What's the easiest way to scrape residential phone numbers and names into .csv format?

Matching names to phone numbers and vice versa

• I tried your Google search engine to check names and phone numbers in the "phonebook" and reverse directory. Most of the time I came up with no record. However, when I entered my neighbors phone number I received his name and correct address. However, when I entered the exact same name as directed in the recent Post article (i.e "phonebook: name VA") it came up with nothing. Most of the numbers I checked in MD came up empty. What am I missing? Could some numbers be unlisted?

• Answer:

  Greetings, libra44! I found the article to which you are referring: "Yahoo Plays With Search And Syntax" by Leslie Walker, (April 10, 2003) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1192-2003Apr9.html I use the Google PhoneBook search all the time, but I have never seen the phonebook: prefix used on a telephone number or name search. Google has actually made it even easier than that. From Google Help Central's section on Web Search Features: ://www.google.com/help/features.html#wp "PhoneBook Google has added the convenience of US street address and phone number lookup to the information we provide through our search box. You'll see publicly listed phone numbers and addresses at the top of results pages for searches that contain specific kinds of keywords. To find listings for a US business, type the business name into the Google search box, along with the city and state. Or type the business name and zip code. Entering the phone number with area code will also return a complete business listing. To find listings for a US residence, type any of the following combinations into the Google search box: first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional) first name (or first initial), last name, state first name (or first initial), last name, area code first name (or first initial), last name, zip code phone number, including area code last name, city, state last name, zip code If your query results in business and residential listings, both categories will be listed for your convenience. To have your residential or business phone and address information removed from the Google PhoneBook, click here ( ://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html ). One really nice thing about entering a phone number in the Google Search box in the format "999-999-9999" is that any PhoneBook results will be returned, in addition to any webpages indexed by Google that contain that phone number (be sure to use the quotes to restrict your search to webpages with that exact phone number; otherwise, you will get web pages with any one of the three chunks of numbers on them). Try entering this search phrase, including the quotes, into Google's Search box and click "Google Search": "650-930-3500" ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=650-930-3500&btnG=Google+Search Then try entering this search phrase (no quotes necessary) into Google's Search box and click "Google Search": Google, Mountain View, CA ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Google%2C+Mountain+View%2C+CA&btnG=Google+Search Pretty nifty, huh? Certainly some of your neighbors' numbers may be unlisted, and if so, those names, addresses, and phone numbers will not be returned by these types of searches (nor will they show up in the Search Results if someone has requested that their listing and number be removed from Google's phone directory by using the Removal URL I listed above). My other favorite phone directories are: AT&T's Anywho: http://www.anywho.com Switchboard.com http://www.switchboard.com and ReversePhoneDirectory.com, which allows you to do reverse lookups by phone numbers on several different directories from a single webpage: http://www.reversephonedirectory.com Search Strategy Google phonebook site:Google.com ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Google+phonebook+site%3AGoogle.com&btnG=Google+Search Before Rating my Answer, if you have any questions about this information, please post a Request for Clarification. I hope that this Answer provides exactly the information that you needed! Regards, aceresearcher