Google Places Lead Finder
A cost-aware app on the official Google Places API that finds local business, classifies web presence and exports a ready selection.
Context / task
Manually searching for businesses without a site takes time, and a naive API scheme — ID first, then a details request per place — sharply increases paid calls.
A controlled flow with a clear cost estimate and filters before export was needed.
What was done
A desktop GUI groups search queries by business type and city.
One Text Search request returns up to 20 places with the right field mask.
The app distinguishes a full website from a social/marketplace page, excludes known chains, scores a prospect by rating and review count, shows the result in a sortable table and saves a CSV.
Key capabilities
- official Google Places API (New)
- campaigns and keyword groups
- search across multiple cities
- website / social-only / no-website classification
- franchise and chain filters
- prospect scoring
- rating and review-count filters
- estimated request count up front
- background worker with stop capability
- sortable results
- jump to a place in Google Maps
- CSV export
- key from environment or memory
- optional portable encrypted key file with passphrase
Technical side
The case uses the official Places API (New), not scraping Google Maps HTML.
The app does not parse results and is not called a scraper.
Exact cost savings are not asserted without a current check of Google pricing.
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