14 DAY TRIAL // Google is announcing that the Places API it first revealed at last year's I/O conference is now available to everyone and that it's getting a major update.
At the 2011 Google I/O conference, the company announced that the Places API, which enables third-party developers to access the 50 million strong places database Google owns, is receiving a number of tweaks and new features ahead of the public opening.
"This represents the culmination of the Developer Preview launched last year," Google announced.
"Interest in the Preview was overwhelming and we have been amazed by the innovative use cases suggested for the API," it said.
"The developers we worked with provided a great deal of extremely valuable feedback on all aspects of the API, including features, performance, usability, and terms of use," it added.
"We’ve been working hard to implement the recommendations we received during the Preview. As a result the service launching today includes many new features, most of which are a direct result of this developer feedback," Google explained.
Among the improvements is a globally consistent type scheme for Places. There are over 100 types of places catalogued by Google, ranging from "accounting" to "zoo." Developers of third party applications can request data based on either the name of the place or the place type.
The public Places API also works for all countries available in Google Maps, so there should be plenty of data for developers wanting a global app, or local developers working on a country-specific service.
Since users can add places via third-party apps, with the help of the API, those places are instantly available for search within the app that submitted them. After the entries are approved, the new places become available to anyone using the API.
Google is also introducing a brand new feature, autocomplete for the Places API which, as the name implies, provides suggestions of places based on what users have typed so far.
Google is launching a places library to go with the Maps API which provides much of the functionality and data the API provides as well.