Question

I want to send a request to the google places (not google place API), I don’t need to get the data in XML or JSON, i just want to get the place page and display it to the user.

This url works for me http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=2124238351431937390 but I was wondering how to get this “cid”, this seems to a unique id for a business. I went to get a sample response from the google place api but didnt find this cid for the same business as any of the response fields.

Does anyone know how can I get this “cid”?

Thanks
Nishant

Answer 1

Here’s how to get the cid of a place. Put your own API key and name of the restaurant that you want to find the cid).

Step 1: Call Places Request API something like this

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/search/json?
    location=47.6757453,-122.3149514&
    radius=500&
    types=food&
    name=Pies&
    sensor=false&
    key=AIzaSyZZZZZZZZZZZZ

_{These urls are one line. They are broken into multiple lines to make it easier to read.}

Note the name parameter is the restaurant called “Pies and Pints” for which I want to get the cid, lat&lng is the location information of the same place.

The response will contain a “reference” key which is unique for every place.

Step 2: Take the “reference” value from above and call Places Details API, something like this:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/details/json?
    reference=CnRiAAAATIbN_GasBkBS6xLoO_HzR7owHvGaDXbG5QIbLf7eSZtIc4ZpvbBPxhVPEKZs5c4ptqxeKNVLCXZEoSOwLMn9nqkRc6khFuJFPh5jy-hjrh3Xr7X75w3-TIoTl3E-dKiZ2LcHuReWKZxydI75vH6zyRIQxfoiOKfFjo_1O-hnnllafxoU9tU_HoZos8C5uWextAk08RMukCY&
    sensor=true&
    key=AIzaSyBnI5DyG7ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Check the response of this API, the key “url” contains the “cid”.

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Consult the google places documentation to learn more about their APIs.