Navigating CrunchBase Scraping Challenges After Google Cache Deprecation

Web scraping enthusiasts are facing new challenges following the deprecation of Google Cache, a tool that previously served as a useful workaround for accessing CrunchBase data. This development has forced data professionals to adapt their methods and explore alternative approaches.

The previously effective method of accessing cached versions of CrunchBase pages is no longer viable. Even attempts using residential IPs proved unsuccessful, necessitating a shift in strategy for those needing to extract data from the platform.

Puppeteer Emerges as the Solution

Puppeteer has proven to be an effective alternative for accessing CrunchBase pages. However, there’s a caveat – it requires the use of proxy services, with SmartProxies data center IPs showing promising results in initial testing.

While this solution appears to work for individual page requests, it’s worth noting that comprehensive testing at scale with numerous pages remains pending. Nevertheless, early results suggest this approach could provide a reliable method for CrunchBase data extraction.

Implementation Considerations

When implementing Puppeteer for web scraping, several important factors should be considered:

• Rather than returning entire HTML documents, it’s more efficient to parse and extract only the required information. This approach helps avoid excessive payload sizes, which can become costly when using serverless functions like AWS Lambda.
• CloudFlare protection mechanisms may introduce delays, displaying verification notices after the initial content has loaded. Fortunately, the needed data is typically available before these verification processes activate.
• Proxy usage means all page requests will be routed through your proxy IP, potentially increasing costs due to the volume of resources being loaded.

Optimizing Resource Usage

To mitigate potential costs associated with proxying numerous resource requests, implementing request interception is recommended. By blocking unnecessary resources such as images, stylesheets, fonts, and media files, you can significantly reduce the number of proxy requests while still obtaining the essential text data.

Setting request interception to true and implementing appropriate resource filtering code allows for more efficient data extraction. If costs remain a concern, additional resource types can be blocked while maintaining access to the critical information.

While the deprecation of Google Cache represents a setback for web scraping workflows, Puppeteer with proxy services offers a viable alternative for those needing to access CrunchBase company data. With proper optimization and resource management, this approach can provide reliable results while keeping costs under control.