🧱 Genesis
A few month ago, I was looking for a way to get a list of restaurants in a given city, in a specific area. I needed a list of addresses (and phone numbers if possible). After extensive research, I found nothing satisfactory.
So, I tried to get this information from Google Maps and Foursquare until I read their terms of service. Obviously, data from services such as Google Maps or Foursquare can not be used extracted. For example, the Google Maps Terms of Service (3.2.4) states "Customer will not extract, export, scrape, or cache Google Maps Content for use outside the Services".
Then, I tried OpenStreetMaps and found what I was looking for: a list that could be used without constraints. However, it is quite difficult to define a specific area and to extract these data. That's when I decided to create a tool to automate the process.
At first it was only for me, and after some time and more free time I decided to create a website around and start a new project: www.thedatapond.net. I'm not sure yet, but people may be interested in this type of service. Tell me what you think in the comments. Good idea, bad idea?
🕹️ How it works ?
If you want to get data from the map, the procedure is pretty simple :
- 🗺️ draw a geographic zone on the map
- 🧩 define your parameters (categories, keywords...)
- 🗃️ and you get a list of names, addresses, websites, telephone numbers... which you can download in CSV format.
The data you get are not as rich as data from services like Google Maps or Foursquare but, at least, it is legal to use them (ODC Open Database License).
The website is not completely finished, there are still 1000 things to do: design, typo, features, improve lists... but the idea is to continue development based on comments or requests from users.
If the feedback is positive, I'll see if it's a good idea to spend some time on this project and push it to the next level 🚀 : SEO, Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit, ads...
We are now super eager to read your comments (positive or not).
🙏
Top comments (2)
I think you need some method for users to submit or update data for a decent MVP, otherwise the lack of quality data is a problem
Thanks for your comment. OSM has more and more data. You're right, it's not as good as Google Maps but at least it is legally to extract those data. Everyone can had more data to OSM. You can even have fun by doing so with an app like StreetComplete.