Learn how to scrape Amazon reviews for free using ScrapeHero Cloud crawler. Scrape Review details from Amazon such as title, content, ASIN, date and more.
This article outlines a few methods to scrape Google Reviews data. This could effectively export Google reviews data to Excel or other formats for easier access and use.
There are three methods to scrape Google Reviews:
- Scraping google maps reviews in Python or JavaScript
- Using the ScrapeHero Cloud, Google Review Scraper, a no-code tool
- Using Google Reviews Scraper API by ScrapeHero Cloud
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Get Started for FreeBuilding a Google reviews scraper in Python/JavaScript to extract
In this section, we will guide you on how to scrape Google Reviews using either Python or JavaScript. We will utilize the browser automation framework called Playwright to emulate browser behavior in our code.
One of the key advantages of this approach is its ability to bypass common blocks often put in place to prevent scraping. However, familiarity with the Playwright API is necessary to use it effectively.
You could also use Python Requests, LXML, or Beautiful Soup to build a Google Maps scraper without using a browser or a browser automation library. But bypassing the anti scraping mechanisms put in place can be challenging and is beyond the scope of this article.
Here are the steps to scrape Google Maps data using Playwright:
Step 1: Choose either Python or JavaScript as your programming language.
Step 2: Install Playwright for your preferred language:
npm install playwright@latest
pip install playwright # to download the necessary browsers playwright install
Step 3: Write your code to emulate browser behavior and extract the desired data from Google Maps using the Playwright API. You can use the code provided below:
const { chromium } = require('playwright');
const fs = require('fs');
async function run() {
const browser = await chromium.launch({
headless: false
});
/* Custom variables */
const searchTerm = 'Burj Khalifa';
// Creating new context and page.
const context = await browser.newContext();
const page = await context.newPage();
// navigating to google.com
await page.goto('https://www.google.com/');
// Searching the search term
await page.getByRole('combobox', { name: 'Search' }).click();
await page.getByRole('combobox', { name: 'Search' }).type(searchTerm);
await page.getByRole('combobox', { name: 'Search' }).press('Enter');
// clicking the review button
await page.locator('xpath=(//a[@data-async-trigger="reviewDialog"])[1]').click();
let data = await extractData(page);
saveData(data);
// Closing the browser instance
await context.close();
await browser.close();
}
/**
* This function will extract the necessary data.
* @param {page} page the page object that the data to be scraped.
* @returns {[object]} The scraped data as object.
*/
async function extractData(page) {
let dataToSave = [];
// Necessary selectors.
const xpathAllReviews = '//div[@jscontroller="fIQYlf"]';
const xpathMoreButton = "//a[@class='review-more-link']";
const xpathTitle = "//div[@class='TSUbDb']/a";
const xpathRating = "//g-review-stars[@class='lTi8oc']/span";
const xpathReviews = '//span[@jscontroller="MZnM8e"]';
const allReviews = page.locator(xpathAllReviews);
const allReviewsCount = await allReviews.count();
for (var index= 0; index < allReviewsCount ; index++) {
const element = await allReviews.nth(index);
// Clicking more button if the review is shortened.
const moreBtn = element.locator(xpathMoreButton)
if(await moreBtn.count()>0) {
try {
await moreBtn.click();
await page.waitForTimeout(2500);
}
catch {}
}
// Scraping necessary data.
const title = await element.locator(xpathTitle).innerText();
const rating = await element.locator(xpathRating).getAttribute("aria-label")
const review = await element.locator(xpathReviews).innerText();
let rawDataToSave = {
"author_name": title,
"rating": rating,
"review": review
}
// Collecting to a list.
dataToSave.push(rawDataToSave)
}
return dataToSave;
}
/**
* This function used to save the data as json file.
* @param {[object]} data the data to be written as json file.
*/
function saveData(data) {
let dataStr = JSON.stringify(data, null, 2)
fs.writeFile("google_reviews.json", dataStr, 'utf8', function (err) {
if (err) {
console.log("An error occurred while writing JSON Object to File.");
return console.log(err);
}
console.log("JSON file has been saved.");
});
}
run();
import asyncio
import json
from playwright.async_api import Playwright, async_playwright
async def extract_data(page) -> list:
"""
Extracts the results information from the page
Args:
page: Playwright page object
Returns:
A list containing details of results as a dictionary. The dictionary
has title, review count, rating, address of various results
"""
review_box_xpath = '//div[@jscontroller="fIQYlf"] '
review_xpath = '//span[@data-expandable-section]'
secondary_review_xpath = '//span[@class="review-full-text"]'
author_xpath = '//div[@class="TSUbDb"]'
rating_xpath = '//g-review-stars/span'
await page.wait_for_selector(review_box_xpath)
review_box = page.locator(review_box_xpath)
data = []
for review_box_index in range(await review_box.count()):
result_elem = review_box.nth(review_box_index)
review = await result_elem.locator(review_xpath).inner_text()
review = review if review else await result_elem.locator(
secondary_review_xpath).inner_text()
author_name = await result_elem.locator(author_xpath).inner_text()
rating = await result_elem.locator(
rating_xpath).get_attribute('aria-label')
rating = rating.strip(', ') if rating else None
data.append({
'author_name': author_name,
'review': review,
'rating': rating
})
return data
async def run(playwright: Playwright) -> None:
"""
Main function which launches browser instance and performs browser
interactions
Args:
playwright: Playwright instance
"""
browser = await playwright.chromium.launch(
headless=False,
proxy={'server': 'proxy url'}
)
context = await browser.new_context()
# Open new page
page = await context.new_page()
# Go to https://www.google.com/
await page.goto("https://www.google.com/")
# Type search query
search_term = "burj khalifa"
await page.locator("[aria-label=\"Search\"]").type(search_term)
# Press enter to search in google
await page.keyboard.press('Enter')
# wait for review button
await page.locator(
'//a[@data-async-trigger="reviewDialog"]').first.wait_for(
timeout=10000)
# Click reviews button
await page.locator('//a[@data-async-trigger="reviewDialog"]').first.click()
# Initialize the number of pagination required
pagination_limit = 3
# Iterate to load reviews for mentioned number of pages
for page_number in range(pagination_limit):
await page.locator('//div[@class="review-dialog-list"]').hover()
await page.mouse.wheel(0, 100000)
page_number += 1
await page.wait_for_timeout(2000)
# Extract all displayed reviews
data = await extract_data(page)
# Save all extracted data as a JSON file
with open('google_reviews.json', 'w') as f:
json.dump(data, f, indent=2)
# ---------------------
await context.close()
await browser.close()
async def main() -> None:
async with async_playwright() as playwright:
await run(playwright)
asyncio.run(main())
This code shows how to scrape reviews of the Burj Khalifa from Google using the Playwright library in Python and JavaScript. The corresponding scripts have two main functions, namely:
- run function: This function takes a Playwright instance as an input and performs the scraping process. The function launches a Chromium browser instance, navigates to Google, fills in a search query, clicks the search button, and waits for the results to be displayed on the page. The extract_details function is then called to extract the review details and store the data in a google_reviews.json file.
