title: Google Maps geocoder for venues
body: <p>I'm searching for a way to geocode venues with google maps. The Geocoder API only provides the ability to use addresses for geocoding. But what if don't know the address and only the city and the name of the restaurant? Or I want to retrieve results for "Mc Donalds Berlin" or just "Bar Berlin"?</p>
  
  <p>I've found this post where he asks exactly what I need: <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3811388/suggest-list-in-google-maps-search-input">Suggest list in google maps search input</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="http://www.michaelhart.me/labs/instant/maps/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">And at his blog I found a solution</a></p>
  
  <p>This works very well and its incredible fast! I've checked out the source code and saw that he is using this URL:</p>
  
  <p><code>http://maps-api-ssl.google.com/maps/suggest?hl=en&amp;gl=us&amp;v=2&amp;json=b&amp;auth=4c8b041euWw4-3h2-Ty2fD3D1BKVQqJCEcU&amp;src=1,2&amp;num=5&amp;numps=5&amp;callback=handleResponse&amp;q=........</code></p>
  
  <p>Btw, it's the same URL that <code>maps.google.com</code> uses to get their ajax autocompletion.</p>
  
  <p>My questions now are:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Is it allowed to use this URL for my own website?</li>
  <li>Do I need a special API key? (because of the auth= var in the URL above)</li>
  <li>Or is it sth like a paid service?</li>
  <li>Are there any other ways to get the problem solved? e.g. with the standard Geocoder API from google?</li>
  </ul>