Google Places API gives one result for correct spelling and all results for incorrect spelling

Question

We use google places API to pull local data.

For a particular query - Saint Louis Renters Insurance we get only one result as shown in the image below :

But when the same query is spelled incorrectly Siant Louis Renters Insurance [spelling mistake in the word 'Saint'] , we get all the results as shown in the image below :

Could anyone tell me whats happening here? I posted this question in the Google Places API group but some how my post got deleted, as you can see in the below image, which is pretty annoying :

It would be real bad if google places api starts giving less results for correct querys.

Answer 1

The Places API always returns the best results it can, so if you're filtering by text or exact keywords and there's a good string match, it will return only that. Multiple results are only returned if it's not confident enough about correctness.

If you simply want to return a list of all possible insurance agencies in St Louis, try a Nearby Search with a latlng in St Louis, a suitable radius (10 km below) and a types=insurance_agency filter:

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?types=insurance_agency&sensor=false&location=38.597051,-90.217889&radius=10000&skip_auth