Apify Blog: Web scraping and automation stories

How to scrape TikTok data

Remember when vertical videos were considered nonsense? Well, meet Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Stories - they all ended up emulating the success of one little app, TikTok. So how do you scrape it?

8 min read Feb 7, 2023

Selenium

Playwright vs. Selenium: which one to use for web scraping?

Natasha Lekh

Let’s compare these two open-source libraries: Selenium, the more mature option that has been around for over a decade, and Playwright, its more recent competitor from Microsoft.

10 min read Feb 6, 2023

Python

Web scraping with Python

Percival Villalva

Explore some of the best Python libraries and frameworks available for web scraping and learn how to use them in your projects.

18 min read Feb 2, 2023

Web Scraping

How web scraping helps an IT company eat better

Theo Vasilis

Not knowing which restaurant to eat at during your lunch break might be a first-world problem, but it’s a problem nonetheless. This clever IT company solved it by web scraping restaurant menus.

4 min read Jan 31, 2023

Python

Why is Python used for web scraping?

Theo Vasilis

Is Python a good language for web scraping? We take you through the pros and cons and the best Python web scraping libraries.

5 min read Jan 26, 2023

Tutorial

How to scrape hotel data from Booking.com

Natasha Lekh

The availability of data on travel destinations, reviews of places to stay, comments and user profiles on Booking.com opens up unlimited opportunities for its use. Here’s just a couple of data-backed examples of how you can extract data from Booking.com and use it for your business.

6 min read Jan 25, 2023

Axios

Web scraping in Node.js with Axios and Cheerio

Percival Villalva

Axios and Cheerio is a powerful combination for web scraping in Node.js, fitting the bill for both experienced and beginner scrapers.

14 min read Jan 25, 2023

Web Scraping

How web scraping, AI, and the EU have come together to sweep away fake discounts in Europe

Theo Vasilis

Even if you didn’t know it, before the COVID-19 pandemic, another plague was sweeping Europe, and it’s still prevalent today: fake discounts.

5 min read Jan 24, 2023

Proxy

Datacenter proxies: when to use them and how to make the most of them

Theo Vasilis, Ondra Urban

The ultimate guide to datacenter proxies. Learn how to fix common problems with datacenter proxies, use cookies and headers, and create human-like proxy sessions that are hard to block.

15 min read Jan 23, 2023

Web Crawling

What are web crawlers and how do they work?

Theo Vasilis

A quick introduction to web crawlers and how to get started building your own crawlers for web scraping.

6 min read Jan 23, 2023

Web Scraping

What's the future of web scraping in 2023?

Natasha Lekh, Petr Pátek

Let’s see what web scraping was like in 2022 from technical, legal, business, and trending perspectives, as well as try predicting what 2023 holds.

18 min read Jan 20, 2023

Headless

Headless browsers: what are they and how do they work?

Theo Vasilis

Websites trying to detect headless browsers vs. headless browsers trying to evade detection is a cat-and-mouse game that probably won’t end any time soon. We have a couple of solutions to keep you ahead of that game.

9 min read Jan 19, 2023