DEV Community: Philip

Building a Google Rating Comparison Overview for Nomad Travel Insurances using Google Places API

Philip — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 14:29:17 +0000

Long-term travelers, expats, and digital nomads often struggle to find transparent travel health insurance options. Marketing websites are full of affiliate links, while reviews are scattered across forums and review portals.

At TravelInsuranc.es, the goal was to build an objective comparison tool: an overview of 30 major travel insurance providers, ranked purely by Google Business Profile reviews. This article explains how I built the backend logic using the Google Places API and automated daily updates.

Problem

Traditional insurance comparison sites monetize through affiliate commissions, which often skews recommendations (Well, I might use them, too, but without manipulating the ranking). For travelers making long-term commitments, a biased suggestion can lead to costly mistakes.

I wanted to solve this by:

Aggregating real customer reviews from Google Business Profiles.
Displaying results in a clean, sortable table.
Updating scores automatically every ~24 hours to stay relevant.

Solution Architecture

The solution is built on three main components:

Data Collection with Google Places API

Fetching company profiles using the place_id (this was the trickiest part: ensuring each insurer was mapped correctly to the right Google entity; for Aetna I chose the parent company CVS because the GBP has much more reviews).
Using the Places Details API to retrieve rating and userRatingCount.
Handling missing profiles (e.g., Chapka, NOW Health International, SafetyWing — still unresolved).

Data Processing & Storage

Normalizing rating data and storing it in a database (I used SQLite).
Scheduling daily updates with a simple cron job that re-calls the Places API.

Frontend Display

A sortable table where users can filter insurers by alphabetical order, average rating, and number of reviews
Simple UI, optimized for quick decision-making.

Sample Data Snapshot

Here are some interesting insights from the current dataset (October 2, 2025):

Top 10 Best Rated Insurers

Swisscare — ⭐ 4.9
TravelSecure — ⭐ 4.9
BDAE — ⭐ 4.5
Care Concept — ⭐ 4.5
Protrip (Dr. Walter) — ⭐ 4.5
… all the way down to Bupa Global at ⭐ 3.9.

Top 10 Worst Rated Insurers

Notably, U.S.-based insurers dominate the bottom:

United Healthcare Global — ⭐ 1.4
Aetna (CVS Health) — ⭐ 1.6
IMG — ⭐ 1.8

Most Rated Insurers

The “most reviewed” list looks different:

HanseMerkur: 3,194 reviews
Aetna: 1,676 reviews
PassportCard: 1,280 reviews

This contrast highlights how volume doesn’t always equal quality.

What’s Next

Add missing insurers (if community members can help locate the correct Google profiles). I wasn't able to find the right Google Business Profiles (GBP) for these insurance companies:
👉 Chapka
👉 NOW Health International
👉 Safety Wing

Final Thoughts

I just did this as a small side project to test how I can collect GBP rating data. The most challenging part is to find the Google Places ID's. You can use the Google Place ID Finder. However, for Service Area Businesses (SABs) without a specific address location, the finder does not work. In this case you can search in the source code of the GBP for the place ID starting with "ChIJ".

Unfortunately, you cannot look up the place ID using the company domain name + some address details. Using the domain name would make it more accurate, e.g. getting a list of matching profiles and then you can select the one that matches best. Using the company name and address complicates the matching. Some companies use their legal name and some their brand name in the GBP.

You can check it out live here: 👉 TravelInsuranc.es

The Ultimate Ranking of Vegetable-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 12:09:48 +0000

Tenth and final part of my series on lexicon domains. To better understand their current value and usage, I analyzed 52 English vegetable .com domains, covering both singular and plural forms.

17 vegetable domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
16 vegetable domains are up for sale—with plural names disproportionately represented (12 vs. 4)
19 vegetable domains are largely dormant, sitting parked, under construction, broken, redirected, or unreachable

Besides animals and fruits, vegetables are my third most favorite type of brandable domains. I remember the sale of carrot.com and the domain is still in use. It fits very good to the brand identity of the company 👍. Another popular vegetable domain is onion.com which redirects to theonion.com, an American satirical media outlet. I don't read it but heard about it several times, usually when quoted by other news sites.

