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Any webservice to search store hours
3 points by khichi 5435 days ago
Is there any webservice for searching w.r.t. store hours? For example, if I need ice-cream at midnight, only those stores around me should be listed which are open at this time! How difficult will be to build it?
2 comments

I haven't researched this topic at all, but gut-feeling: it will be very hard. Here are the three scenarios:

1). A central listing of business exists that can be crawled for service/product, location and opening hours information.

2). All local stores have sites that can be crawled for the information directly.

3). Only a small number of stores have that information online and would would have to get that information from the "manually".

I don't know about case 1, case 2 is a no-brainer (not all stores have websites) and for case 3: I think it would be a nightmare. Even if you do get this information initially you must make sure it is constantly up to date, etc. You must make sure all stores exist and offer what you say they offer, etc...

The moment I get out of my apartment at 2am and find out I just walked four blocks and the stores doesn't exist anymore, I will no longer use your service.

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