CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-mapsgoogle-places-api
Citizen
Citizen

Reputation: 12927

Do I need to prevent duplicates in Google Places API?

I run a local business community website and I think it would be great to automatically create a google place for each of the businesses that are on my website. The actual business owners are on my website, so their information is accurate.

I can see that in the google places API, I can easily create google places, but what if they already have one? Will it be spammy to auto-create places for them or does google have an algorithm for accepting all results and sorting them on their own?

I think it would have been smart for Google to allow me to essentially create a canonical database for them of what I have and then they can do what they want with it. Is that how it works or do I need to manually ask my clients if they already have a google place?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 689

Answers (1)

Mano Marks
Mano Marks

Reputation: 8819

The Google Places API isn't the best way to get data to Google about business location. Currently, the add functions don't allow you to add all the information that you would like to add, including opening hours etc. You can use Google Places for Business instead.

To answer your main question, Google would take results added through either the Places API or Google Places for Business and de-dupe them, but it would help Google and data accuracy to first search for a place, see if that matches and if it doesn't add it.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions