how to get reference id for google place without performing a search

Question

reading through the google places api, it seems that I can retrieve the details for a specific place by supplying the reference id. However, it seems that the only way to retrieve the reference id is by performing a search and using the returned list of places.

Is it possible to retrieve the reference id from the google plus page?

Is it possible to retrieve the reference id from any other means?

Answer 1

according to google support, the only way is to do a places search using the location of the place and use a small (eg 5m) radius. there should be just a single record returned and you can use that