Using the Google Places API With MapKit

Where to Go From Here?

Here is the complete example project from the above tutorial.

The Google Places API can really add some value to your app. It is relatively straightforward to use now that iOS5 gives us some great JSON parsing tools natively.

I hope this tutorial inspires you to exploit the wealth of information Google supplies with its API. Lift your MapKit-based apps to the next level!

But you’ve only scratched the surface of what the Google Places API can do. In addition to reading places, you can also use your iPhone app to write places from your device [write to where, for example?], along with other key metadata about the place. The Google Places API also has a rating API, which lets your app users rate particular places.

In addition, the Google Places API provides a unique ID for each place it returns. You can use these IDs to make additional calls to the API for detailed information about that place – the kind of info you might display on a separate screen that appears after the user taps the callout.

There is also a "check-in" capability (similar to Foursquare) built into the API. As more users rate and check in to a place, that place rises to the top of the search results.

As involved as this tutorial was, you’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg. If you would like to learn more about the Google Places API, please visit the Google Places API Documentation, which does a great job structuring and explaining the API. With the experience you’ve gained in this tutorial, it should be much easier for you to digest and implement it in your own app.

This is a post by iOS Tutorial Team Member Jason van Lint, the founder and owner of Dead Frog Studios, a boutique design and app building studio in Neuchatel, Switzerland.