Unclear about proper search terms - terminology

I'm trying to add a feature on my homebrew website that allows users to pin their location to a map. Ideally, I'd like an email sent that lets me know a user added a location.
I've been searching for an hour or more between Google and Stack, but I don't even know if I'm searching the proper terms.
Any help? Please.

Related

Set expiration date in Google drive does not show in the API

We are working will Google's API and we were looking for a field for the new feature- Set an expiration date for file sharing (http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2016/03/set-expiration-dates-for-access-to.html), but could not find anything in the json file.
Is this field documented? Are you going to add it in the future?
If not, can we ask for it? It will be a big help since this feature really mitigates sharing issues our customers may have.
First I would like to say that that only refers to the Google Drive website it doesn't say anything about the API. Second it was posed on Posted: 3/15/2016 and says Gradual rollout (2–3 months for feature visibility). Which means that at the earliest everyone will have it on June 15 2016. This is again on the website.
There is no mention of it in the documentation for the API so I think you will have to assume at least for now that this is a website only feature and not something that will be available in the API
I would add it as an feature request on the issue forum

How to get Data for Location App?

I am planning to build an app that would find the shortest distance from one location to another and other things too.
It requires the latitudes and longitudes of a place and distance of all the coordinates from say X meters from it, distance in the sense of actual road distance. I do not want any graphics or showing the map but just the plain data.
This means that i can query for some address with the distance X, and it would give me the details. I looked into Google Map Api, but that looks like to cater for some kind of client job scheduling. I even looked into Bing Map Api. It seemed to provide things. But i thought to ask here before proceeding.
Any tips on available options ?
Fortunately you should be able to find many many code samples out there for models. But first:
I'm not sure what you mean by Google Maps API looks like it caters to client job scheduling; it actually is pretty much the opposite! There are limitations to how many requests per day can come from one IP. Also, the licensing for Google Maps is made for client facing applications like web based Store Locators (the application that I used it for) and often requires you to display a Google Map with the information.
You do have a limited license to do business related geocoding and searches.
I think you may be more interested in a product like Microsoft MapPoint http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/en-us/home.aspx
While there are many competing products and services, the price point here is great. You may also be able to get it for free along with other apps if you register for their BizSpark program http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/default.aspx
HTH
Geezer

Google Search Sitemaps

Does anyone know of any good tutorials that would show me how to create a sitemap similar to the image below. I can't figure out how to add the different sections underneath like the Your Account, FAQs, etc.
Any help would be extremely helpful. Thank you.
google search for instagram
What you want is what Google calls Sitelinks.
The process is automated and it's not possible right now to create them but you can manage them with the Google's web master tools. The algorithm used by Google to generate them is not public.
You can try this: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/, or just google 'xml sitemap generator'
I remember that what happened (in my 'previous' life, when I had to take care of all the gory details of our company site) I just followed google's recommended seo suggestions. It was painstaking and slow, but over time when we started turning up at the top of sear results, that exactly how google presented us. It pulled relevant information on it's own and created that nice display. Looking at my old codebase I don't even see a sitemap file there. But I do remember using one of those online generators and then hand turning it a bit.

Do I need to prevent duplicates in Google Places API?

I run a local business community website and I think it would be great to automatically create a google place for each of the businesses that are on my website. The actual business owners are on my website, so their information is accurate.
I can see that in the google places API, I can easily create google places, but what if they already have one? Will it be spammy to auto-create places for them or does google have an algorithm for accepting all results and sorting them on their own?
I think it would have been smart for Google to allow me to essentially create a canonical database for them of what I have and then they can do what they want with it. Is that how it works or do I need to manually ask my clients if they already have a google place?
The Google Places API isn't the best way to get data to Google about business location. Currently, the add functions don't allow you to add all the information that you would like to add, including opening hours etc. You can use Google Places for Business instead.
To answer your main question, Google would take results added through either the Places API or Google Places for Business and de-dupe them, but it would help Google and data accuracy to first search for a place, see if that matches and if it doesn't add it.

Any way to verify user's geolocation?

Newbie question.
I'm trying to make a mobile site using html5's geolocation (I know technically it's a separate spec, but still) to identify user's current position and post that to a web service which then does something. Basically a browser version of Four Square.
Is there anyway that I can verify that the user is really at that location? I want to prevent someone from making something, say a console app, that sends fake lat/long to the service.
Any suggestion is welcome, even if it doesn't get me there 100%. Thanks, SO community!
The short answer is no. All you can know for sure is where the browser claims to be. A sufficiently determined user could fake this.
A feature like this is really best used for convenience, not for security.
Ask the user to take a photo of the area, and compare that with Google Street View images near their stated location.
Or no. You might be able to get location information from DNS LOC (RFC1876), which might be accurate to within a few tens of kilometres, and only then if the DNS information is also accurate.
Yes - I know there is because GoWalla (available for free at the iPhone app store) requires a user to be at a given location before checking-in.
Unfortunately I'm not familiar with how they did this.