We just rolled out a new API for finding Place IDs. The
resolvePlacesURL was built for internal use (as are almost all of our
APIs) but it was kind of clunky to use for external applications, so
we've added a simple new method, flickr.places.find()


The documentation is at:
http://www.flickr.com/services/api/flickr.places.find.html

In short the method takes a single free form query string, and returns a
list of candidate place_ids.

In the tradition of our getList()/getInfo() APIs we're returning a
pretty stripped down list, and you'll want to use
flickr.places.resolvePlaceID() to get more information about each place_id.

And lastly flickr.places.find() is *not* a full geocoder, it only
returns matches for places with place_ids. But it will round up as
needed to the nearest place type to which place IDs apply. If you pass
it a street level address it will return the city that contains the
address rather than the street, or building, itself.

And if you missed it, my earlier email regarding place_ids:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/yws-flickr/message/3688


-kellan