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Show HN: I made a Chrome extension that can scrape any website with one click
Hi HN!
Ah yes, another web scraper. There are so many out there, so why make another one?
Because I wanted one that's stupid simple and stupid fast.
Unlike most web scrapers, Easy Scraper doesn’t make you build a new scraper for each site or individually select fields. You just open it and bam, your data's ready to go.
My favorite use case for instantly extracting data anywhere is being able to easily talk to ChatGPT about custom datasets. For example, here's a 1-minute demo of me scraping my Twitter followers to find the ones that live in San Francisco: https://www.loom.com/share/e3248c15a05041deae592d4157ddf4e2?sid=66ac035d-e924-46e3-b15a-94fa1aa89618 https://www.loom.com/share/e3248c15a05041deae592d4157ddf4e2?...
Here are some other aspects that I think HN users will especially appreciate:
- Because it runs locally, (1) it's fast (stupid fast!) (2) it's private (your data stays on your machine) (3) you won't have issues with bot detection (unless you're scraping like a madman; obviously, use your discretion)
- You can use it without granting any browser permissions (which is great because Chrome extensions are often a security nightmare)
- You can use it without signing up for an account
I’ve been building Chrome extensions and web scrapers since college (over a decade ago!), and I'm really proud of how this one turned out. Check it out and let me know what you think!
https://easyscraper.com https://easyscraper.com
- mtmail 3y ago"it's completely free for now because i'll be on a silent meditation retreat for all of march and didn't have time to add in paid plans." Enjoy the retreat!
- namuorg 3y agoThanks! <3
- loceng 3y agoGreat UI. Are you interested in or available for hire to create a new extension from scratch?
- pax 3y agoany website? that's a rather tall order. Does it cover js navigation? I was looking forward to some guidelines/docs. It would be great to know what it can't do, if there's anything, save some dissapointment :)
- namuorg 3y agoYup, it covers JS navigation. I spent the last four years building a browser automation tool (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29254147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29254147) so I was able to cover a lot of bases with Easy Scraper. Try it out!
- ulrischa 3y agoCool but why should I use a scraper as a Browser extension? The use case of a scraper is to scrape data of web pages regularly. As a browser extension I could simply visit the pages by myself
- KomoD 3y ago> The use case of a scraper is to scrape data of web pages regularly. That's not true, the use case of a scraper is to scrape data, it doesn't have to be regularly, it can be once, twice, frequently or infrequently And the reason to use one is if you want to just quickly scrape some data without writing a scraper yourself.
- ulrischa 3y ago> it can be once, twice, frequently or infrequently That's the point: it can. So when I want to use it regularly this will not help. So when I don't know how regular I will need it, it is better to have a more flexible solution.
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