- extract_data function: This function takes a Playwright page object as input and returns a list of dictionaries containing restaurant details. The details include each restaurant’s title, review count, rating, address, and phone.
Finally, the main function uses the async_playwright context manager to execute the run function. A JSON file containing the listings of the Google Maps script you just executed would be created.
Step 4: Run your code and collect the scraped data from Google Maps.
Disclaimer: The xpaths utilized in this tutorial may vary based on the location from which Google Maps is accessed. Google dynamically renders different xpaths for different regions. In this tutorial, the xpaths used were generated while accessing Google Maps from the United States.
Using No-Code Google Reviews Scraper by ScrapeHero Cloud
The Google Reviews Scraper by ScrapeHero Cloud is a convenient method for scraping reviews from Google. It provides an easy, no-code method for scraping data, making it accessible for individuals with limited technical skills.
This section will guide you through the steps to set up and use the Google Maps scraper.
- Sign up or log in to your ScrapeHero Cloud account.
- Go to the Google Reviews scraper by ScrapeHero Cloud in the marketplace.
- Add the scraper to your account. (Don’t forget to verify your email if you haven’t already.)
- You need to add the Google reviews url for a business or place to start the scraper. If it’s just a single query, enter it in the field provided and choose the number of pages to scrape.
a. You can get the Google review URL from the Google Maps search results page or the regular Google search page. - To scrape results for multiple queries, switch to Advance Mode, and in the Input tab, add the Google reviews’ URL to the SearchQuery field and save the settings.
- To start the scraper, click on the Gather Data button.
- The scraper will start fetching data for your queries, and you can track its progress under the Jobs tab.
- Once finished, you can view or download the data from the same.
- You can also export the Google Reviews data into an Excel spreadsheet from here. Click on the Download Data, select “Excel,” and open the downloaded file using Microsoft Excel.
Using Google Reviews Scraper API by ScrapeHero Cloud
The ScrapeHero Cloud Google Reviews API is an alternate tool for extracting reviews from Google. This user-friendly API enables those with minimal technical expertise to obtain user review data effortlessly from Google.
This section will walk you through the steps to configure and utilize the Google Reviews scraper API provided by ScrapeHero Cloud.
- Sign up or log in to your ScrapeHero Cloud account.
- Go to the Google Reviews scraper API by ScrapeHero Cloud in the marketplace.
- Click on the subscribe button.
- As this is a paid API, you must subscribe to one of the available plans to use the API.
- After subscribing to a plan, head over to the Documentation tab to get the necessary steps to integrate the API into your application.
Uses cases of Google Reviews Data
If you’re unsure as to why you should scrape Google reviews, here are a few use cases where this data would be helpful:Business Reputation Management
Business reputation management pertains to the approach in which organizations diligently monitor their corporate standing and meticulously analyze customers’ perceptions regarding the products and services they provide. In this context, they engage in comprehensive review analysis, enabling them to garner profound insights into their operational performance and customer satisfaction levels.Competitor Analysis
Businesses can use review data of competitors to gain a holistic understanding of the competitive landscape, which, in turn, can inform their strategic direction.Product Development
Leveraging review data of products or services enables businesses to strategically focus on key areas of their offerings, thereby optimally satisfying customer requirements. This meticulous approach significantly aids in the tailored refinement of products, ensuring they meet the dynamic needs of the market.Marketing
Utilizing review data significantly aids organizations in crafting enhanced marketing strategies, thereby ensuring more precise targeting of their desired audience. This empirical approach paves the way for data-driven marketing, optimizing reach and resonance with potential customers.Customer Insights
Through review data, organizations can acquire valuable insights into customers’ usage and satisfaction levels of their products/services. This information is instrumental in assessing the degree to which they successfully meet customer needs.Read More: How to Scrape Google Without Coding
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Frequently Asked Questions
Google reviews scraping refers to extracting customer feedback from the Google Knowledge Panel associated with a specific business or locale. This process allows for the systematic collection of public sentiment displayed on this prominent online platform.
To know more about the pricing, visit the pricing page.
Legality depends on the legal jurisdiction, i.e., laws specific to the country and the locality. Gathering or scraping publicly available information is not illegal.
Generally, Web scraping is legal if you are scraping publicly available data.
Please refer to our Legal Page to learn more about the legality of web scraping.
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Posted in: ScrapeHero Cloud, Web Scraping Tutorials
Published On: June 23, 2023