Many of you have been asking for Google Places API search results that more closely reflect those on maps.google.com. With that goal in mind, we’ve integrated the Places API with Google Maps search. We’re pleased to offer more consistent search results across Maps and the Places API, which results in better overall search quality for API responses.

In conjunction with this change, we are also modifying how we support place type restrictions in the Places API web service and JavaScript library. Beginning Feb 16, 2016, we are replacing the types restriction parameter with a new type search parameter. If you have been using the types parameter for Nearby Search, Text Search or Radar Search you will be affected.

Type search works similarly to types restriction, but it only supports one type per request.

Requests using the types parameter and those specifying multiple types (for example, types=hospital|pharmacy|doctor) will continue to return results until Feb 16, 2017, but we do not recommend using multiple types in a search request. After that date, requests with multiple types will no longer be supported. To ensure the best possible search results for your users, we recommend using a single type in search requests.

Using the new type search feature is straightforward. Here is an example of a Text Search request:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/textsearch/json
?type=airport
&location=-33.87,151.21
&radius=5000
&key=<YOUR_API_KEY>

In addition, we are amending the list of supported types. The types establishment, food, health, general_contractor, finance and place_of_worship, will not be available as searchable types from Feb 16, 2017. However these types will still be returned in search and details results.

Posted by Marcelo Camelo, on behalf of the Google Places API team