Wextractor started as a side project in 2019 when I was still working as a software developer for a U.S. company. (I was born and live in Argentina.) Initially, I wanted to create an API to search for places on Google Maps, but my first customer needed to extract reviews instead—that’s how the Reviews API was born. As more users signed up, they requested additional integrations, so I started adding them on demand.
While working at my previous job, Wextractor continued to grow. Last year, I decided to quit and dedicate myself fully to Wextractor—and potentially other ventures in the future.
Now it’s time to refine the product and make it more accessible for everyone. I’m incredibly grateful to all the customers who have supported me and for the great relationships I’ve built along the way.
Here are the planned product updates for Wextractor in 2025:
1. Improved User Experience for Non-Programmers (and Programmers Too!)
Currently, the product is not very user-friendly for non-technical people who don’t know how to use an API.
The plan is to introduce a visual interface that will allow users to export reviews into Excel and potentially other formats and integrations.
Sometimes, people just need to export reviews quickly, and writing code isn’t the most convenient option.
2. Standardized and Simplified Reviews API
Right now, each platform (Google, Facebook, etc.) has its own API endpoint. The goal is to consolidate them into a single endpoint that:
- Accepts the full URL of the entity instead of just an ID, making it more intuitive.
- Handles pagination in a consistent manner.
- Provides standardized output fields.
- Includes standardized and well-documented error codes.
If you’re using the v1 API, don’t worry—we’ll continue maintaining it, so you won’t be forced to upgrade.
3. Async API to Retrieve All Reviews in a Single Call
Currently, Wextractor’s Reviews API is stateless: you pass parameters to request a specific page and manage the update logic yourself. If you need to regularly update reviews for a place, you must store them in a database and poll our API for new ones.
This works, but many customers need a way to retrieve all reviews for an entity with a single API call.
With the new async API, you’ll be able to:
- Call the API with a URL, start date, end date, and a webhook URL.
- Wextractor will start a background task to fetch all reviews across multiple pages.
- Once completed, the collected reviews will be sent to your webhook URL.
4. API Playground: Test the API Before Integrating
We’re making our APIs easier to explore by adding an interactive playground where you can test them with different parameters.
The playground will also provide example code for the most popular programming languages.
5. Client Libraries for Popular Programming Languages
To simplify integration, we’ll provide official libraries for the most commonly used languages. Planned support includes:
- Python
- JavaScript
- PHP
- Ruby
- C#
- Java
For any comments or questions(and also for suggestions, please reach out!), feel free to reach me at [email protected].
Lucas Moauro – Owner of Wextractor