Source: Vegetable Domain Stats by Lexicon Domains

The Ultimate Ranking of Stone-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 12:57:25 +0000

Ninth part of my series on lexicon domains. I analyzed the current usage of 28 English stone .com domains, and here are the results:

10 stone domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
6 stone domains are up for sale
12 stone domains are largely dormant, sitting parked, under construction, broken, redirected, or unreachable

Source: Stone Domain Name Stats by Lexicon Domains

The Ultimate Ranking of Planet-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 10:08:51 +0000

Eighth part of my series on lexicon domains. I analyzed the current usage of 9 English planet .com domains, and here are the results:

7 planet domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
2 planet domains are up for sale

I counted "Pluto" as a planet though it is considered a dwarf planet.

Source: Planet Domain Stats by Lexicon Domains

The Ultimate Ranking of (Spelled Out) Number-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:18:36 +0000

Seventh part of my series on lexicon domains. I analyzed the current usage of 25 English (spelled out) number .com domains, and here are the results:

13 number domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
8 number domains are up for sale
4 number domains are largely dormant, sitting parked, under construction, broken, redirected, or unreachable

I have only considered domains with key numbers that are spelled out and not numbers in numeric format. There have been some big sales of numerical domains, mostly to China—for example, 100.com sold in 2014 for 950,000 USD. The domain was actively used until 2021.

Source: Number Domain Stats by Lexicon Domains

The Ultimate Ranking of Metal-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 14:49:03 +0000

Sixth part of my series on lexicon domains. I analyzed the current usage of 26 English metal .com domains, and here are the results:

14 metal domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
2 metal domains are up for sale
10 metal domains are largely dormant, sitting parked, under construction, broken, redirected, or unreachable

The sale of Gold.com for $8.5M in 2024 was record-breaking and ranks among the highest public domain prices in recent years. No surprise there – with governments printing ever more fiat money and gold prices soaring, Gold.com is simply capitalizing on the momentum with a huge leverage. Even Walmart started selling gold bars. Since metal needs to be physically shipped (most buyers want to own it), also country TLDs for metal domains—which cover local markets and build trust—benefit from this trend.

Source: Metal Domain Stats by Lexicon Domains

The Ultimate Ranking of Fruit-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 18:55:18 +0000

Fifth part of my series on lexicon domains. I analyzed the current usage of 94 English fruit .com domains, and here are the results:

36 fruit domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
29 fruit domains are up for sale—with plural names disproportionately represented (18 vs. 11)
29 fruit domains are largely dormant, sitting parked, under construction, broken, redirected, or unreachable

Apple.com, Blackberry.com, Kiwi.com and Mango.com are some fruit-based brands that most will know. I did not include apple.com and apples.com in my list and I don't know why because that's likely one of the most popular fruits and the most popular fruit-based brand. Fruits, animals, vegetables and sometimes colors are popular choices for branded word combinations like foxracing.com.

Source: Fruit Domain Stats by Lexicon Domains

The Ultimate Ranking of Continent-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 21:07:58 +0000

Forth part of my series on lexicon domains, and actually a very brief one. I analyzed the current usage of 9 English Continent .com domains, and here are the results:

3 continent domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
3 continent domains are up for sale
3 continent domains are largely dormant, sitting parked, under construction, broken, redirected, or unreachable

australia.com is owned and used by Tourism Australia but since it is also a continent, I included the domain.

