Thunderbit AI Web Scraper: A Comprehensive Guide to Effortless Data Extraction
In today’s data-driven world, the ability to efficiently extract information from websites is becoming increasingly valuable. Thunderbit AI Web Scraper emerges as a powerful solution that simplifies this process dramatically, allowing users to extract data from any website with just a few clicks.
What is Thunderbit?
Thunderbit is an AI-powered web scraping tool that functions like having someone read an entire webpage and neatly organize the data into an Excel spreadsheet. The intuitive interface requires only two essential inputs: where the data is located and how the result table should be structured.
Getting Started with Thunderbit
The basic workflow involves two key components:
- Data Source: The website or page containing the information you want to extract
- Scraper Templates: The output table headers that define how your extracted data will be organized
Basic Scraping Process
To begin scraping, navigate to your target website and click “AI Suggest Fields.” Thunderbit reads the entire page and intelligently suggests how to structure your output table. Each field contains three properties:
- Field name
- Field data type
- Field AI prompt
The AI automatically generates prompts based on the existing data and adds examples to ensure accurate extraction. Once the fields are set, simply click “Scrape” and wait for your results.
Customizing Your Extraction
Thunderbit offers impressive flexibility. For example, if you want product names translated to Spanish, you can easily edit the field AI prompt, add “in Spanish,” save, and scrape again. This customization allows for powerful data transformation during the extraction process.
Handling Pagination
Thunderbit supports two types of pagination:
1. Click Pagination
For websites with numbered pages or next buttons, select “Click Pagination,” choose the next button (typically an arrow), set the number of pages to scrape, and proceed.
2. Infinite Scroll
For websites that load more content as you scroll down, simply select the “Infinite Scroll” option to capture this dynamically loaded content.
Sub-Page Scraping
One of Thunderbit’s most powerful features is its ability to drill down into individual URLs to extract additional information. This is particularly useful for directory listings where contact details might only appear on individual profile pages.
To set up sub-page scraping:
- Scrape the main listing page first
- Identify the profile URL field
- Set up the sub-page scraping by selecting which URL to drill down into
- Specify which fields to extract from the sub-pages
- Start the scraping process
Browser vs. Cloud Scraping
Thunderbit offers two scraping methods:
- Browser Scraping: Thunderbit controls one of your browser tabs to perform the scraping. This is ideal for websites requiring login or those containing email addresses and phone numbers.
- Cloud Scraping: This method is 50-100 times faster than browser scraping and is perfect for public websites like e-commerce platforms and public directories.
Bulk Scraping
For users with pre-existing lists of URLs, Thunderbit’s bulk scraping feature can handle up to 2,000 links simultaneously. Simply paste your URLs into the text box, preferably from the same domain, choose your scraping method, and proceed with the extraction.
Final Thoughts
Thunderbit AI Web Scraper represents a significant advancement in data extraction technology. By leveraging artificial intelligence to understand web page structures and extract relevant information, it eliminates the need for complex coding or manual data entry. Whether you’re conducting market research, lead generation, or content aggregation, Thunderbit offers a user-friendly solution that dramatically improves efficiency and accuracy in web data collection.