Putting Place in Social, Putting Social in it’s Place

While a major locus of socializing has moved to the web, human beings remain geolocated. This makes the world of social networking and maps inherently attractive to each other. In 2011, Google released the Google Places API and the start of the Google+ Platform, which along with the Google Maps API together make for some powerful new geo combinations.

Places gives access to Google’s constantly updated index of millions of places around the world. Stores, libraries, restaurants, bars, landmarks, and 125 different categories give a rich wealth of location information to developers creating social apps. The Google Plus platform includes sharing from the 1 button, access to user’s public data, and collaborative apps that run inside Google Hangouts

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to combine the rich information of Google Maps and Places with the power of people on Google+. We’ll cover topics such as:

• Authentication
• Hangout applications
• Extracting geolocation from activity streams
• Innovative use of the +1 button