Is it possible to do a custom category search in Google Maps API?

When using the Google Maps Javascript API with Google Places to search for stores, I can only search a specific list of categories or a specific string contained in each store name. For example, if I don't pass the "types" parameter, but use the "name" parameter, it only pulls stores containing that name.

For example, if I search for "sporting goods", I only get stores like "Joe's Sporting Goods". Stores like "Cabela's" aren't being returned since they don't contain that exa开发者_运维知识库ct phrase.

Does anyone know how to search for a generic store type that isn't in Google's specific list of place "types"? Thanks.

You can leave out both name=... and types=... in the HTTP query. Then you get all places inside the specified distance and can filter them to find your favorites.