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The Internet is bigger and better than what a mere browser allows. Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers is for programmers and businesspeople who want to take full advantage of the vast resources available on the Web. There´s no reason to let browsers limit your online experience-especially when you can easily automate online tasks to suit your individual needs.

Learn how to write webbots and spiders that do all this and more:

Programmatically download entire websites
Effectively parse data from web pages
Manage cookies
Decode encrypted files
Automate form submissions
Send and receive email
Send SMS alerts to your cell phone
Unlock password-protected websites
Automatically bid in online auctions
Exchange data with FTP and NNTP servers
Sample projects using standard code libraries reinforce these new skills. You´ll learn how to create your own webbots and spiders that track online prices, aggregate different data sources into a single web page, and archive the online data you just can´t live without. You´ll learn inside information from an experienced webbot developer on how and when to write stealthy webbots that mimic human behavior, tips for developing fault-tolerant designs, and various methods for launching and scheduling webbots. You´ll also get advice on how to write webbots and spiders that respect website owner property rights, plus techniques for shielding websites from unwanted robots.

This second edition of Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers has been completely updated and revised to cover the latest trends in web crawling, including new chapters on text parsing, browser macros, anonymizers, and more.

Some tasks are just too tedious-or too important!- to leave to humans. Once you´ve automated your online life, you´ll never let a browser limit the way you use the Internet again.


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About the Author
Michael Schrenk develops webbots and spiders for clients across North America. He has written for Computerworld and Web Techniques magazines and has taught college courses on web usability and Internet marketing. He is also an occasional speaker at DEFCON.