How to Fool CAPTCHAS While Scraping
Regardless of the industry you’re in, successful business strategies are built on a foundation of good information. Web scraping with a good rotating proxy server gives you a fast, cost-effective way of carrying out your research. However, your web scraping software will encounter obstacles such as CAPTCHAS, which can interrupt your scraping activities. Is it possible to fool CAPTCHAS? Let’s look at how to fool CAPTCHAS while scraping.
What is CAPTCHA?
CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) distinguishes whether or not a user is human. Users logging onto a website or purchasing items online will often encounter CAPTCHASs. It works by giving challenges that bots typically can’t deal with. For example, it displays random, distorted numbers or letters that humans can read.
Preventive measures
The key to fooling CAPTCHAS is to imitate human behavior to avoid attracting suspicion. For example, you can stagger your requests so the website thinks that it’s dealing with a human. A person can’t send requests at the same rate as a bot. Another key is to frequently switch user agents. A large scale scraping project means a large number of requests. So using the same user agent will eventually get you flagged.
Use a proxy server
Rotating proxy servers are great tools for enhancing your online security and anonymity by hiding your IP. A good rotating proxy server provides automatic IP rotation, which means your web scraping will appear more human. This fools the CAPTCHAS because you won’t have one IP address attracting unnecessary attention.
Integrate CAPTCHA solvers
Even with disciplined use of suitable techniques, there is still a good chance that you will encounter CAPTCHAS. At this point, you’ll need CAPTCHA solving services. And because you can integrate these solutions into your web scraping tools, they offer great convenience and efficiency. Moreover, these services are available at reasonable prices for large scale scraping projects. You need only look at the various options available and choose what’s right for you.
Avoiding obstacles
Web scraping provides current information that you can use to grow your business. To avoid potential obstacles, practice good scraping etiquette to avoidblocks. A good rotating proxy server, with your web scraping tool, helps you scrape efficiently. And that can make a world of difference.
