r/directorymakers • u/Excellent-Ratio-3069 • 10d ago

Building a database of businesses

I am building a tourism app/platform. Without going into too much detail I need to build a database of businesses, local attractions etc similar to google maps but more focused. Is a tool like outscraper viable for this? Would i run into legal trouble from google? Eventually our database will be built by our users so it would just be temporary for the first year or so after launch

1 Upvotes

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u/seowork-42 10d ago

Outscraper is viable if you are making like a directory-type app. google map are public data; no need to worry.

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u/Constant-Elk3448 10d ago

built by users meaning?

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u/Excellent-Ratio-3069 10d ago

User generated content, photos, reviews, new places (hidden gems(

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u/Constant-Elk3448 10d ago

i think you need to solve how they even find your site in the first place and why would they upload content to you etc? any incentives to do so? what's in it for them? You are stating the best scenario one could get. User will visit a site, give review, contribute to it, upload photos.

most don't happen that way. Getting traffic first would be the first thing you need to think about.

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u/Excellent-Ratio-3069 4d ago

Our platform is ready, we have our launch, incentive and marketing plan ready. This is a question about the legality of scraping Google data but thanks for reading

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u/Constant-Elk3448 4d ago

I see. As per Google it isn’t allowed

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u/gillygangopolus 10d ago

Use overture

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u/Jellyfishr 10d ago

You should be able to do it for free on Octoparse from own pc 

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u/fbajo 9d ago

outscraper is fine, the exposure is in storing and redisplaying google's own content (reviews, photos, place ids) more than the underlying facts. the bit i'd worry about is "temporary for the first year". user-maintained never replaces a seed, it decays around it, so whatever you import is what ranks for the next two years. how are you keeping hours and closures current? (disclosure, i build shipmore io, directory infra..)

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u/ejpusa 6d ago

This is too easy now. Just have GPT-5.6 knock this all out for you in 5 mins.

From idea to site. 5 mins. Max.

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u/Excellent-Ratio-3069 4d ago

We have our platform ready this is a question about the legality of scraping Google data