Full Submissions for Google Places API Developer Challenge Now Open!

Earlier this month we announced the Google Places API Developer Challenge, a 10-week application development event designed to spur the creation of applications focused on civic needs. We’re excited to see how you can find solutions to critical needs in areas such as transit, community engagement, education and city management by combining publicly available data sets with the power of the Google Places API. The developers of the winning applications will receive a VIP experience at Google I/O 2013.



Application submissions begin now and will continue through the end of October. The winning applications will be announced in mid-December. The judging and selection of applications will be performed by a distinguished panel of luminaries with backgrounds in geospatial technology, application development, and civic innovation, and they include:

• Bill Oates, Chief Information Officer, City of Boston


• John Tolva, Chief Technology Officer, City of Chicago


• Jay Nath, Chief Innovation Officer, City of San Francisco


• Adel W. Ebeid, Chief Innovation Officer, City of Philadelphia


• Mark Headd, Chief Data Officer, City of Philadelphia, and former Government Relations Director at Code for America


• John Geraci, Founder of DIYcity.org and Outside.in


• Adam DuVander, Executive Editor at ProgrammableWeb


• Jeanne M. Holm, Chief Knowledge Architect at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Chair of NASA’s Knowledge Management Team


• Laurenellen McCann, National Policy Manager, Sunlight Foundation


• Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist for Google


• Paul Rademacher, Creator of the First Google Maps API Mashup and Creator of Stratocam


• Rob Gray, Global Marketing Manager, Google Earth and Maps

To hear more about the types of applications that cities need, check out the video above featuring Ed Parsons (Google’s Geospatial Technologist), Jay Nath, (CIO of San Francisco), John Tolva, (CTO of Chicago), Rachel Sterne (Chief Digital Officer of NYC), and Andrew Collinge (Intelligence Office of the Greater London Authority).



Developers have always impressed us with their innovative uses of the Google Places API, and we're excited to see that energy focused on helping our communities. If you have any questions or concerns about the API, please join our developer community on Stack Overflow. We look forward to seeing all of your great ideas and meeting the winners at Google I/O.



Posted by Justin Chu, Google Places API Product Manager

The power of places and big data for good: Google Places API Developer Challenge 2012

How would you make your community or local government run better? In our first Google Places API Developer Challenge, we’re inviting developers around the world to make something that improves their communities or governments by using the Google Places API and its database of places and tools. The developers of the winning applications will receive a VIP experience at Google I/O 2013.



You might create an app or site that solves health problems, understands crime patterns, or improves commerce. You can use any platform as long as you build with the Google Places API and it benefits your community or government. We’re looking for your best and most innovative ideas.







Built on the comprehensive global database of more than 95 million places that powers Google Maps, the Google Places API enables you to search for information about a variety of nearby places such as establishments, geographic locations and prominent points of interest. You can re-rank place results based on user check-ins, and create new places specific to your app.



To help you develop your ideas and build better apps, we’ve been working with local government officials in Austin, Boston, Chicago, London, Louisville, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland (Ore.), San Francisco, and Seattle along with the White House to surface a wide variety of data sets for your apps. You can find these data sets and more on the Google Places API Challenge site at http://developers.google.com/challenge and hear more about what cities have to say about the challenge here. You can also follow updates and hangouts about the challenge on +Google Maps API.



The submission window opens on August 15th and closes on October 31st, 2012.



We look forward to seeing what can happen when your imagination and the Google Places API come together!



Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager