Experts on Twitter scraping: 2023 trends
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Twitter, or X as it is now called because of Elon Musk’s recent decision, remains a prominent social media platform for info scraping. Some 2023 figures proving this point:
- Back in 2022, it boasted 368 million active users globally. This figure will decrease in the coming years, but will remain significant.
- The blogging service stays engaging, with 3,39 minutes per a single session spent there.
- Every second, accounts post 6,000 info messages via Twitter aka X.
Therefore, X continues drawing attention among marketers, researchers, etc. Scraping info on Twitter is the goal they frequently pursue while contacting trusted proxy websites with respective pools of geo targeted proxies. Below our experts examine what such scraping processes should look like when one buys proxies for social media with Twitter scraping purposes.
Ways with a trusted proxy website. Twitter scrapers and API
Scraping Twitter info might seem streamlined with their own API. But costs will astonish users. Starting from March, price tags are unaffordable for individuals and SMEs. Think of 42K for one month of access. Alternatives exist, however. No-code Twitter scrapers can help.
Such a program could grab info from Twitter’s platform. Abide by experts' guidelines. Only these sorts of info are typically ethical and legit:
- Scraping info pertaining to profiles, including descriptions, pictures, usernames, as well as counts of followers.
- Scraping tweet pertaining info, i.e. Metadata related to a message, encompassing reactions, retweets, and answers.
- Scraping hashtag pertaining details.
- Scraping twitter lists.
Get advice from dependable legal professionals before proceeding with scraping, as all depends on purposes and info usage intentions. With the aforementioned kinds of info, legal issues are unlikely.
1. Highlighting no-code Twitter scrapers: properties
No-code Twitter scrapers empower people and teams to obtain public info with no need to engineer. This property makes them more accessible. Other pros concerning modern no-code Twitter scraping tools:
- Tackling dynamic content challenges, e.g. JS and AJAX.
- Visual info search, when the UI allows you to select elements by pointing-and-clicking.
- Anti-scraping safeguards making it possible to avoid CAPTCHAs.
- Compatibility with geo targeted proxies from trusted proxy websites.
These advantages considered, there will be no room for customization.
2. Highlighting Python-based Twitter scrapers: properties
Let’s assume you are ready to apply Twitter’s API for scraping in 2023. In this case, craft your own custom-tailored Twitter scraper, building upon the Tweepy library, to facilitate the routines of retrieving info and making use of the Twitter API. The scraping scenario goes like this:
- Get your Twitter Developer space ready.
- Prepare Tweepy via pip.
- Create a Python script, grabbing info.
While engineering it, keep in mind regular sequences of steps and capabilities:
- Input of URLs or search queries, such as hashtags, for scraping.
- Then comes the capability to load entire info. As Twitter runs on JS, one has to wait until the entire page loads.
- Choosing pieces for harvesting, e.g. text or graphic content, timestamps, usernames, etc.
- Identification of a “show more” element for scraping the full content.
- Executing the info scraper manually or automatically at certain moments.
- Export of scraping session results, encompassing, say, CSV.
These are the two main scraping approaches regarding Twitter in 2023. Whatever an actual choice may be, never forget to buy proxies for social networks. Dexodata’s geo targeted proxies and expertise are a match, as our trusted proxy website provides for adjusted combos of locations and IP-address types (residential, mobile, and datacenter-based) for scraping initiatives of any complexity. Newcomers can request a proxy free trial.