Source: Continent Domain Name Stats by Lexicon Domains

The Ultimate Ranking of Color-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 10:44:36 +0000

Second part of my series on lexicon domains. I analyzed the current usage of 47 English color .com domains, and here are the results:

24 color domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
13 color domains are up for sale
10 color domains are largely dormant, sitting parked, under construction, broken, redirected, or unreachable

Source: Color Domain Names by Lexicon Domains

The Ultimate Ranking of Animal-Inspired .com Brand Names

Philip — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 01:48:13 +0000

Domain names built on simple, memorable dictionary words have long held strong appeal on the internet. To better understand their current value and usage, I analyzed 230 English animal .com domains, covering both singular and plural forms.

111 animal domains are actively in use by businesses or individuals
61 animal domains are up for sale—with plural names disproportionately represented (42 vs. 19)
48 animal domains are largely dormant, sitting parked, under construction, broken, redirected, or unreachable

Source: Animal Domain Stats by Lexicon Domains

Lightning Text Effect with HTML & CSS – A Step-by-Step Guide

Philip — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 15:51:57 +0000

I wanted to recreate the following logo image using only HTML and CSS. For me it was important that the setup supports different font sizes and text content so that I can easily change the logo text and size without any code changes.

Solution

1. Setup An HTML Container With Child Elements

<a href="/" class="logo__link">
    <span class="logo__name-pseudo">Piranhas</span>
    <span class="logo__name-top">Piranhas</span>
    <span class="logo__name-bottom">Piranhas</span>
</a>

My idea was to create 2 child elements containing the same text. I would clip one element to the upper half (.logo__name-top) and the other element to the lower part (.logo__name-bottom). Finally, I will displace the upper part to the left. That's it.

2. Add CSS Properties To HTML Container

.logo__link {
    position: relative;
    color: #ffff00;
    font-family: Outfit, Helvetica, sans-serif;
    font-style: italic;
    font-size: 5rem;
    font-weight: 900;
    text-decoration: none;
}

The position property is needed to allow absolute positioning of the child elements.
The other CSS properties are just used for styling.

3. Add CSS Properties To HTML Child Elements

.logo__name-top {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0.05em;
    clip-path: inset(0% 0% 40% 0%);
}

The position property is needed to apply absolute positioning to the .logo__name-top element.
The right property is used to displace the text to the right.
The clip-path property is used to clip the text to the upper 40% and hide the rest.

.logo__name-bottom {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    clip-path: inset(60% 0% 0% 0%);
}

The position property is needed to apply absolute positioning to the .logo__name-top element.
This elements stays where is is and is not displaced.
The clip-path property is used to clip the text to the lower 60% and hide the rest.

As you can see, there are still some remaining issues.

Styling Issues

1. Avoid Clipped Areas For Italic Font Style

I needed to extend the clipping area to the right by adding -5% to the clip-path. Otherwise, some part of the text gets clipped away when using italic font style.

.logo__name-top {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0.05em;
    clip-path: inset(0% -5% 40% 0%);
}
.logo__name-bottom {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    clip-path: inset(60% -5% 0% 0%);
}

2. Parent Element Does Not Use Any Space

Since the child elements are using absolute positioning, they are out of the flow. Therefore, the parent element .logo__linkdoes not take any space and makes positioning the element difficult. You can manually position the parent element but when you change the logo text or size, you would need to manually update the positon of the parent element which is not sustainable.

Therefore, I added a "pseudo" child element in HTML with class .logo__name-pseudo containing the same text in the same style and size which is hidden just to reserve space for the clipped elements. Now the element reains in the flow.

.logo__name-pseudo {
    visibility: hidden;
}

3. Remove Thin Line Between Displaced Elements

There remains a thin line between the 2 elements and I couldn't figure out the reason. Eventually, it is a rendering issue. It depends also on the logo size. Sometimes it appears and sometimes not. I decided to extend the upper clip area and clip away just 39% instead of 40% of the bottom part. Therefore, the logos slightly overlap and the line is removed. If you have a better solution, let me know in the comments.

.logo__name-top {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0.05em;
    clip-path: inset(0% -5% 39% 0%);
}

Here is the final code on CodePen. Feel free to use.

Originally published on March 13th, 2025 on Philip's Notes.