What is the best way to start learning webscraping?

The Free For All Lounge
#1

Python？JS？ Web scraping tools？My friends told me to use web scraping tools. Which one is better? And why？

#2

So I was a big fan of python to scrape data (selenium), now I only do google sheet! The ImportXml function save my life, after that I think you still need to be well trained but the tool is so powerful.

I give you a link that you should like: https://www.benlcollins.com/spreadsheets/import-social-media-statistics/

Have a great day :cowboy_hat_face:

3 Likes
#3

My friend is really good at c# web scraping. Also other people in this forum mentioned https://www.octoparse.com/ as a good tool

1 Like
#4

Python with the beautifulsoup module.

#5

Thanks! I will go check it through.

1 Like
#6

Happy to help :slight_smile:

#7

Zennoposter. My best investment so far. As for someone that doesnt know how to code but needs to automate web/windows/server tasks daily its a complete lifesaver.

1 Like
#8

It all depends on how low-level you want to do it and what you want to download.
You can use ready-made tools that will probably have their limitations, but you will start much faster. They will also probably require some investment.
Or you can learn programming, which will allow you to do whatever you want, but it will take you much more time.
You always have to choose tools for the task.
If you want to be a programmer, learn a language,
if a marketer, choose a ready-made tool.

2 Likes
#9

Love this. Both are a specialization and requires focus

#10

Did you try using the tool you recommended？

#11

Thanks for sharing knowledge with us, but this only seems to be scraping the number of followers of accounts. What’s really the point of that?

I use a simple technique where I use search strings on Google to collect email addresses from social media, such as:

site:linkedin.com "@gmail.com" “project manager” “seattle”

And then use Data Miner (free Chrome add-on) to save the names/emails to a spreadsheet for marketing. I don’t see how I can monetize data that just shows how many followers Barack Obama has, unless I’m missing something?

1 Like
#12

Not yet, you?

#13

No. Then why recommeded this software?

#14

It is an article to learn just the basics are presented. After that for Instagram most people here don’t want to monetize this information directly but use it to improve their settings/account/content quality and many others!

#15

Because other people in this forum recommended it