Hello, I'm developing a site that will feature a small Yellow Pages (just one metro area, but thousands of listings), and I'm wondering if there's a way to data mine another site's Yellow Pages? Yahoo Local, yellowpages.com, switchboard.com, doesn't matter... I don't have any $$$ to buy the info (doh!) so my options are to either find an automated way to get the data or do it the hard way - manually!

We're building with php and mysql database.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks

I have done this a lot of time, although i cant help you on this one as this actually cost $. IF you want you can look into php sockets.

I'm open to hearing about cheap options, too~ Even though I don't have money now, I may be able to get my hands on some if the cost isn't too high. Knocking over a 7-11 is probably even easier than it looks...!

Just create a socket to a page of your choice and whip away the text. You can then process it and grab the data to you liking.

Of course it would initially take some effort (like had inserting urls from which to grab the deata) but once you have a working prototype you will find it all falls into palce.

psuedo

create socket to url
read data from socket.
process data
save desired data

It should look for all intents and purposes like a normal html hit thus no body will come knocking on your door asking why you have nicked their articles etc. Of course they may be some questions as to why you replicated data without permision etc.

Let us know how it goes.

Ibbo