Is there a GitHub project (in Python) or anything that I can use to query Google Maps places in cities automatically? To get the list if URLs of such places?
I cannot use a Google API. Is there any other automatic solution?
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If you want to query Google Maps, then you must use the Google API, at some point or another.Alejandro– Alejandro2022-03-03 12:00:57 +00:00Commented Mar 3, 2022 at 12:00
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But I can go, open a browser, move around... all WITHOUT the google API. Only requests (GET and POST). No impossible API Key requiredalex– alex2022-03-03 12:08:34 +00:00Commented Mar 3, 2022 at 12:08
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1 Answer
You could theoretically use an RPA tool for this. There is an python specific project hosted on github available on https://github.com/tebelorg/RPA-Python
And as you can see it is fairly easy to open a browser, type an address and read a tag from the result page:
import rpa as r
r.init()
r.url('https://maps.google.com/maps?q=your_query')
# voluntary step to search through the site
r.type('searchboxinput', 'your_query[enter]')
result = r.read('this_will_be_challenge')
r.close()
# now you have to parse your result to format it to desired shape
However if you manage to write that code (you may get to that point that you manage to parse results from your search) and create some list of desired items, there still comes the point, that google has pretty tough anti-robot protection, which you cannot overcome with RPA. You could step in at this point and solve the puzzle by your own (usually picture clicking challenge), but this just breaks your automation dream. Anyway there are ways you could also partially solve this one by making things like random waits and other similar things that live persons do, but it is not worth the effort.
There are also other mapping services that can be automated (with RPA) more easily like https://www.openstreetmap.org/ but as far as I know most of them still require an API to interact programmatically, though OSM is definitely better for RPA as tags across site are more open for parsing.
