Find out what’s really near a place/ Google Map location, sights to see, businesses and points of interest. Top tip!

Find what’s nearby with Google?

Google’s “What’s Here” feature doesn’t tell you what you think it’s going to (though TechCrunch don’t appear to have noticed!). No, it’s not a list of local points of interest, not even local businesses. Nope it tells you the address of the object in focus on your Google Map.

This Address != What’s Here

It’s just a mis-labelling. I can see it’s kinda useful.

How to really do it – what’s really here

click a marker to bring up the menu

find "search nearby" and search for "*"

places nearby are listed

• Find yourself a location via a search on Google Maps, eg Charles Street, Newport (UK)
• Click the point marker to bring up options
• Click “Search nearby” and enter “*” as your search term; i.e. do a wildcard search.
• …
• Profit! Find places near to that marker point, all listed nicely and shown on the map. Very useful.

Example map, try it!

View Larger Map

Code monkeys short method

The short-hand method is to do a search for, e.g., “* loc:Eiffel Tower” (without quotes). Have fun.