Data Miner Alternative for Local Lead Generation

Hello, you're not illiterate – you've read the title! In this comprehensive Google Maps scraper comparison, we're going to find out which of these two web scraping tools is the best for extracting data from Google Maps. How do they work? What data can you extract? Can we scrape at a large scale?

Today we're comparing Data Miner and Scrap.io – two powerful Google Maps data extraction tools – to determine the ultimate Google Maps scraping champion.

Table of Contents

1. Google Maps Scraping Tools: Understanding the Fundamental Differences
2. What Data Can We Extract? Live Demo
3. Data Miner in Action: The Complex Reality
4. Scrap.io: The Streamlined Approach
5. The Google Maps Data Goldmine
6. Large Scale Scraping Comparison
7. Final Verdict
8. Frequently Asked Questions

Google Maps Scraping Tools: Understanding the Fundamental Differences

Let's start with the basics – how do Data Miner and Scrap.io actually work? We can notice three main differences that set these tools apart completely.

The first difference is about their core nature. Data Miner is a Chrome extension, meaning the tool interacts directly on your browser, while Scrap.io is a SaaS – it's an online tool where data are scraped on the cloud. This fundamental difference affects everything about how you'll use these tools.

The second difference is linked with their promises, and what I like to do personally is taking a look at their websites and their landing pages. For Data Miner, we can read: "Data Miner is the most powerful web scraping tool for professional data miners." Whoa, whoa, whoa – slow down, boy! And for Scrap.io: "Google Maps leads generator."

More seriously, about Data Miner, I think they're saying that it's the most powerful web scraping tool because, as we have said, it interacts directly on your browser, which can have some advantages. But really, the most powerful web scraping tool? We'll put that claim to the test.

So you have understood it – Data Miner is useful for web scraping websites overall, day-to-day websites if we can call them that, while Scrap.io's purpose is to extract business data from Google Maps and only Google Maps. To sum up: Data Miner is a generalist web scraping tool, and Scrap.io is a specialist Google Maps extractor.

The last difference is related to entry barriers – meaning how easily Mr. Joe can use the tool. What's important to understand is that if you are using Data Miner, you build your own scraper, you build your own crawler. On one hand, you are more flexible, but on the other hand, if there is a problem, you are on your own.

For Scrap.io, the scraper, the crawler is already at your disposal. All that remains to do on your part is making your request or your requests. In other words, it's easier because you have zero setup.

What Data Can We Extract? Live Demo of Google Maps Scraping Tools

Now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to answer our second question: what data can we extract with both tools? It's time to make a quick demo.

Let's start with Data Miner. It's a Chrome extension, so I add it to Chrome – boom, extension is ready. As we have said, with Data Miner we have to create our own scraper. So what I've done is that I made a simple Google Maps search. I was looking for restaurants near Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Once I have my request, I can simply turn on Data Miner, click and make a new recipe for this page, and it will help me to scrape the data I want. But because there is always a "but" somewhere, there is a problem – and believe me, it's a real problem.

The problem is that with Data Miner, we can't scrape Google Maps in one go. We have to divide our task into two steps. The first one is we have to retrieve all the Google Maps URLs – meaning the URLs of the Google Maps cards. So we should end up with something like this, right? And we have to do that with all 120 restaurants in Nashville.

Why 120 results? It's because of the Google Maps limits. No matter how big your request is, you cannot exceed the limit of 120 results. Don't hate the players, hate the game!

So we have to scroll down to the bottom of the page until we reach the end of the list, and then we can retrieve the URLs. We can do that with Data Miner, of course, but in my opinion, it's not the easiest way of doing it. So maybe for the purpose of this video, I'm going to use another web scraping tool which is called Instant Data Scraper.

Once we have access to the URLs, we can use Data Miner. Here's an example: I'm making a recipe, and let's say we are going to scrape three data points just for the sake of the example. In overall, let's just say that you are able to extract any data on that page.

For the title, I can click on easy selector finder, do something like this, click on confirm, and I will have access to my data. Or I can do a similar way by writing a CSS selector. So if I want to extract the phone number, let's say I type "phone," and within the advanced settings, I can type my selector.

I've written it on paper because I couldn't copy and paste it – what a dumbass! The selector looks like this: button with aria-label equal to phone, and then we get the phone number. Let's create one last column for website. We replace "phone" by "website," and it's not a button, it's an "a" element, and we have access to the website.

Obviously, this is not the end of our work because we have done the process for one Google Maps card, but we want to replicate the same process for all 64 URLs. So what I have to do is turn on Data Miner one more time. I click on "scrape this page" and we have to jump into the crawl scrape tab.

I type my URLs – let's pick up 10 of them. I paste my URLs, click on "check URLs are valid" – cool! Recipe: my recipes, gmaps. I have a preview, the preview looks good. Next step: 5 seconds before scraping, 5 seconds after scraping. Everything is good, I can click and start crawling.

It's going to take a bit of time because, as we have said it twice already, but let's say it a third time: Data Miner interacts on our browser. Here it is – I'm not touching anything, and each time it will visit the next URL. At the end of the day, we have 10 data rows.

So does it work? Absolutely. Is there an easier way of doing it? Absolutely, and it's here that comes Scrap.io.

Once you have logged in, I can have access to my dashboard, and within that tab, we can make any request we want. Each request is based on a category, an activity, and on Google Maps there are more than 4,000 different activities.

