Google has quietly released (or hasn't announced the release yet) of the new version of the Google My Business API. The new version is version 3.0 and comes several months after launching the last one in December 2015.
The new version adds new functionality for people who manage locations at scale. Some of the key new features include the ability to read and respond to customer reviews and provide additional attributes for locations, such as whether a restaurant accepts reservations, serves brunch, or has outdoor seating.
Here is a full feature list for version 3.0:
- Reviews You can now retrieve and respond to business reviews through the API.
- Attributes Provide additional, category-specific information about locations.
- Find Matching Location Find and manually associate existing maps locations with your business location.
- Transfer Location New action on Location :transfer. Allows transferring a location from one account (business or personal) to another.
- Preferred Photo Indicate which photo you'd prefer to show up first in Google Maps and Search.
- New Search Filters New search filters include any_google_updates, is_suspended, and is_duplicate.
- New Location States Location states now also include is_verified and needs_reverification.
- Photo URL Improvements The API now accepts photo URLs without an image format suffix.
- Backwards incompatible changes Photos can now only be updated for locations with a Google+ page (these were accepted and silently dropped before). The location_name and category_name fields are now output only. Only use category IDs when setting categories. Field masks no longer require the location. prefix for included fields. Create/update operations now take the location as the body payload, other parameters are moved to the query string.
