David Barton

Head of Content at Apify. Former game designer + graphic designer. You name it, I've written or edited it: company analyses and reports, blog posts, academic papers, press releases, advertising...

32 posts

Your step-by-step guide to scraping Amazon

David Barton

Scraping Amazon is a fast and efficient method of extracting useful data in the e-commerce industry. Our simple step-by-step guide will show you how to get ahead of the competition with a powerful Amazon Product Scraper.

3 min read Apr 28, 2022

GIF

How to make an animated scrolling GIF of any web page

David Barton

Here's to the GIF! Want to capture a scrolling web page as a GIF? We've got just the right tool for you - with a few reaction GIFs thrown in for fun.

4 min read Feb 24, 2022

Company Culture

Apify leaves 2021 in the dust and accelerates into 2022

David Barton

What did Apify achieve in 2021? We created more, hired more, and earned more than ever before. Read about the highlights, changes, and challenges of an amazing year.

10 min read Feb 10, 2022

Web Scraping

How to scrape any website (for beginners)

David Barton

Find out how to use Apify to scrape web data fast and easily. Step-by-step example of collecting data from CNN.

8 min read Nov 26, 2021

eBay

How to scrape eBay and extract listings data

David Barton

Use web scraping to extract structured data from eBay without using the official eBay API. Get product descriptions, prices, images, locations, merchant profiles, product availability, and more.

8 min read Nov 26, 2021

Google Trends

How to scrape Google Trends

David Barton

Google Trends gives you superhuman powers of prediction. Extend those powers with web scraping and gain an edge over the competition.

4 min read Nov 5, 2021

Web Scraping

What is the difference between web scraping and crawling?

David Barton

Web crawling vs web scraping. We explain the differences and how web scraping can create an API for any website.

5 min read Oct 7, 2021

API

What is an API?

David Barton

Heard the term API, but don't know exactly what it means? We explain the basics and list 7 characteristics of a good API.

10 min read Sep 21, 2021

Google

How to scrape Google Trending Searches

David Barton

Our Google Trending Searches actor lets you extract data on what people are really searching for, with no limits or quotas.

5 min read Sep 2, 2021

Google

5 powerful scrapers to add to your SEO tool kit

David Barton

How to use web scraping to monitor your own website, keep an eye on competitors, perform SEO audits, and scrape Google.

8 min read Aug 24, 2021

Captcha

Why CAPTCHAs are bad UX and how they get bypassed

David Barton

How much do you know about captchas? Why do we need them, are there alternatives, and do they even still work on the modern web? Read our exploration of the CAPTCHA, how it fails on multiple fronts, and how it might even result in some exploitative practices across the world.

9 min read Aug 11, 2021

Life in Apify

Life's no longer a beach for one dev and his dog

David Barton

Many roads can lead to a career at Apify. Think you don’t have the right background or experience? Think again.

6 min read May 20, 2021