# Starter DB's (general web app question) Where to get them?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starter-dbs-general-web-app-question-where-to-get-them/174050>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 20, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starter-dbs-general-web-app-question-where-to-get-them/174050 "2009-08-20T04:20:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brianp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/94ad74/32.png) [@brianp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brianp)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starter-dbs-general-web-app-question-where-to-get-them/174050/1 "2009-08-20T04:20:03Z")

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Hey,

I was wondering where people scrape information for the beginning of  
production db’s for particular things.

Like if I wanted to have a website related to cars. Someones isn’t  
actually entering in every vehicle type manually theres got to be a  
solid method of finding that data somewhere that you can transform  
into what you need?

Any hint/tricks for this?

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**Author:** ![brianp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/94ad74/32.png) [@brianp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brianp)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starter-dbs-general-web-app-question-where-to-get-them/174050/2 "2009-08-20T04:49:55Z")

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> I was wondering where people scrape information for the beginning of  
> production db’s for particular things.
> 
> Like if I wanted to have a website related to cars. Someones isn’t  
> actually entering in every vehicle type manually theres got to be a  
> solid method of finding that data somewhere that you can transform  
> into what you need?
> 
> Any hint/tricks for this?

Google.

[http://www.google.com/search?q=car+make+model+database](http://www.google.com/search?q=car+make+model+database)

Looks like there are a couple of companies that make this information  
available.

You might also find the government has basic information (census type  
stuff maybe), but most of the time you’re probably going to end up  
paying someone else for it.

-philip

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**Author:** ![brianp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/94ad74/32.png) [@brianp](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/brianp)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 8:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/starter-dbs-general-web-app-question-where-to-get-them/174050/3 "2009-08-20T08:53:58Z")

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On Aug 19, 7:28 pm, Philip H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Google.  
> -philip  
> Indeed, this is market research data and it is an industry unto  
> itself. The less detail you want, the cheaper it will be, and beyond  
> some level of detail you are getting into proprietary models which  
> typically require money, licensing, equity, or all three.

-eric

-eric