I'm just getting started messing around with the SO api, I haven't worked with JSON before, and I am getting a strange result from a basic call (No API Key). WebClient stackClient = new WebClient(); string result = stackClient.DownloadString(@"http://api.stackoverflow.com/0.8/stats"); The result is: > ‹í½`I–%&/mÊ{JõJ×àt¡€`$Ø@ìÁˆÍæ’ìiG#)«*ÊeVe]f@Ìí¼÷Þ{ï½÷Þ{ï½÷º;N'÷ßÿ?\fdlöÎJÚÉž!€ªÈ?~|?"~ñoœ¤éGM›µEÓÓæ£Gé÷ðQšþbùA߶U›•¿ÿ/ZçÔ¢Z¢É§Ÿ~ºs0ê´X/³es•×ùŒšìîܸ{¯ÛDÄîýýƒûûÝÓj±È—-Zì=ع·ói¯—˪͇vwwöº_O²Ù…|ÿpÿþnþº‘î÷öïïݻᄉ£ûýWyýû/ŠåºÍ©ÙÎøÁ×H±›ìŽ?õî{@¼ž²Uñû_ꌾ³T¦oܧíŒ>²¯ÐWu~Y˜ïvÇ;ãݽ{ûãûŸ>8øÈ4ú%ò > ÿøþoœü’äÿNïþìÚ I'm not sure what sort of formatting I'm missing, but this looks like I'm missing something obvious, it just isn't obvious to me. Any thoughts?