How to obtain the correct photos for a given location?

Question

Google photos api doesn't seem to be able to get accurate images for given places, I am also interested to see if there any other valid api that gives good images based on the geo location?

For example the following two address that are 15 kms apart give the same image from google maps API (which is this image) but both of them can give different image as per their google maps link. How can we obtain the photos of a location? I am fine to obtain the image of a place even with any other API but I couldn't find any api to give the correct image of a given location.

1) Address : "PTC Aviation Academy, No. 16/29, 1st Main Road,Chromepet,Chennai-600044"

Photo identifier : u'CoQBdwAAAL3wZ4ivkXxROmI8ACqmW6wUIo6rKcWWeevH3j8ZwrWG0UbYRThYdUna8T8lzgfi0p_e1d3OGT2S0DPpJDZF1PyuHFlulAiy6pDDqmMd4bJpMdD8UhIZlFpRMYGJe-IJHk5VSqYUdwd4rimhtVc7MNFw9F8MYTgjX5ul2RN-bZmdEhAOSOJ9BRjuLe3Yd8TThBt6GhRJL5s6YJQhSfi3IZeoiPXDKR4kcA'

Google place link : https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/PTC+Aviation+Academy/@12.951897,80.1371513,17z

2) Address :"IIT Madras, IIT P.O., Beside Adyar Cancer Institute, Opposite to C.L.R.I, Sardar Patel Road",Adyar,Chennai-600036."

Photo identifier : u'CoQBdwAAAH29SZFNcCr7zJHBmLkwWnBVWdE8y8nxtnxWjXwEcwwpyIQO-oZegCOnNehFtO7Q1ttCNS-bzy566AQ52NB-alf3hHt6K3RozswO_K0XnH3BI6C7A9j8nS_Zu7WwhLGKGM1gjyM_vVFrBeebAEPyDHLknezdYSMPw2jtPXbQ3r0bEhBgcOLLNyJ7Cw9kYKukLV4yGhTVXnor0fKc8pX47A5QV90eBsDzUA'

Google place link : https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/IIT+Madras/@13.0063336,80.2398367,17z

Answer 1

It looks like there is no street view imagery for these addresses. You can check it using Geocoder tool and dragging the pagman around:

https://google-developers.appspot.com/maps/documentation/utils/geocoder/#q%3D12.951897%252C80.13934

https://google-developers.appspot.com/maps/documentation/utils/geocoder/#q%3D13.006334%252C80.242025

However, you can try to get images related to these places via Places API in two steps.

1. Execute a place search for a given address

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/textsearch/json?query=PTC%20Aviation%20Academy%2C%20No.%2016%2F29%2C%201st%20Main%20Road%2CChromepet%2CChennai-600044&key=YOUR_API_KEY

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/textsearch/json?query=IIT%20Madras%2C%20IIT%20P.O.%2C%20Beside%20Adyar%20Cancer%20Institute%2C%20Opposite%20to%20C.L.R.I%2C%20Sardar%20Patel%20Road%22%2CAdyar%2CChennai-600036&key=YOUR_API_KEY

2. The response from previous step will contain photos field with corresponding photo references. So you can use the photo reference in Places Photo requests

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/photo?photoreference=CoQBcwAAABjgCEv2Y3kXzwo7BfsEVDDrApryPRxolGQGCVYictPKCvWQwbe8krHINggBVrEQA3OEf8EqbFHp0r98jrIJQ3F4awmIji7NOYI8MfsPK4leba2tRuWqbUr1dDZRW_hKDljRtewR50iOwd3F9MW5J4DIIwHSvCU41jqSqXyISpsEEhCol5Eq1OI0ne7i_2s_a9eRGhSTmK86GEeknPJXxecPu0KM_O4trA&maxwidth=600&key=YOUR_API_KEY

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/photo?photoreference=CoQBdwAAAPp5qepynfTVao_XoW3QAMpul2rD7TrKosDA76-FPyhESJW4A5evjAHj8GWjvlcbc0ATDvEnsF7qHcNSFxkLZyscvJRY2e_DmCW2iLS0k6dJRSQVXOVOvrCe7yfwI-kOYIKbPgf8Gxk6yLfacUGESWuzRU30OMNne9yHwGJYakYNEhBR4f4jbHSx17cZoTm81IogGhSP3Vk9JPG-wVtpxgTeF27ZUmBkJg&maxwidth=600&key=YOUR_API_KEY

Hope it helps!