.com/v3_example_geo2.asp?addr1=Boulevard de la Marne Zone industrielle, COULOMMIERS, 77120, France&place=1

Found 20 results for Boulevard de la Marne Zone industrielle, COULOMMIERS, 77120, France
[ 0 ]: Zone Industrielle, Boulevard de la Marne, Coulommiers, France (48.804329, 3.0923729999999523)
[ 1 ]: Boulevard de la Marne, Coulommiers, France (48.803048, 3.092110000000048)
[ 2 ]: 21 Boulevard de la Marne, Coulommiers, France (48.806634, 3.0937430000000177)
...

Answer 2

2 things are at play here.

"Boulevard de la Marne Zone industrielle, COULOMMIERS, 77120, France" is not recognized as an address by the Geocoding API because of the "Zone industrielle" part. If you remove that part, it works just fine:

Boulevard de la Marne, COULOMMIERS, 77120, France

Also, I found what looks like (a rare example of) an issue in Google Maps data, but I don't think fixing it would help with the above issue.

The place is found by Places API Text Search:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/textsearch/json?radius=50000&location=0,0&query=Boulevard%20de%20la%20Marne%20Zone%20industrielle,%20COULOMMIERS,%2077120&key=YOUR_API_KEY

You'll notice that there is no route component in address_components when querying for Places Details by its place_id. This indicates that the place is not properly associated with the road.