How do I retrieve data from websites using a VB program?

I am fairly new to the concept of programming. I have been studying Computing at AS and A level for just over a year now.. and am stuck.



For my project I want to implement the distance between two given locations. The user will enter a postcode, and then the program should retrieve the distance from here to where his next appointment is, using Google Maps.



I have no idea whether this is possible or not.



Thanks for any help..How do I retrieve data from websites using a VB program?
Not exactly sure, what you are looking to accomplish.



Are you trying to harvest the longitude and latitude from google maps?



Are you tring to scrape text from the web site?



We do this all the time, using VB.net.



Basically you need to call the website, and harvest the page as a string.



You can then read the string and find any ';text'; that is between two tags or strings.



For example: If this is your text on the site:



The distance is 47 miles



Then you can easily harvest ';47'; by writing code that will grab whatever is between ';is '; and '; miles';



I can maybe help you further, if you drop me a line (you can go here http://dreamxl.com/clients) and submit a ticket to me.