Grabbing a Place's description from Google Places API in R

Question

My apologies in advance for the poor screenshot. Looking at the screenshot below, I want to have a way of sending an HTTP request query to Google Maps (circled in blue), selecting the suggested search term (if available), and returning the first result in JSON format. From there, I want to parse out the place's description. This is circled in red in the screenshot. I've scoured the Google Maps and Places API but could not find enough pieces to implement a solution.

EDIT: This wouldn't be for live production use. It's a one-time solution I want to use by sending a CSV list of user-entered names.

Any assistance with this is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Using the Google Places API you may not be able to get the description (your red circle) that you're after.

Here's a solution using my googleway package (which parses the JSON for you)

library(googleway)

apiKey <- 'your_api_key'

myPlace <- google_places(search_string = "ebm-papst Inc", key = apiKey)
myPlace
# $results
# formatted_address geometry.location.lat geometry.location.lng geometry.viewport.northeast.lat
# 1 100 Hyde Rd, Farmington, CT 06032, United States              41.69905             -72.86462                        41.69995
# geometry.viewport.northeast.lng geometry.viewport.southwest.lat geometry.viewport.southwest.lng
# 1                       -72.86326                        41.69726                       -72.86595
# icon                                       id           name
# 1 https://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/place_api/icons/generic_business-71.png 0bad18aa7e39cb7cbbaea097994f4cf258a8c9f2 ebm-papst Inc.
# photos
# 1 2848, <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps/contrib/116194079529080031684/photos">ebmpapstUSA</a>, CmRYAAAApkJrPj2Esm7Zj3JbYi4GGq4n2_HKa8lD4ajJEiJqreY7g-fqeybxAdN_Y3i12YR7CtlwpzVLOgfGYlKr_dq7lcHywOxFTZ71w5fLAnCwCcckwpwnSN5-ZFHyxatfKDWtEhAiqZ_cUZYZG86txisUiQJuGhSxfmgURHQQsMGrcoCpc_nbthsUnw, 4272
# place_id rating
# 1 ChIJk4hBjUWw54kRQ3xwJR2K93g      5
# reference
# 1 CmRRAAAAi5th813z3Vidbe399oEgJx0QtweOq395pxBZQIpcNVUUieJPvxOh7_5CiQDY2mzPtoeiN8URmpRWKFLu7OzemOjgFiH3PUT8al7KQGsVF-4uHVL_fMffeF77QzagdsBDEhDEOxx5M5f5c4gvrPFbq3LoGhTnlkNSFopZ2CjGKzl2XrTOIvkz6A
# types
# 1 point_of_interest, establishment

You can then use the place_id field to get further details about a specific place. However, I can't see it saying 'manufacturer' anywhere

myPlaceId <- myPlace$results[1, ]$place_id

google_place_details(place_id = myPlaceId, key = apiKey)
# $result
# $result$address_components
# long_name      short_name                                  types
# 1             100             100                          street_number
# 2       Hyde Road         Hyde Rd                                  route
# 3      Farmington      Farmington                    locality, political
# 4 Hartford County Hartford County administrative_area_level_2, political
# 5     Connecticut              CT administrative_area_level_1, political
# 6   United States              US                     country, political
# 7           06032           06032                            postal_code
# 8            2835            2835                     postal_code_suffix
# 
# $result$adr_address
# [1] "<span class=\"street-address\">100 Hyde Rd</span>, <span class=\"locality\">Farmington</span>, <span class=\"region\">CT</span> <span class=\"postal-code\">06032-2835</span>, <span class=\"country-name\">USA</span>"
# 
# $result$formatted_address
# [1] "100 Hyde Rd, Farmington, CT 06032, USA"
# 
# $result$formatted_phone_number
# [1] "(860) 674-1515"
# 
# $result$geometry
# $result$geometry$location
# $result$geometry$location$lat
# [1] 41.69905
# 
# $result$geometry$location$lng
# [1] -72.86462
# 
# 
# $result$geometry$viewport
# $result$geometry$viewport$northeast
# $result$geometry$viewport$northeast$lat
# [1] 41.69995
# 
# $result$geometry$viewport$northeast$lng
# [1] -72.86326
# 
# 
# $result$geometry$viewport$southwest
# $result$geometry$viewport$southwest$lat
# [1] 41.69726
# 
# $result$geometry$viewport$southwest$lng
# [1] -72.86595
# 
# $result$icon
# [1] "https://maps.gstatic.com/mapfiles/place_api/icons/generic_business-71.png"
# 
# $result$id
# [1] "0bad18aa7e39cb7cbbaea097994f4cf258a8c9f2"
# 
# $result$international_phone_number
# [1] "+1 860-674-1515"
# 
# $result$name
# [1] "ebm-papst Inc."
# 
# $result$photos
# height                                                                           html_attributions
# 1   2848 <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps/contrib/116194079529080031684/photos">ebmpapstUSA</a>
#   photo_reference
# 1 CmRYAAAAncznMEY_qxszVm2aRsutCo2h_aFJPnQuRetv-qUdo6Z66UCQII6iIEkSXB81k__Ys_earablgBtRq2yFObg0_Ul2xiigSX-fOHiBwrzhKBI4Axz_m72m8u2EVQ3o5lNPEhDGJiqQlUscKYhNCw4a-w4xGhQKhdR8TaZXft29PlD99hWVt62EBA
# width
# 1  4272
# 
# $result$place_id
# [1] "ChIJk4hBjUWw54kRQ3xwJR2K93g"
# 
# $result$rating
# [1] 5
# 
# $result$reference
# [1] "CmRRAAAAU9Pt8Bh8VMqqdQ6PRUVxK9X-h6rma8y9BSiqmk4rVcuFPDzJpuX4bdmjLxNhRoOrEDLOKT4CFzNCwT1UXnxl_ezNenzachDjezWp9sGtgt8k5XUjXyF3W_x4ZZJEtqqOEhARfYhWNHUV_gCVTwfpG5OhGhT2pu-L1dTJBho2ekzaO_-_06C-0w"
# 
# $result$reviews
# author_name                                                        author_url language
# 1 David Cuesta https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/117339667056469092013/reviews       es
# profile_photo_url rating
# 1 https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--1xFme4FMZk/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAA4/apolINU9s78/s128-c0x00000000-cc-rp-mo/photo.jpg      5
# relative_time_description text       time
# 1              9 months ago      1471529234
# 
# $result$scope
# [1] "GOOGLE"
# 
# $result$types
# [1] "point_of_interest" "establishment"    
# 
# $result$url
# [1] "https://maps.google.com/?cid=8716587461585697859"
# 
# $result$utc_offset
# [1] -240
# 
# $result$vicinity
# [1] "100 Hyde Road, Farmington"
# 
# $result$website
# [1] "http://www.ebmpapst.us/"