Ultimately what I want is to geocode an address for a large set of high schools. For example I have:
Destrehan high school, St. Rose Louisiana
Because I have no street information it fails if I try to geocode this. So first I need the exact address. This is where I'm stumped. If I ask google or bing:
address for Destrehan high school, St. Rose Louisiana
They both respond with
1 Wildcat Ln, Destrehan, LA 70047
In some sort of non-link, specific answer block which is exactly what I want. If I ask either of their maps sites:
Destrehan high school, St. Rose Louisiana
It again returns the right answer. The problem is that I've tried their api services and I'm getting nowhere. They don't return the same results. The web api only returns links and not the "exact answer" box. The maps service seems to require that you actually have the address. It doesn't guess.
Any suggestions? I'm really unfamiliar with everything about this kind of thing so even helping me with the terminology would be helpful.
EDIT:
I solved it. Google has a specific api called "Places API". That's what I should have been using. Not only does it get me the address but it geocodes for me.