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Independent Google Maps data

Google Maps API

Discover public places, retrieve normalized details for known Maps URLs, and collect public reviews with source-linked place and author context.

Available Google Maps APIs

Use Search for query-and-location discovery, Place Details for known Maps URLs, and Reviews for bounded public-review collection.

What Google Maps data can you retrieve?

SocQ returns normalized public PlaceItem records for location research, business discovery, data enrichment, and point-in-time market snapshots.

Place identity

Retrieve available place IDs, names, categories, source URLs, record types, and collection timestamps.

Addresses and geographic context

Keep available formatted addresses, location labels, cities, regions, countries, latitude, and longitude.

Public contact details

Collect public phone numbers and websites when a search result exposes them.

Ratings and review counts

Retain the available source-reported rating and number of reviews without inferring missing values.

Descriptions and categories

Use available summary text and category labels to classify and shortlist place results.

Task and pagination metadata

Track task status and result_count, then page through stored PlaceItem records using next_cursor and has_more.

Location text and coordinate context

Google Maps Search always requires query and location. Coordinates are optional context in the current runtime contract rather than a replacement for location.

Input choiceRuntime behaviorWhen to use it
location onlyThe location text is combined with query for discoveryCity, district, landmark, or address-led searches
location plus both coordinatesThe location remains required and the coordinates are forwarded as lat and longA verified geographic center is available
location plus one coordinateThe supplied coordinate is forwarded independentlyOnly use when the partial geographic context is intentional
country and zoom_levelOptional context is forwarded with the search rowThe request needs a country hint or explicit zoom from 0 through 21

How the Google Maps API works

Submit a bounded place search, wait for asynchronous collection, and page through normalized records stored for the task.

  1. 1. Define the place search

    Choose a specific query and required location, then add only the verified optional geographic context you need.

  2. 2. Submit and track the task

    POST the request, store task_id, and poll /v1/tasks/{task_id} until processing succeeds or fails.

  3. 3. Read normalized places

    Process data.results.items and follow next_cursor while has_more is true.

Search public places

Submit a query and location with a small result ceiling, then read the normalized PlaceItem results from the shared task endpoint.

curl -X POST "https://api.socq.ai/v1/google-maps/search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOCQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query":"coffee","location":"New York, NY","country":"US","results_limit":3}'

# Poll GET /v1/tasks/{task_id}
# Read data.results.items and follow next_cursor while has_more is true

Common Google Maps API use cases

Local business discovery

Find public businesses matching a category or service within a city, district, landmark, or address context.

Place data enrichment

Add available contact, address, category, rating, review-count, URL, and coordinate fields to existing place candidates.

Geographic market snapshots

Collect bounded result sets for independently submitted areas and compare public place coverage at specific collection times.

Verification queues

Create a shortlist from public identity, contact, rating, and geographic fields for later review or a separate detail process.

Limits and public-data policy

Results are point-in-time public records. Search availability and field completeness depend on what the source exposes for the submitted request.

  • query and location are both required non-empty strings; location cannot be replaced by coordinates.
  • country, latitude, longitude, and zoom_level are optional; the current runtime accepts latitude and longitude independently.
  • zoom_level must be an integer from 0 through 21, and results_limit defaults to 100 with an accepted range of 1 through 2,000.
  • results_limit is a collection maximum, while the task GET limit controls each response page of stored results.
  • Public results can omit descriptions, categories, contact details, ratings, review counts, URLs, or geographic subfields.
  • Duplicate exposed identities are stored once per task, so result_count can be lower than the number of source rows observed.

Google Maps API frequently asked questions

What is the Google Maps API?

Google Maps APIs asynchronously search public places, resolve known place URLs, and collect public reviews as normalized records. Search accepts query and location and returns PlaceItem records with available identity, address, contact, rating, review-count, URL, and coordinate fields.

What does Search require?

Search requires non-empty query and location strings. Country, latitude, longitude, zoom_level, and results_limit are optional.

How do collection and response pagination differ?

results_limit bounds the records collected for the submitted search. After success, the task endpoint returns stored records in pages controlled by its separate limit and next_cursor parameters.

Why can place fields be null?

A public search result may not expose every contact, rating, review, description, URL, address, or coordinate field. The normalized schema preserves those missing values as null.

How are Google Maps Search results priced?

Each stored place costs 0.15 credits. The precharge estimate uses results_limit or 100 when omitted, and successful completion settles against the actual stored result count.

Bring public profiles, content, and engagement data from different platforms into one workflow to track brands, creators, and topics and run cross-platform monitoring and analysis more efficiently.