Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of curiouswebster
curiouswebsterFlag for United States of America

asked on

Any free email harvesting programs?

I wonder if there are any downloadable programs which can be used to gather a few email address from targeted audiences?

How do people do this short of buying some list?

thanks.
Avatar of ahoffmann
ahoffmann
Flag of Germany image

could you please explain what you mean by "targeted audiences"
Avatar of curiouswebster

ASKER

people who own restaurant franchises, for example.
and where should they gather?
in my database!

OK. How about a simpler example. I want email adresses to churches.

I have heard about harvesting programs.  That's what we're talking about, right?
> in my database!
hmm, either this answer is a joke, or you totally confuse me

if you want to gather information from your database, simply use your prefered tool to access the database and start a query there
I want to harvest names (email addresses) from the World Wide Web into my database.  There are programs out there that cost money and I posted this to see if there are are any free ones.  

Do you know of any?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Serena Hsi
Serena Hsi
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
You'll just have to compile your database the old fashioned way... through public domain sources.
cogitate4u,

I'm convinced.  Anything that even resembles SPAM is a very expensive proposition.

What do you mean by "public domain sources"?
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
No, I was asking a question. What he meant by "public domain sources"?  Does this mean the WWW?

I thought he said this was SPAM and not allowed.

with "your question" in my last post I meant your initial question, not any follow up comment
ok.
By public domain, I mean databases run by state, local, or federal government agencies that are made publicly available by the Freedom of Information act. All the usual laws about marketing still apply for usage in addition to whatever that agency's policy is on data usage.

Consider this:

Every business licensee, public/private school official, local/state/federal agency employee, etc., in the USA is tracked in a public database somewhere. Whether that information is web-available is entirely dependent upon the agency that manages that data. Most of that information is free to acquire and/or compile. You still need to be aware of who you contact because some people put FTC and other federal regulatory agency telephone numbers as their own contact number if their records are public. Other marketing types seed their databases with dummy data that tracks back to their company.

I haven't looked, but it would be safe to say that even religious organizations can be found on the Internet in a public database since they have to file with a federal agency (ya know, the IRS) their non-exempt tax status.

So, it depends on where to look that affects how you compile that database of yours.
Thanks.  Can you direct me to some public domain databases to satisfy my curiosity?  Or are these sold through businesses that sell names?