Revision 77805f48-242d-4e6c-8178-186bd165cb7c

I can make a simple API call in JavaScript using XMLHttpRequest:

<!-- begin snippet: js hide: false console: true babel: false -->

<!-- language: lang-html -->

        <html>
        
        <script>
            function reqListener () {
                out.textContent=this.responseText;
            }
        
        var oReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
        oReq.addEventListener("load", reqListener);
        oReq.open("GET", "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/tags?order=desc&sort=popular&site=stackoverflow");
        oReq.send();
            </script>
            
            <body><span id='out'></span></body>
        </html>

<!-- end snippet -->

using the code from:

> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/XMLHttpRequest/Using_XMLHttpRequest

The same code in Excel:

    Dim xh As Object
    Set xh = CreateObject("MSXML2.serverXMLHTTP")
    
    seurl = "https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/tags?order=desc&sort=popular&site=stackoverflow"
              
    xh.Open "GET", seurl, False
    xh.Send
    
    While xh.ReadyState <> 4
    DoEvents
    Wend
    
    MsgBox xh.responseText

doesn't work, I get a return of '`?[]`'.

I can't see any difference. Why does the first one work and not the second?

I have read:

> https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/compression

on compression, but the `GET` request seems to return a text file, at least in the JavaScript version.