=====Calling a JSON API=====The program will prompt for a location, contact a web service and retrieve JSON for the web service and parse that data, and retrieve the first place_id from the JSON. A place ID is a textual identifier that uniquely identifies a place as within Google Maps.

geoJSON.py

import urllib
import json


serviceurl = 'http://python-data.dr-chuck.net/geojson?'

while True:
    address = raw_input('Enter location: ')
    if len(address) < 1 : break

    url = serviceurl + urllib.urlencode({'sensor':'false', 'address': address})
    print 'Retrieving', url
    uh = urllib.urlopen(url)
    data = uh.read()
    print 'Retrieved',len(data),'characters'

    try: js = json.loads(str(data))
    except: js = None
    if 'status' not in js or js['status'] != 'OK':
        print '==== Failure To Retrieve ===='
        print data
        continue

    print json.dumps(js, indent=4)

    place = js['results'][0]['place_id']
    print 'The place ID is:',place