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Getting the Best Places in Town With the Google Maps API
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If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably asked yourself this question at some point in your life, the one nobody has the answer for: Where/what should we eat? Since I’m a developer, I decided I’d had enough and would let computers give me some suggestions. That’s when the idea came to ask Google Maps to list out the top restaurants/bars/anything else nearby so we’d have an easier time choosing.
Luckily, the Google Maps API has the ability to do just that with the combination of its Places API. So today, I would like to show you how you can do the same.
The very first step in this endeavor is to receive an API key.
Retrieving the API Key
The API key will be used to make calls for the different APIs. To get an API key, head over to your Google Cloud Platform dashboard. Select a project or create a new one if you haven’t started one already.
Head over to the menu button and choose the Credentials tab under API & Services.
Click on the Create Credentials button and your newly created API key will pop up.
It’s a good idea to restrict your API key before you use it in a production environment to avoid unexpected expenses and prevent quota theft. You can set up restrictions in the APIs & Services menu under the Credentials tab.
Note that in order to use Google Cloud services, you might have to link your project to a billing account. Fortunately for us, the Google Maps API is still free to use up to a $200 monthly usage. That equals to about 28,000 calls per month. To learn more about pricing, visit the Pricing & Plans or the Pricing Table section on Google Cloud.
If you’d prefer reading Google’s step by step tutorial on how to get an API key, you can refer to their own documentation.
