Among the many data sources available, websites like Amazon stand out as prime locations for gathering information such as product listings, user reviews, and overall market insights. According to the data, More than 82% of e-commerce companies use web scraping to collect publicly available external information. But how easy is it for businesses to tap into this treasure trove of data?
There are many challenges to web scraping, but the main one is that websites, including giants like Amazon, have strict security measures in place to protect their content from automated data collection. is.but Investigating proxy ways Newly emerging technology has revealed that users can retrieve public data from Amazon with an approximately 99% success rate.
Websites compete to gate public data
The online EC market is growing year by year. projected Web scraping provides access to large amounts of e-commerce data, allowing businesses to take advantage of market trends, consumer preferences, and competitor strategies. However, it is not so easy to obtain that information today.
Web owners apply protection mechanisms primarily to maintain website performance and protect its content from malicious bot activity. 30 percent of web traffic. As a result, this also impacts good web scraping practices, such as scraping during off-peak hours and adhering to website scraping guidelines.
The range of strategies used by e-commerce websites varies from website to website. For example, Amazon applies an internal CAPTCHA and returns 200 coded empty responses. This technique aims to trick the bot into believing that the scraping attempt was successful, when in fact no data was returned.
Overall, web scraping is surrounded by many misconceptions, especially regarding its legality, creating a distorted image of automated data collection. However, there are some gray areas to consider while web scraping, and there are no laws prohibiting the collection of publicly available data.
Growing demand for custom web scraping solutions
Web scraping is becoming increasingly difficult, and traditional tools are not always sufficient. For example, a Python script where the right type of proxy (a server that changes the user's IP address and perceived location) is not used will yield successful results from a well-protected target like Amazon. I can't. Of course, there are other factors that influence the success of the operation, such as browser fingerprints, scraper skills, and software maintenance status.
To address these challenges, major proxy and web scraping infrastructure providers have created new services called proxy-based APIs (also known as web unblockers). This technology aims to unblock difficult websites when collecting public data.
The Proxy API adds web scraper functionality to proxy servers. Handle CAPTCHAs and other protection methods by selecting the appropriate proxy type and applying parameters to the user's online identity.
The novelty of such services requires testing and analysis to determine whether the new technology is worth the hype and whether the commercially available performance numbers are real. In response, Proxyway, a leading researcher in proxies and web scraping infrastructure, looked at his five major companies that account for a large share of the market. The test was run over a week using real targets such as Amazon, Google, and Walmart, with each target receiving approximately 1,800 requests.
According to the study, participants were able to open protected websites more than 90% of the time. This highlights the potential of proxy-based APIs in overcoming the challenges posed by well-secured platforms.
summary
Web scraping presents challenges and opportunities for businesses looking to leverage their e-commerce data. While websites are using various anti-bot systems to manage their public data, the web scraping industry is also evolving.
Proxy-based APIs are a promising technology to overcome the obstacles of web scraping. This allows businesses to take advantage of market trends and consumer behavior without being blocked and gain a competitive advantage.