Super quick, slightly dumb ajax geoCoding script.

mini.jGeoCodeList.js

//BAM - it's dependent on jquery atm
//<script src="ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.js">
//</script>

var $someDivForOutput = $("section#divYeahExactly");

var cityList = 
{	
	geoCodeLocation : function(loc)
	{
	  $.ajax({
		url: 'http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q='+loc,
		    key: 'YOURKEYHERE',
		    dataType: 'jsonp',
		    cache: false,
		    success: function (data, loc) {
			//Ensure we have a 200 code
				if(data.Status.code == 200) {
					//build e.g. some geoJson point data?					  
			        var point = data.Placemark[0].Point;
			        var name = data.name;
					var r = {
						"id":name, 
						"type":"Feature",
						"geometry": {
							"type": "Point",
							"coordinates": [
								point.coordinates[0],
								point.coordinates[1]
							]
						}
					};
					//log it
					console.log(r);
					//or output it
					$someDivForOutput.append(JSON.stringify(r) + ",");
					
			    } else {
	                      console.log("ack google didn't like what you sent them. Returned code: " + data.Status.code, data);
				}
			}
		});
	},
	//there's probably a smarter && cleaner way of doing this, but it works
		//if you have a large list of names like 'new york, london, paris' etc, this may be useful
	geoEncodeList : function(list)
	{	
		var lObj = {};
		lObj.init = function(){
			lObj.ping();
		};
	    lObj.ping = function(){
			if (list.length){
				cityList.geoCodeLocation(list[list.length-1]);
	            setTimeout( function(){
					lObj.init();
	            }, 700); //could probably run quicker than this, but ensures you don't get 'too many requests' throttling problems.
	            //log the list console.log( list.pop() );
	            //or just pop it
	            list.pop();
	            
	            return;
	        }
	        //console.log('at the end of the list');
	    };
	    lObj.init();
		
	}
};