Link to Google Maps

The Places API accepts requests for place data through a variety of methods. The Places API response contains data about a place, including location data and imagery, geographic locations, and prominent points of interest.

With this release, the response from Text Search, Nearby Search, and Place Details can also contain links to Google Maps. Your users can browse to these Google Maps links to see additional information about a place in the response.

For example, you search for airports in San Francisco, California. The response then includes San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in the list of places. With this release, the Place object for SFO in the response adds the googleMapsUri field containing Google Maps links to open Google Maps to the place, directions to the place, reviews of the place, and place photos.

Along with the links added to the Place object, this release also adds the googleMapsUri field to the Reviews and Photos objects in the response:

  • Reviews.googleMapsUri: Contains a Google Maps link to the review so you can view it in a browser.

  • Photos.googleMapsUri: Contains a Google Maps link to the photo so you can view it in a browser.

The API Explorer lets you make live requests so that you can get familiar with these new options:

Try it!

The following table shows the Google Maps links that you can include in the response:

Google Maps link Description Field name
Place Link to open Google Maps to the place. googleMapsLinks.placeUri
Directions Link to open directions to the place in Google Maps. googleMapsLinks.directionsUri
Write review Link to write a review for the place in Google Maps. googleMapsLinks.writeAReviewUri
Read reviews Link to show Google Maps reviews of the place. googleMapsLinks.reviewsUri
Photos Link to show photos of the place in Google Maps. googleMapsLinks.photosUri

Pricing

This feature is in the pre-GA Preview stage and there is no charge, meaning billing is $0, for usage during Preview. For details on the proposed pricing, see Places API Usage and Billing.

The links in the places response are contained in the googleMapsLinks field. Make sure to include the googleMapsLinks field in the field mask of the request if you want them to appear in the response.

For example, the following Text Search includes all Maps links in the response:

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "San Francisco International Airport"
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress,places.priceLevel,places.googleMapsLinks' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'

The response is in the form:

{
  "places": [
    {
      "formattedAddress": "San Francisco, CA 94128, USA",
      "displayName": {
        "text": "San Francisco International Airport",
        "languageCode": "en"
      },
      "googleMapsLinks": {
        "placeUri": "https://maps.google.com/?cid=11885663895765773631",
        "directionsUri": "https://www.google.com/maps/dir//''/data=!4m7!4m6!1m1!4e2!1m2!1m1!1s0x808f778c55555555:0xa4f25c571acded3f!3e0",
        "writeAReviewUri": "https://www.google.com/maps/place//data=!4m3!3m2!1s0x808f778c55555555:0xa4f25c571acded3f!12e1",
        "reviewsUri": "https://www.google.com/maps/place//data=!4m4!3m3!1s0x808f778c55555555:0xa4f25c571acded3f!9m1!1b1",
        "photosUri": "https://www.google.com/maps/place//data=!4m3!3m2!1s0x808f778c55555555:0xa4f25c571acded3f!10e5"
      }
    }
  ]
}

You don't have to return all links in the response. For example, if you only want the photos link in the response, modify the field mask as shown below to only include the photosUri field:

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "San Francisco International Airport"
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.formattedAddress,places.priceLevel,places.googleMapsLinks.photosURI' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'

Include directions in the response

All Places methods support the generation of the directions link in the response. The current location is used as the origin, the place location is used as the destination, and the travel mode is drive.

The next example uses Nearby Search to include the maps directions link in the response in the directionsUri field:

curl -X POST -d '{
  "includedTypes": ["restaurant"],
  "maxResultCount": 10,
  "locationRestriction": {
    "circle": {
      "center": {
        "latitude": -33.8688,
        "longitude": 151.1957362},
      "radius": 500.0
    }
  }
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key:API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.googleMapsLinks.directionsUri' \
https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchNearby

This release adds the googleMapsUri field to the Reviews and Photos objects in the response. Browsing to these links opens the review or photo in Google Maps.

For example, the following Text Search includes reviews and photos for each place in the response:

curl -X POST -d '{
  "textQuery" : "Spicy Vegetarian Food in Sydney, Australia"
}' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-Goog-Api-Key: API_KEY' \
-H 'X-Goog-FieldMask: places.displayName,places.reviews,places.photos' \
'https://places.googleapis.com/v1/places:searchText'

In the response, each element of the reviews and photos array contains the googleMapsUri field to open the review or photo in a browser.

Try it!

The API Explorer lets you make sample requests so that you can get familiar with the API and the API options.

  1. Select the API icon, Expand the API Explorer., on the right side of the page.

  2. Optionally expand Show standard parameters and set the fields parameter to the field mask.

  3. Optionally edit the Request body.

  4. Select Execute button. In the dialog, choose the account that you want to use to make the request.

  5. In the API Explorer panel, select the expand icon, Expand the API Explorer., to expand the API Explorer window.