Google Forums Scraper

Find public discussion threads and questions in Google Search’s Discussions and forums results. Each dataset record represents one thread and includes its title, source community, visible search-result details, engagement information, and dates. Optional thread details can add publicly available post content, answers, comments, and media.

Use the Actor for topic research, support analysis, or content discovery. It reads public pages only and does not sign in or bypass access checks.

How to use

1. Enter a topic or question in queries, or provide a Google Search URL in startUrls.
2. Set the page and result limits.
3. Enable includeThreadDetails if you want additional public information from selected threads.
4. Run the Actor and review the discussion records in the dataset.

Example:

{
  "queries": ["best mechanical keyboard"],
  "maxItems": 25,
  "maxPages": 5,
  "includeThreadDetails": true,
  "maxDetailItems": 5
}

Input

Input	Description	Default
queries	Topics or questions to search. query accepts one phrase.	—
startUrls	Public Google Search URLs containing a q search phrase. The forums filter is applied automatically.	—
page / maxPages	Starting Google result page and maximum pages to inspect per query.	1 / 5
maxItems	Maximum discussion records across the run.	25
renderJavaScript	Render the public search page in a browser.	true
includeThreadDetails	Visit selected public discussion pages for post, answer, comment, and media details.	false
maxDetailItems	Maximum discussion pages to visit when details are enabled.	1
proxyConfiguration	Optional Apify Proxy configuration for public pages.	—

Output

Each dataset record requires discussionId and can include:

• Thread identity: title, source URL, canonical URL, platform, and community information.
• Author and content: public author name and profile, flair, search-result excerpt, full post text and HTML, topic tags, and language.
• Answers and comments: question and answer indicators, featured or suggested answers, answer counts, and comments when thread details are enabled.
• Engagement: comment, answer, post, and vote counts with the source’s display text. Rounded counts are marked approximate, and plus-suffixed counts remain lower bounds.
• Dates and media: displayed publication and update dates, image or video links, and media counts when available.

Search snippets may not contain the full thread. Relative dates are kept as displayed unless the linked public thread supplies an explicit date. Unknown question, answer, or archive status is left unspecified. A missing answer or thread from the search page is not evidence that it does not exist.

Example dataset item:

{
  "discussionId": "example-thread-1",
  "title": "Example discussion about mechanical keyboards",
  "href": "https://www.reddit.com/r/example/comments/example-thread-1/",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/example/comments/example-thread-1/",
  "platform": "Reddit",
  "platformDomain": "reddit.com",
  "communityName": "r/example",
  "authorName": "Example contributor",
  "publishedAtText": "2 days ago",
  "commentCount": 42,
  "commentCountText": "42 comments",
  "commentCountIsLowerBound": false,
  "searchResultSnippet": "A short excerpt visible in the search result."
}

The Output tab shows the available result fields. The Actor’s Output tab provides the dataset and run summary.

Limits and responsible use

Results depend on what Google Search and the linked public forum pages display. Thread detail collection is bounded by maxDetailItems and may increase run time. Use public discussion information responsibly and follow applicable privacy requirements and the terms of Google and the source communities. This Actor is not affiliated with Google.