pyuule

UULE's are Google's objects for referencing locations. This Python library allows you to encode and decode UULE's!

What is a UULE anyway?

There are two forms of UULE. The first type, prefixed by a 'w+':

w+CAIQICIhTm90dGluZ2hhbSxFbmdsYW5kLFVuaXRlZCBLaW5nZG9t

can be used to direct searches to a specific location. The "canonical location" name must be drawn from Google's list of place names. A search on Google can then be done with results drawn from the area around this location with a UULE query parameter added, for e.g. the following search is scoped to results near the location of Nottingham in the UK: www.google.com/search?q=restaurants&uule=w+CAIQICIhTm90dGluZ2hhbSxFbmdsYW5kLFVuaXRlZCBLaW5nZG9t

The second type of UULE is often attached to cookies from Google, for e.g.:

a+cm9sZToxCnByb2R1Y2VyOjEyCnByb3ZlbmFuY2U6MAp0aW1lc3RhbXA6MTY4MDg3NzkwNjIzNjczNgpsYXRsbmd7CmxhdGl0dWRlX2U3OjMwMjY2NjY2MApsb25naXR1ZGVfZTc6LTk3NzMzMzMwMAp9CnJhZGl1czotMQo

These encode some metadata, but most interestingly, the radius over which to search, and the latitude and longitude of the searcher.

Usage

This library allows you to encode and decode query parameter UULE's:

>>> import pyuule

>>> pyuule.decode_w("w+CAIQICImV2VzdCBOZXcgWW9yayxOZXcgSmVyc2V5LFVuaXRlZCBTdGF0ZXM")
"Nottingham,England,United Kingdom"

>>> pyuule.encode_w("Saint-Germain-des-Pres,Ile-de-France,France")
"w+CAIQICIrU2FpbnQtR2VybWFpbi1kZXMtUHJlcyxJbGUtZGUtRnJhbmNlLEZyYW5jZQ"

and additionaly allows you to decode cookie UULEs:

>>> pyuule.decode_a("a+cm9sZToxCnByb2R1Y2VyOjEyCnByb3ZlbmFuY2U6MAp0aW1lc3RhbXA6MTY4MDg3NzkwNjIzNjczNgpsYXRsbmd7CmxhdGl0dWRlX2U3OjMwMjY2NjY2MApsb25naXR1ZGVfZTc6LTk3NzMzMzMwMAp9CnJhZGl1czotMQo")
{
    "role": 1,
    "producer": 12,
    "provenance": 0,
    "timestamp": 1680877906236736,
    "latitude": 3.0266666,
    "longitude": -9.77333300,
    "radius": -1,
:   

Acknowledgements

The following blog post was helpful in writing this library: https://valentin.app/uule.html