title: Using JSON, WCF et al. with Google geocoding - is it really necessary?
body: <p>I have a requirement to geocode data using Google's geocoding service. Google's geocoding services aren't as friendly to consumption via .NET as, say Bing's (no surprise there) so while I could go all out with  <code>ContractDataSerializers</code>, WCF, JSON and a whole other pile of acronyms is there anything wrong with something like the below if all I need is, say, latitude and longitude viz.</p>
  
  <pre><code>string url = String.Format("http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?address=blah&amp;region=ie&amp;sensor=false", HttpUtility.UrlEncode(address));
  
  XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
  xmlDocument.Load(url);
  XmlNodeList xmlNodeList = xmlDocument.SelectNodes("/GeocodeResponse/result");
  
  if (xmlNodeList != null)
  {
     // Do something here with the information
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Other than a lot of upfront development effort what precisely will the other approach buy? I am very comfortable with WCF, DataContracts, ServiceContracts etc. but I can't see what they'll bring to the table here...</p>