My Google Maps Pro

Google Maps Pro Scraper

Advanced Google Maps scraper built with Playwright and Apify SDK. This Actor scrapes Google Maps place data with the following features:

• ✅ Proxy Rotation - Uses Apify residential proxies for scaling and avoiding blocks
• ✅ CAPTCHA Solving - Automatic CAPTCHA detection and solving integration
• ✅ Review Extraction - Scrolls through and extracts all reviews with ratings and responses
• ✅ Photo Downloads - Downloads and stores place photos
• ✅ Contact Extraction - Extracts emails and social media links from business websites

⚠️ Important Requirements

Apify Proxies Required

Google Maps blocks datacenter IPs. This actor requires Apify residential proxies to function properly:

• ❌ Will NOT work on free tier without proxies (timeouts, blocks)
• ✅ Requires paid Apify plan with residential proxy access
• 💰 Cost: ~$0.50-$1 per 1,000 places scraped (proxy usage)

Without proxies you will see:

• net::ERR_TIMED_OUT errors
• CAPTCHA challenges
• Zero results

Memory Requirements

• Minimum: 2GB RAM (4GB recommended)
• Free tier (1GB): Will experience memory overload and timeouts
• Concurrency: 1-2 for 2GB, 3-5 for 4GB+

Features

Proxy Rotation

• Automatic proxy rotation using Apify residential proxies
• Configurable proxy groups and country-specific proxies
• Essential for scaling and avoiding IP blocks

CAPTCHA Solving

• Automatic reCAPTCHA v2/v3 detection
• Integration with Apify Anti-Captcha Actor
• Retry logic for failed CAPTCHA solving

Review Extraction

• Automatic scrolling through all reviews
• Expands "More" buttons to get full review text
• Extracts ratings, authors, dates, and owner responses

Photo Downloads

• Extracts photo URLs from place pages
• Downloads and stores photos in key-value store
• Supports high-resolution photo extraction

Contact Information

• Extracts email addresses from business websites
• Finds social media links (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Extracts phone numbers

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 16+ installed
• Apify CLI installed: npm install -g apify-cli
• Apify account (for proxy access and deployment)

Installation

1. Install dependencies:

$npm install

2. Configure your input in storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json:

{
	"searches": [
		{
			"query": "restaurants",
			"location": "New York, NY"
		}
	],
	"maxPlaces": 10,
	"includeReviews": true,
	"maxReviews": 20,
	"downloadPhotos": false,
	"extractContactInfo": false,
	"proxyConfiguration": {
		"useApifyProxy": true,
		"apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
	},
	"captchaConfiguration": {
		"antiCaptchaApiKey": "your-api-key-here",
		"maxRetries": 3
	}
}

Running Locally

Option 1: Using Apify CLI (Recommended)

$apify run

Option 2: Using npm start

$npm start

The scraper will:

1. Read input from storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json
2. Scrape Google Maps based on your search queries
3. Save results to storage/datasets/default/

Input Configuration

Field	Type	Description	Default
searches	Array	List of search queries with location	Required
maxPlaces	Number	Maximum places to scrape per search	100
includeReviews	Boolean	Extract reviews for each place	true
maxReviews	Number	Maximum reviews per place	50
downloadPhotos	Boolean	Download and store photos	false
extractContactInfo	Boolean	Extract emails/social from websites	false
proxyConfiguration	Object	Proxy settings (use Apify proxy editor)	See below
proxyConfiguration.useApifyProxy	Boolean	Use Apify residential proxies	true
proxyConfiguration.apifyProxyGroups	Array	Proxy groups (e.g., ["RESIDENTIAL"])	["RESIDENTIAL"]
proxyConfiguration.apifyProxyCountry	String	ISO country code (e.g., "US")	Optional
captchaConfiguration.antiCaptchaApiKey	String	Anti-Captcha API key	Optional
captchaConfiguration.maxRetries	Number	Maximum CAPTCHA retry attempts	3
maxConcurrency	Number	Maximum concurrent pages (1-10)	5
navigationTimeoutSecs	Number	Page navigation timeout in seconds	120
requestHandlerTimeoutSecs	Number	Request handler timeout in seconds	300

Running Tests

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch

# Run tests with coverage
npm run test:coverage

Output

The scraper outputs data to the default dataset with the following structure. The dataset schema provides 5 different views in the Apify Console for easy data exploration:

Dataset Views

1. Overview - Basic place information (name, address, phone, rating, website)
2. Detailed View - Complete information including GPS coordinates and timestamps
3. With Reviews - Places with their full review data
4. Contact Information - Places with extracted contact details from websites
5. Export (All Fields) - All available data for complete export

Output Structure

{
	"title": "Place Name",
	"address": "123 Main St, City, State",
	"phone": "+1 555-1234",
	"website": "https://example.com",
	"rating": "4.5",
	"gps": {
		"lat": 40.7128,
		"lng": -74.0060
	},
	"url": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/...",
	"scrapedAt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
	"reviews": [
		{
			"author": "John Doe",
			"rating": 5,
			"text": "Great place!",
			"date": "2 weeks ago",
			"response": {
				"owner": "Business Owner",
				"text": "Thank you!",
				"date": "2 weeks ago"
			}
		}
	],
	"photos": [
		{
			"key": "photo-place-id-0",
			"url": "https://...",
			"thumbnail": "https://...",
			"alt": "Place photo"
		}
	],
	"contactInfo": {
		"emails": ["info@example.com"],
		"socialMedia": {
			"facebook": "https://facebook.com/...",
			"instagram": "https://instagram.com/..."
		},
		"phoneNumbers": ["+1 555-1234"]
	}
}

Deploy to Apify

Prerequisites

1. Log in to Apify (you'll need your Apify API Token):

$apify login

Deploy

Deploy your Actor to the Apify Platform:

$apify push

Your Actor will be available at Actors -> My Actors.

Communicate with Deployed Actor

After deployment, you can interact with your Actor via the Apify API:

Check Actor Status

# Set your credentials
$env:APIFY_TOKEN="your_api_token"
$env:APIFY_USERNAME="your_username"

# Check if Actor is deployed
node check-actor-status.js

Test the Actor

# Run a test scrape
node test-actor-api.js

See DEPLOYMENT_GUIDE.md for complete deployment and API communication instructions.

Connect Git Repository (Optional)

1. Go to Actor creation page
2. Click on Link Git Repository button
3. Connect your GitHub/GitLab repository

Resources

• Apify SDK for JavaScript documentation
• Crawlee + Apify Platform guide
• PlaywrightCrawler documentation
• Apify Platform documentation
• Join our developer community on Discord