Google Maps Scraper

[Wiliams]

I'm working on a project where I need to build a database of local businesses across multiple cities, and doing it manually would take forever. I've been looking into automated tools that can extract names, addresses, and phone numbers from Google Maps, but I'm concerned about the legal implications and technical risks. Before I invest time and money into this approach, what are the actual risks of getting IP blocks or legal trouble, and how reliable is the data these scrapers typically provide?

[Julius77]

I totally get your concern, man. Manual data collection is a nightmare. So a service like outscraper is worth looking at because they handle all the risky stuff for you. They run everything on their own servers, which means Google sees their IPs, not yours, so you don't have to worry about getting blocked. On the legal side, they argue that scraping public data is protected under the First Amendment, which is the same argument a lot of these services use. And the data is solid, they pull way more than just names and addresses, they actually find emails and social profiles too. For what you're trying to do, it's probably your best bet without the headache.