What we shipped this month: geocoding, IP, time zone and more
A roundup of recent work across the API: new compatibility hosts, faster time zone and elevation lookups, dashboard features, and clearer quota visibility.
Faster time zone lookups after rebuilding our lookup table
Every call to /v1/timezone runs against a lookup table mapping coordinates to time zone boundaries, and how that table is structured has a direct effect on how quickly an answer comes back. We rebuilt that table from the ground up, and the endpoint now answers faster as a result.
None of this changes what a request looks like or what a response contains. Send coordinates to /v1/timezone and you still get back the same fields you always did: the time zone identifier, offset information, and the rest of the response shape documented at /docs/timezone-lookup/. The only difference is how quickly that answer arrives, which matters most for anything calling the endpoint repeatedly, such as a batch of coordinates processed one after another or a real-time feature that cannot afford to feel sluggish.
Time zone lookups tend to sit in places where speed compounds. A single call feeling slightly faster barely registers, but a batch job resolving time zones for thousands of coordinates, or a live map showing local time as a user moves a pin around, both benefit directly from a leaner lookup underneath. Since a batch request counts each coordinate as one item, exactly as it always has, none of the pricing or quota behavior around batch calls changes here either.
This work sits alongside the rest of our approach to the timezone endpoint: consistent quota headers on every response, the same authentication options as every other endpoint, and the same pricing, whether it is called directly or reached through one of the seventeen compatibility hosts that touch location data. A faster lookup table does not change any of that, it just means the answer shows up sooner.
We treat this kind of underlying rebuild as ordinary maintenance rather than a headline feature, but it is worth mentioning because the effect is real for anyone leaning on the endpoint heavily. If your integration processes coordinates in bulk, or if timezone lookups sit on a path where response time matters to a user directly, you should notice the difference without changing a single line of code.
Full documentation for the endpoint, including request parameters and response fields, is available at /docs/timezone-lookup/. Nothing there has changed except how quickly it responds.