So if I pick the very same one – restaurant – I can perfectly do that because restaurant is a valid category. The remaining four criteria are location criteria: country, level one division, level two division, and city.

For the country, it makes sense – I can change it from France to United States. Level one division refers to the state, and level two division refers to a county. We have called them this way because the words "state" and "county" are not universal names.

So I can specify Tennessee, I can specify a level two division if I want to, but I don't have to. I can directly type Nashville and click search. It's as simple as that, and I'm about to retrieve 1,600 results!

But I can do more – I can filter my results beforehand. Essential filters, advanced filters – for example, that's just an example – filters that can make sense can be: closed permanently: no, so opened restaurants with a website or an email address, and establishments which have created an account on Google Business Profile.

So yes, if I click on filter, I will have an updated database. Please note that this number actually is a preview because once I'm clicking on export, Scrap.io is going to re-extract in order to make sure that you have access to the most updated database possible.

Let's do that. If I click on export, I can give an export name and set up an exported lines limit if I want to. All that remains to do is to click on export. Once it is done, you have to wait for a little bit – it obviously depends on how many data rows you are about to retrieve.

What's important to remember is that within your "My Exports" tab, you can see all the exports you have done so far. For each and every one of your requests, you can download them in a CSV or Excel file.

The Google Maps Data Goldmine: What You Actually Get

Let's take a look at what we have, shall we? Google ID, name, description, main type, all types, website, phone number, full address, street one, street two, postal code, state, level division, country, country code, longitude, latitude, link, owner name, Place ID, email – it's good!

Social media links, first in on price range, reviews, reviews rating, review press core, photos, scan photo 1, photo 2, occupancy, is claimed, working hours, characteristics, SEO-related data if the company has a website, of course: website title, keywords, meta description, meta image, meta generator, additional email addresses, same thing for contact pages, same thing for social media links, and we end up with website technologies and website ad pixels.

The Scale Question: Can We Extract Data at a Large Scale?

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to answer our final question: can we extract data at a large scale? But what does large scale mean? Well, let's say can we scrape data at the scale of a country, of an entire country?

Let's start with Data Miner. Can we do that? Yes, technically it's possible. The main problem lies within the execution time – it's going to take an insane amount of time, an insane amount of time, mainly because of the 120 results limit we have talked about previously.

The good news is that on Scrap.io, we don't have such limitations, and we had the opportunity to check that out ourselves when we were about to retrieve the 1,600 restaurants in Nashville.

As you can see right now, usually I'm only doing demo extractions, but sometimes I had to make larger extractions, and I was perfectly able to do that. I could have extracted 100,000 data rows, sometimes 200,000 data rows, and it worked just fine because the point is that it works just as flawlessly for extensive extractions as it does for smaller ones.

The Verdict: Which Google Maps Scraper Wins?

So, what's the final verdict in this Data Miner vs Scrap.io showdown for the best Google Maps scraping tool?

While Data Miner allows flexibility with its custom scraper approach, its manual setup and limitations – especially that 120 results per query restriction – make large-scale data extraction incredibly time-consuming. You're essentially building everything from scratch, which means you're on your own when problems arise.

Scrap.io, on the other hand, offers an automated, high-scale solution with advanced filters and instant exports. Founded in 2021, Scrap.io has been specifically designed for Google Maps lead generation, which means it excels at this one task rather than being mediocre at many. The platform has indexed over 200 million establishments and can process 5,000 queries per minute, making it the only solution that allows extracting all Google Maps listings for an entire country in just two clicks without code.

Additionally, Scrap.io offers a completely free Chrome extension called Maps Connect that displays emails and social media profiles directly on Google Maps, allowing you to gather contact information with just one click while browsing. This can be a great way to test their data quality before committing to larger extractions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, scraping publicly available data from Google Maps is generally legal, but you should always respect Google's Terms of Service and local regulations. Both Data Miner and Scrap.io operate within legal boundaries by extracting only publicly visible information.

Both tools offer free options with limitations. Data Miner is a free Chrome extension but requires manual setup and is limited to 120 results per query. Scrap.io offers a free trial with 200 leads, making it easier to test before committing to a paid plan.

The main difference is specialization: Data Miner is a general-purpose web scraping tool that can work with any website, while Scrap.io is specifically designed for Google Maps data extraction. Scrap.io offers a more streamlined, automated experience for Google Maps scraping.

Scrap.io is superior for large-scale operations. While Data Miner is limited to 120 results per query and requires manual processing, Scrap.io can extract thousands of business records in a single automated operation, making it ideal for comprehensive lead generation campaigns.

With Data Miner, you're limited to 120 results per Google Maps search due to Google's interface restrictions. Scrap.io can extract much larger datasets without issues.

Data Miner requires some technical knowledge to build custom scrapers and write CSS selectors. Scrap.io is designed to be user-friendly with no coding required – you simply select your criteria and export the data.

Both tools can extract business names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, and basic Google Maps information. Scrap.io goes further by providing additional data like social media profiles, email addresses, reviews, ratings, photos, working hours, and even website technologies when available.

If you're doing serious lead generation or business research, Scrap.io's automation, scale capabilities, and time savings often justify the cost. For occasional small-scale scraping, Data Miner's free tier might suffice, but be prepared for significant manual work and limitations.