Imagine that you are on a hunt for buried treasure, searching through piles of random objects to find a rare gem. It can be like that when you’re fast web scraping, sorting through mountains and mountains of data to find those nuggets. But let’s not be naive, nobody likes to move slowly. Speed is key. How to scrape data at blazing speed without losing your head (or your data).
Split and Conquer **
Imagine peeling a bag of potatoes all by yourself. Impossible, right? It’s not impossible if you have a few friends. It’s the same principle. Dividing your task into smaller portions is a good idea. You can accomplish a lot more in less time by scraping several smaller data sets simultaneously. You can also have a lot of mini you’s all working toward the same goal.
Enjoy Your Websites!
You’ve probably tried to barge in a queue only to have it escorted away. Websites are able to detect scrapers even from afar. It’s likely that you will be sent packing if you bombard the servers with requests. When you send your requests, be calm and quiet. It’s best to mimic human activity. A short break between requests works wonders. You can even add a bit of randomness for that human touch.
**Go Asynchronous**
Remember how long it took for a page to load on dial-up? Asynchronous requests are painfully slow. Asynchronous requests are web scraping’s superhero. These requests allow you to fetch multiple web pages at the same time, maximizing your computer’s potential. It’s as if ten hands were pulling data simultaneously from different directions.
*Don’t Get Caught In The Web**
Know that guy in the office who gets flagged every time by IT for downloading gigabytes worth of cat videos? You don’t want to scraper being that guy. Sites are often set up with traps to catch overly eager scrapers. A headless browser will help you to navigate through these speed bumps. Puppeteer, Selenium and other tools can simulate real-world user behavior. They can run JavaScript as well, which is sometimes necessary to extract dynamic material.
**Manage Resources Wisely**
Have you ever run a race without any training? Your computer may not be able to keep up with the load, and your crawl will come to an abrupt halt. Sometimes using proxies is a great idea. By rotating your IP addresses, you can distribute the load to multiple machines. This is similar to handing out the route of a marathon one checkpoint per machine.
**JSON Over HTML**
Ever tried to find a pin in a haystack of needles? Extraction of data from HTML can feel similar. JSON files have a different feel – like the needles are neatly arranged into rows. Some websites return data using JSON. It’s easy to read, compact and time-saving.
**Scrape Responsibly**
Imagine a friend that keeps popping up without warning and eating all your snacks. Isn’t that not cool? Some websites limit API rates and set request quotas. Respect them. You may be blacklisted if you go overboard. You can keep everyone happy by spreading out scraping activities.
**Keep it Gusseted**
Lost your keys? You can also retrace your steps. Keep a record of all your scraping activity. This is important because it helps you track down any mistakes, and it gives you a back-up plan if something goes wrong. Logs are detailed, so you won’t need to start again every time there is an issue.
**Location, Location, Location! **
In web scraping too, location is key. Proxies can mask your true location. You can easily circumvent geo-restrictions with the help of proxies spread out in different regions. You’re less likely to be banned.
*Get by with a Little Library Help**
Do not reinvent the wheel. Libraries like BeautifulSoup, Scrapy and others are worth the weight of gold. Like a Swiss Army Knife for scraping, they provide tools pre-built to make your job easier. They’ll make life easier if you learn them and use them.