modified kml file does not display in Google Maps

[Bocha10]

I have created a kml file that used to display fine in Google Maps.
It contains a bunch of placemarks whose infowindows contains html to
display some text information and a mini image of a picture. I used
custom icons that have numbers so I can tell by looking at the number
what picture frame it is.
This original file showed fine in Google Maps.

I did not like the original custom icons because they were too large
so I changed them for other custom icons that are smaller. I made the
necessary modifications to the kml file to point to the correct
location of the new icons and uploaded the edited file to the web
server.

When I tried to display the edited file by searching for its url in
maps.google.com it returns instead the original kml file with the old
icons.
I tried with different browsers and different computers with the same
results.
Next, I typed the kml file's url in the browser address box and sure
enough the browser displayed the text of the modified (new icons) kml
file, so the file is accessible in the server, and is the correct
file. Also, I can retrieve directly on the browser the new icons.
It is just that Google Maps will not retrieve the new kml file and
display it in Google maps.

Is Google Maps caching my kml file and not bothering in checking if it
is a new modified kml file? Anybody has any ideas how to solve this
problem?
I do not think I have this problem when I created the original kml
file a while back.
Thanks

[barryhunter [KML Guru]]

Yes GoogleMaps does cache kmls - I've seen update periods of upwards
of 24 hours at times, generally tho its around the 1/2 hour mark. You
can usually add dummy parameters to fool GMaps into fetching the
latest file (as the url is different it has no choice but to refetch,
but your webserver will probably ignore the querystring)

[Bocha10]

Barry,
thank you for the reply.
Yes, I noticed this morning that search retrieved yesterday's updated
kml file. When I made new modifications today I kept getting the
outdated file.
It seems that in my case the refresh is in the range of a few hours. I
could swear that I did not have this problem last year when I created
this file.
To workaround the problem, while editing this file and testing it, I
keep changing the name by adding incremental numerical values to the
filename and that works as a charm.