Places API Result Quality

[Sam Garfield]

I am using the Places API to return a list of nearby restaurants for my web application. The problem I am having is that it seems to be returning a more eclectic list of restaurants than I'd like. 

For example, there are a Wendy's, Burger King, and McDonald's all within the narrow boundaries of my search, but the results I'm getting are almost all of the independent restaurants. I've tried changing my types argument from food to restaurant but no luck. For the purposes of my application, the more "chain" a result restaurant is, the better. 

How does Places API choose which 20 results to return, and is there any way to manipulate what I'm getting back to show the more obvious results? Is there any way to increase the 20 limit to increase the possibility that relevant results will be included in my query?

[Dev Proximity]

Sam;

 

I agree. We are experiencing the same problem. It has to do with the API's "prominence" algorithm, which decides what to return based on checkins, which seems very arbitrary & subjective.

 

I wholly agree with you. If you query for restaurants near you, it should order them by proximity to you, or at least have the option to select to order by location or prominence.

 

I've posted this issue myself, but the more the better.

 

-dave