How can I search places with specific types using Google Places API?

Chithri Ajay picture Chithri Ajay · Dec 28, 2011 · Viewed 11k times · Source

I am using google place api to search specific types like(gas_station,cafes,shopping_malls etc...) here is link i am using https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/search/json?location=41.104805,29.024291&radius=50000&types=gas_station&sensor=false&key=AIzaSyAhVKOOLN1lx6iKKnbXMT82W1cKG7O8cDY

so here i need to search all gas_stations nearby my location so here i get "

results" : [],
   "status" : "ZERO_RESULTS"

But in my location some gas_stations are there(i search google map) so how can i get these results can any one help me..

Thanks for advance.

Answer

Mike Jeffrey picture Mike Jeffrey · Dec 28, 2011

The problem is with the categorization of the data. If you do a search for types=university you'll see a number of results. Now look at the types in those results - they're listed mostly as ["university", "establishment"].

All of the gas stations in the area are only categorized as ["establishment"], so they're not coming up in your search for gas_station.

You could use the keyword search to return businesses with "gas%20station" in their metadata. It seems to return the same results as searching for "gas station" around that area in Google Maps.