At least this one should be easy for you to verify. This request returns an INVALID_REQUEST
:
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location=51.509980,-0.133700&sensor=true&rankby=distance&key=[api_key]
But this one works (exactly the same but with a types
parameter):
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/place/nearbysearch/json?location=51.509980,-0.133700&sensor=true&rankby=distance&key=[api_key]&types=food
In the documentation it says that types is not a required parameter so is it a bug in their API?