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The examples don't seem very plausible (except perhaps the python one). In the case of website scraping, why not just pay Mechanical Turk? You apparently just n

by jordanb 12y ago

The examples don't seem very plausible (except perhaps the python one). In the case of website scraping, why not just pay Mechanical Turk? You apparently just need the data so why try to order it as a script? In the case of express.js, why would a programmer pay someone to follow a tutorial? You can't use the outcome (a completely unstyled blank website) for anything. The third example clarifies that building a themed website is out of scope. The python module is something I could maybe see somebody ordering, if they were a student trying to get their homework done by someone else, or maybe a programmer who isn't competent to do their job but needs to deliver some code now and again and is probably being given very basic assignments.

rpedela 12y ago
Mechanical Turk doesn't always produce great results for something like web scraping. It really depends on the particular website and data that is being scraped. Usually there is also significant setup involved so that MTurk produces good results regardless of the task. If Rabbits really can do web scraping cheap, fast, and well then it might be worth the money.
- notastartup 12y ago
  Mechanical Turk gets expensive fast, and isn't very accurate, usually with any type of service, there's an overhead. What this seems like is a quick way to get grunt work done. I can see how web scraping can fit nicely. However, some student with a lot of free time won't value their time as much so they will write a scraper but someone like a manager with a busy engineering team can save a lot of time outsourcing tasks like this. Another solution is to use web scraping tool like https://scrape.it https://scrape.it to scrape a website even for complicated AJAX websites. After you know how to use it, it's way faster than writing a scraper from scratch. Disclaimer: I wrote scrape.it
- icinnamon 12y ago
  If you need to scrape, check out Kimono... https://www.kimonolabs.com/ https://www.kimonolabs.com/
- prawn 12y ago
  Have to go and sign up, work out how the job needs to be described, deal with interface peculiarities, etc. Similar to Magic. Might sound easy to order food online, but it's more time-consuming than just asking someone to do it.

by jordanb 12y ago

rpedela 12y ago

Mechanical Turk doesn't always produce great results for something like web scraping. It really depends on the particular website and data that is being scraped. Usually there is also significant setup involved so that MTurk produces good results regardless of the task. If Rabbits really can do web scraping cheap, fast, and well then it might be worth the money.

notastartup 12y ago
Mechanical Turk gets expensive fast, and isn't very accurate, usually with any type of service, there's an overhead. What this seems like is a quick way to get grunt work done. I can see how web scraping can fit nicely. However, some student with a lot of free time won't value their time as much so they will write a scraper but someone like a manager with a busy engineering team can save a lot of time outsourcing tasks like this. Another solution is to use web scraping tool like https://scrape.it https://scrape.it to scrape a website even for complicated AJAX websites. After you know how to use it, it's way faster than writing a scraper from scratch. Disclaimer: I wrote scrape.it
icinnamon 12y ago
If you need to scrape, check out Kimono... https://www.kimonolabs.com/ https://www.kimonolabs.com/
prawn 12y ago
Have to go and sign up, work out how the job needs to be described, deal with interface peculiarities, etc. Similar to Magic. Might sound easy to order food online, but it's more time-consuming than just asking someone to do it.