Looking at a neighborhood one listing at a time makes it hard to compare nearby businesses. In this hands-on example, we’ll use a Tobub Skill to collect Google Maps shop listings around a location, then sort and review the results as a small local market dataset.
This tutorial is for learning and technical discussion. Use it with public listings and respect Google Maps’ terms and applicable privacy rules.
Set the search area
Import GoogleMapStoreCollectorV2.skill.json into Tobub. The Skill accepts an address or coordinates, a target number of businesses, and a maximum radius.
Example:
Location: Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA
Target store count: 20
Maximum search radius: 5 km
Coordinates work too:
47.6096619,-122.342241
What the Skill does
It resolves the input to a map center, searches nearby shop listings, and expands across overlapping map areas until it reaches the requested count or search limit. It deduplicates businesses by Place ID and sorts matches by distance from the starting point.
A few key settings:
const locationInput = String(tobub.params.location ?? '').trim();
const requestedLimit = Number(tobub.params.limit ?? 20);
const MAX_SEARCH_RADIUS_KM = Number(tobub.params.max_radius_km ?? 5);
The Skill reads information from visible result cards and excludes sponsored listings. It can return the business name and category, rating, review count, address, phone, hours, description, coordinates, distance, and Google Maps URL. Some fields may be empty when they aren’t shown in a result.
Explore the results
The collected data can help compare business density, categories, ratings, and locations within a chosen area. For example, you could use it to build a neighborhood overview or identify areas for further market research.
The result feed is ranked by Google Maps, so it may not include every business in the area. Treat the output as a research starting point, not a complete directory.
Run it with Tobub
Tobub is a permanently free, local browser automation harness. Import the Skill, enter the location and search settings, then run it to save the results locally.
Get Tobub here: https://github.com/pow505/tobub
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