Thank you for choosing Web Contact Scraper! This file will help you to get started with the software.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Web Contact Scraper can run successfully on Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8+ / Windows 10+ and Windows Server Versions of these operating systems.


1. INSTALLATION
a) No installation is required. Simply unzip the software, open the "Web Contact Scraper" directory and Launch "WebContactScraper.exe"!


2. LICENCE INFORMATION
a) The software will not ask for a licence until you are ready to perform your first scrape. If you do not have a software licence, you may purchase a licence from the official website at: http://ginkosolutions.com/web-contact-scraper/

b) Once the licencing server has authenticated you, you will be able to perform all of the features within the application. You will not have to repeat this step again for the duration of your licence.

c) Each licence supports up to TWO physical computer systems by default (This is tied to a combination of the Motherboard and CPU). You can request an increase in your physical allowance at a cost of $10 per extra machine. Such request can be made using the contact form on the official website: http://ginkosolutions.com/web-contact-scraper/

d) This is a lifetime licence with one year of free software updates. After the first year, your licence will not allow you to run later versions of the software (Any software version which was released AFTER the first year the licence was purchased). However, you can continue to run ANY software release which was released within the first year of your licence purchase indefinitely. If your software update ability has expired, then you may purchase a new licence from the official website at: http://ginkosolutions.com/web-contact-scraper/ (Any additional machine allowances will remain in tact upon renewing a licence).


3. OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
a) Select a service you would like to scrape by selecting a tab page. I.e. Yellow Pages, Yelp, Misc etc.

b) Enter a Search Term (I.e. "Lawyer" or "Doctor").... You can also include multiple terms by separating them with a pound/hash symbol (I.e. Lawyer#Doctor#Dentist)

c) Enter a Location (I.e. "Ohio" or "New York").... You can also include multiple locations by separating them with a pound/hash symbol (I.e. New York#Las Vegas, NV#Florida#Dallas, TX). If left blank, the entire country will be searched.

d) Select a country to search.

e) Click the "Scrape!" button to begin gathering contact information. The results will appear in the results field provided (You can configure the application to export the results to a file, rather than the application window. This can be configured within the Settings tab). Please note that all businesses may not agree to include their email address, phone number or any other contact information for the selected service. This program will extract all business information which IS listed on the website for the selected service.

f) [OPTIONAL] Export to CSV. Once the scraping has completed, you may wish to export the results to a CSV file. You can do this by selecting "File > Export Results to CSV" from the top menu. If you are already logging your results to a file, then this part may not be required.

g) [OPTIONAL] Partial Searches. If you begin a search operation and decide to cancel or stop it prematurely, then this partial search is stored by the software automatically. You can recall up to 10 previous partial searches from the Partial Searches menu!

h) [OPTIONAL] Data Options. You can use this menu option to remove duplicate and empty information from the search results. It is recommended you export directly to CSV on the fly (Settings tab > Data Output) for better performance and use specialist spreadsheet software such as Excel for data manipulation.


4. WHITEPAGES INFORMATION

This software can also search Whitepages for personal information. As a general rule, Whitepages does not list E-Mail addresses. It is an online personal directory for residents only (Not businesses).

a) [OPTIONAL] Age Range Filters. The Age Range Filter option is unique to Whitepages searches only. It allows you to filter the results based on the age of the audience you are attempting to scrape. When an Age Range has been set, then any users without an age (unknown age) will not appear in the results. To scrape all people listed on Whitepages, you can either: leave these fields empty or leave them set at their default values (18 and 65 respectively).


5. SETTINGS
a) Use Proxy - The software allows you to optionally retrieve results via third party proxy servers. Simply check the Use Proxy check box and specify a list of proxy server IP Address and Port numbers. The format should be "Server:Port" (one per line)... For example: "125.12.3.56:8888" (Without quotes).
NOTE: We DO NOT supply proxy lists, you can find proxy lists by using your favourite search engine. Remember to test the proxy beforehand and to also test the proxy server against the relevant website you are scraping. I.e. Yellow Pages. (For Example, the proxy may be fine, but it may be blacklisted by Yellow Pages or Yelp for example - In which case, the proxy will not work for that directory).
You can also specify Proxy Rotation options. Public proxy lists are inherently unreliable, so setting up Proxy Rotation is paramount! When a proxy server fails to connect, the Proxy Rotation method determines which proxy server is next in line.

b) Data Output - You can either output your results to the application window or a logfile. If you wish to leave this application running for long periods of time, then choosing to output your data to a logfile would be a better option. When dealing with large amounts of data, the application may begin to decrease in performance when data is output to the application window. When "Output to Logfile" is selected, you must specify a directory where your results will be exported to. All results are exported automatically to a CSV file in this location (One CSV file per search).
When "Output to Logfile" is selected, you can also choose to split the logfile based on: Search Term, Search Area, both, or leave as a single logfile.

c) Partial Searching - You can choose to execute a complete search for a search term and location combination or a partial one. If you would like to scrape result pages 50 and onwards for Plumbers in New York, then you would set the "Search Page Index" field to 50. The Search Term Index and Search Area Index fields are used when searching for multiple terms and/or areas.
These fields are automatically populated when a search is manually stopped or an error occurs during the search process. These three fields are populated automatically by the search process. If you would like to resume this search, then simply check the "Execute a partial search" check box.
The Partial Searches menu option allows you to recall the last 10 searches were were not fully completed. Any completed searches will not be added to the Partial Search menu.


6. TIPS FOR BEST RESULTS
a) Exporting to CSV on the fly - This feature increases performance dramatically, especially with search large operations as the results window does not require constant updating and refreshing after each batch of results have been downloaded. You can utilize this feature by clicking the relevant Settings tab and setting the Data Output to "Output to Logfile". Every time a batch of results is downloaded, it will update the specified log file in the background.

b) Unexpected Results? - Online data directories such as Yellow Pages do not always behave how you would expect them to. This is a scraping tool, which means, it scrapes exactly what results are given via the standard website result pages (For Yellow Pages USA, the software would be scraping yellowpages.com). If your results do not look accurate, then perform the same search on the Yellow Pages website to see how your searches can improve. For example, when searching Yellow Pages USA for leads within "South Carolina", you may notice it tries to search a small town within this state instead. This is because Yellow Pages USA uses state codes (I.e. SC, OH, AL etc), not state names. Be smart about your searches.

c) Proxies are not working? - Proxy servers are not required to use this software. If you decide to use proxy lists, make sure they are good quality proxy servers. Most free lists have been used and abused many times. Do not forget, proxy servers are typically computers sitting in another location. They have an IP address and can become banned from online directories like Yellow Pages just like any other user can. ALWAYS check that your proxy works AGAINST the directories you are scraping from. The proxy server may work and connect fine, but Yellow Pages USA for example may have this proxy servers IP flagged. For good results, utilize a good strong list of proxy servers which have been tested to work against the directory to scrape. This software features a great algorithm for cycling through the proxy lists and ensuring they reach their full potential.


7. UPGRADING THE APPLICATION
Simply remove the old version of the software (all files) and replace with the new version. Easy!

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HELP AND SUPPORT

If you are experiencing any issues (Quite commonly these are permission based issues), then please visit the official website at: http://ginkosolutions.com/web-contact-scraper/ and use the contact from provided. We will aim to respond to your support request within 24 hours.

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This software is developed and owned by GinkoSolutions.com. This software requires a licence for experience the full feature set. If you wish to purchase a licence, please visit the official website at: http://ginkosolutions.com/web-contact-scraper/


