Ask HN: How do I get a database of businesses for my niche online directory?

[hisyam]

A few months ago I worked on a niche online directory and I just finished coding it. However, launching a directory without any businesses listed isn't very useful. Does anybody know where can I get or purchase a database of companies info like emails or telephone?

Also, could you recommend a CRM that tracks the emails that you've sent?

[codegeek]

You might want to check out Google Places API ? I am not sure if your business type is supported but you can see that here:

https://developers.google.com/places/documentation/supported...

[hisyam → codegeek]

I don't see email attribute in the Place Details https://developers.google.com/places/documentation/details

[codegeek → hisyam]

I see that in the detailed results, it has formatted phone number.

    formatted_phone_number contains the Place's phone number in its local format. For example, the formatted_phone_number for Google's Sydney, Australia office is (02) 9374 4000.

[aioprisan]

Apple Maps uses Acxiom, Factual, Localeze, and TomTom for small business listing. They have APIs and you can start querying their resources to build a database out for your local area.

[hisyam → aioprisan]

Thanks, they look pretty good.

[orangethirty]

Go offline, meaning that you should loo into non-web resources for this data. There are a lot of viable options, though all require you to input the data by hand.

[hisyam → orangethirty]

Do you have any examples?

[orangethirty → hisyam]

Use the phonebook, or better yet, scrape it.

[actionbrandon]

reference usa