Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers

The Internet is bigger and better than what a mere browser allows. Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers is for developers and business managers looking to unlock the competitive advantages of nontraditional online approaches. The book first outlines the deficiencies of browsers, and then explains how these deficiencies can be exploited in the design and deployment of task-specific webbots. Readers will learn how to write stealthy webbots that read email, emulate online forms, auto-authenticate, manage cookies, and handle encryption. Sample projects reinforce these new skills so that readers can create more sophisticated webbots and spiders to track online prices, create anonymous browsing environments, bid on auctions in their closing moments, and more.