I feel silly asking this.. but its doing my head..
if I use 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json' and set the input parameter to say - 'Palazzo Cast' I will get about 5 suggestions - none of which will be the one I'm looking for. if I set input to 'Palazzo Castellania' I will get zero results - even though there is a place called this (see below). I've set the region parameter to 'mt'...
If I use 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/findplacefromtext' and set the input parameter to 'Palazzo Castellania' - I will get 'the Ministry of Health' - which is correct - however, if I put a partial string in I'll get only a single candidate which will be something different - there doesn't seem to be a way to get multiple place candidates?
I'm guessing from an API side - I have to do a multi-step process - but it would be good to get some input.
My thoughts: I start with 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/autocomplete/json' - if I get an empty result, I try 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/findplacefromtext'
if I get a single result from either then I can pass the placeID to the places API to get more detailed data.
Make sense? It feels argly..
Edit So watching how https://www.google.com.mt/ does it... while typing it uses suggest (and never gives the right answer, just like the API) and then when I hit enter it uses search and gives the correct answer... leading me to the conclusion that there is actually two databases happening!
Basically "its by design".. there is no fix as of Feb 2023.. My thoughts are to cache results and do a first search against that otherwise I'll probably use bing or here