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Questions and Answers
What is the primary function of a web crawler?
What is the primary function of a web crawler?
What type of web crawler targets specific topics or websites?
What type of web crawler targets specific topics or websites?
What is a common challenge faced by web crawlers?
What is a common challenge faced by web crawlers?
What is the purpose of a robots.txt file?
What is the purpose of a robots.txt file?
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What is one application of web crawling?
What is one application of web crawling?
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What type of web crawler runs on multiple machines to increase crawling speed?
What type of web crawler runs on multiple machines to increase crawling speed?
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What is the primary purpose of API scraping?
What is the primary purpose of API scraping?
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Which type of API scraping involves extracting data from web APIs?
Which type of API scraping involves extracting data from web APIs?
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What is required to access API endpoints?
What is required to access API endpoints?
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What is the purpose of parsing API responses?
What is the purpose of parsing API responses?
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What should you ensure when scraping APIs?
What should you ensure when scraping APIs?
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What is a common challenge faced by API scrapers?
What is a common challenge faced by API scrapers?
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Study Notes
Web Crawling
Definition: Web crawling, also known as web spidering, is the process of automatically browsing the internet to gather data or information from websites.
How it Works:
- A web crawler, also known as a spider or bot, is a program that sends HTTP requests to a web server to retrieve data.
- The crawler follows hyperlinks from one webpage to another to discover new URLs.
- The crawled data is then stored in a database or file for further processing.
Types of Web Crawlers:
- Focused crawlers: Target specific topics or websites.
- General-purpose crawlers: Crawl a wide range of websites and topics.
- Deep web crawlers: Crawl the deep web, which includes content not indexed by search engines.
- Distributed crawlers: Run on multiple machines to increase crawling speed.
Challenges:
- Handling large amounts of data: Crawlers can generate massive amounts of data, making it difficult to store and process.
- Avoiding getting blocked: Websites may block crawlers to prevent abuse or data theft.
- Respecting robots.txt: Crawlers must respect website restrictions on crawling, as specified in the robots.txt file.
Applications:
- Search engines: Web crawlers are used to build and update search engine indexes.
- Data mining: Crawlers can be used to gather data for analysis and insights.
- Monitoring website changes: Crawlers can be used to track changes to websites over time.
Ethical Considerations:
- Respect website terms of use: Crawlers must comply with website terms of use and robots.txt files.
- Avoid overwhelming websites: Crawlers should avoid sending too many requests to a website, which can cause server overload.
- Respect user privacy: Crawlers should not collect personal data or violate user privacy.
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Description
Understand the basics of web crawling, including how it works, types of web crawlers, challenges, applications, and ethical considerations. Learn about the role of web crawlers in search engines, data mining, and website monitoring.
