Google is the world’s leading search engine. In 2020, the average number of daily Google searches was around 7 billion. Since this search engine holds billions of data pieces, you may want to scrape it to get the data you need for further research.
How can you seamlessly scrape the web when aware of the restrictions? Are there any advanced tools to help you overcome these obstacles and reach your goals? If these questions are bothering you, you are in the right place.
We will tell you more about scraping blocks and finding your way around them.
What is web scraping?
Web scraping is a practice that helps you automatically obtain data from internet sources. Web scraping tools consist of numerous mini-scraping bots that run around the web and “mine” the data for you. They are distributed across a website and work quickly to deliver the wanted data to you.
However, before you start your scraping journey, you should know that you will probably encounter challenges and obstacles your mini robots can’t bypass independently. We will explain what these restrictions are below.
Anti-scraping measures
Search engines and individual web pages employ anti-scraping mechanisms to protect their valuable data from third-party exposure. Depending on data sensitivity and legal measures, these systems can come in numerous shapes, difficulties, and levels.
Websites and search engines usually use a combination of anti-scraping measures. For instance, they can set a traffic limit on their website and use CAPTCHA tests to detect possible scraping attempts. Moreover, some websites use IP blocking and session tracking to identify scraping robots.
Honeypot traps are the most common form of anti-scraping measures. If your web scraper interacts with these hidden links, the target website will automatically know your intentions and restrict access.
Types of blocks Google services use
Google has integrated anti-scraping measures that apply to almost all its services. The company wanted to ensure the best, safest experience for all, so you may encounter difficulties if you try to scrape some of the available pages.
Since Google is an advanced search engine, its anti-scraping measures are also sophisticated. Scraping data from Google’s pages will be challenging, and bypassing restrictions may seem impossible.
Here are some of the most common anti-scraping mechanisms Google services use.
CAPTCHA tests
CAPTCHA, or the Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart, is an anti-scraping measure for web scraping bots and crawlers. Since these bots can’t solve CAPTCHAs, target websites will automatically catch them in this trap, preventing further data extraction activities.
Although solving CAPTCHA tests to access website content may be easy for humans, bots can’t overcome this obstacle unless programmed to do so. It is one of the most common anti-scraping measures on Google, which has also proven to be one of the most effective strategies.
IP blocking
As the name suggests, IP blocking refers to blocking IP addresses that may seem suspicious. For instance, if a lot of traffic and many HTTP requests come from one IP address, the target website will detect potentially threatening behavior and block further activities.
Google uses this method to prevent suspicious internet users from harming websites and stealing or misusing their valuable data. It may be one of the most challenging obstacles due to restrictive regimes.
How to bypass these blocks?
Bypassing anti-scraping blocks requires a helping hand. Since web bots and crawlers can’t overcome these obstacles independently, you must use specialized tools.
For instance, you can use proxy servers to bypass IP blocks and send new HTTP requests. Using these servers will come in handy for numerous other anti-scraping measures, so it is always a good idea to have such advanced tools at your disposal on your scraping journey.
However, innovative developers have created advanced, all-in-one, ready-made solutions to help individuals and businesses bypass all restrictions. For example, you can use Google Scraper API, which will grant hassle-free access to any Google web page you want to visit for seamless data extraction.
You can choose a tool according to your scraping needs and preferences. However, we recommend using a solution that can bypass all restrictions that may come your way.
Conclusion
Google is a goldmine teeming with valuable pieces of information. That’s why many people want to collect this treasure and use it for various purposes. You are in the right place if you are one of these people.
Now that you’ve peeked into the web scraping world and learned about the difficulties you may encounter while extracting data from Google, it’s time to utilize solutions like Google Scraper API to enjoy smooth, uninterrupted web scraping.
You won’t need to worry about blocks or data parsing. You can gather structured, ready-to-use bulk data with a thousand URLs per batch without Google stopping your efforts.