On December 7 I updated a site to version 7.x-1.4. Here's a chart of that site's Google Geocoding API usage for the last 30 days:

We've burned through over half our free Google API quota for December since then, and will owe money at the end of the month if we don't get this fixed.
Also, when I filter admin/reports/dblog by Geocoder, the site completely stopped producing "Google API returned zero results" exceptions when people type stupid stuff into the location search field, starting the moment I upgraded.
Continuing my investigation, but I thought I'd post what I had in case anyone can quickly explain this.
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screenshot 2018-12-18 at 11.13.47.png | 30.45 KB | lanny heidbreder |
Comments
Comment #2
lanny heidbreder commentedWell, I reverted to the old version of the module and it doesn't seem to have helped. I did update Drupal core and other modules that day, but I don't know what could have caused this increase. There was never a CAPTCHA or anything on the search form that uses Geocoder. Hrm.
Comment #3
denix commentedHi @lanny-heidbreder , did you find a solution or the cause of the problem? otherwise I think you should close the issue.