Get Area Name from Street Address in Google Maps - google-maps

Question

I am developing a website where I plot statistics for an area and show it on Google Maps.
If you search Google Maps for "Harlem New York, NY USA" or "University Heights Bronx, NY USA", it shades that entire area. I will be showing this area and will figure out a way to show markers with statistics over this.
However, given the user will input addresses such as "500 W 133rd St, New York, NY 10027, USA", is it possible, using some Google Map API or something, to retrieve the Area Name (Harlem), from the mentioned street address?

Answer 1

You may use Google Maps Geocoding API
(in order to use it, you need a Gecoding API key)
For your example "500 W 133rd St, New York, NY 10027, USA" you may call the API in the following way:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=500%20W%20133rd%20St,%20New%20York,%20NY%2010027,%20USA
If you provide a proper key you should get a following JSON:
{
"results" : [
{
"address_components" : [
{
"long_name" : "500",
"short_name" : "500",
"types" : [ "street_number" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "West 133rd Street",
"short_name" : "W 133rd St",
"types" : [ "route" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "Upper Manhattan",
"short_name" : "Upper Manhattan",
"types" : [ "neighborhood", "political" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "Manhattan",
"short_name" : "Manhattan",
"types" : [ "sublocality_level_1", "sublocality", "political" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "New York",
"short_name" : "New York",
"types" : [ "locality", "political" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "New York County",
"short_name" : "New York County",
"types" : [ "administrative_area_level_2", "political" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "New York",
"short_name" : "NY",
"types" : [ "administrative_area_level_1", "political" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "Stany Zjednoczone",
"short_name" : "US",
"types" : [ "country", "political" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "10027",
"short_name" : "10027",
"types" : [ "postal_code" ]
},
{
"long_name" : "7302",
"short_name" : "7302",
"types" : [ "postal_code_suffix" ]
}
],
"formatted_address" : "500 W 133rd St, New York, NY 10027, Stany Zjednoczone",
"geometry" : {
"bounds" : {
"northeast" : {
"lat" : 40.8176249,
"lng" : -73.9532346
},
"southwest" : {
"lat" : 40.8176127,
"lng" : -73.9532442
}
},
"location" : {
"lat" : 40.8176127,
"lng" : -73.9532442
},
"location_type" : "RANGE_INTERPOLATED",
"viewport" : {
"northeast" : {
"lat" : 40.81896778029149,
"lng" : -73.9518904197085
},
"southwest" : {
"lat" : 40.81626981970849,
"lng" : -73.95458838029151
}
}
},
"place_id" : "Eic1MDAgVyAxMzNyZCBTdCwgTmV3IFlvcmssIE5ZIDEwMDI3LCBVU0E",
"types" : [ "street_address" ]
}
],
"status" : "OK"
}
Which you can filter out for neighborhood, sublocality_level_1 or postal_code types and get the related long_name to search for the polygon.