PINGDOM_CHECK

Field notes from the world of data extraction.

Articles, interviews and analysis on how data is gathered, used and fought over — written by the people closest to it.

Swiss Army Knife Docker Container for Web Scraping

Swiss Army Knife Docker Container for Web Scraping

John Rooney7 min read
Scrapy in 2026: New release brings modern async crawling standards
Scraping practice

Scrapy in 2026: New release brings modern async crawling standards

Scrapy 2.14.0 modernizes the framework with native async/await, smarter scheduling, and cleaner spider configuration. Here’s what the new release means for production crawlers in 2026.

Robert Andrews6 min read
AI and the web: What 2025 changed and what comes next

Building blocks of a web scraping business

Why most web scraping startups fail—and how to build one that scales. Learn real unit economics, proxy costs, margins, and a path to SaaS-level profitability.

Victor Bolu10 min read
Data in 2026: Bets and forecasts from web experts
AI

Data in 2026: Bets and forecasts from web experts

What will 2026 have in store for the world of web data? We asked eight experts for their predictions.

Robert Andrews4 min read
AI and the web: What 2025 changed and what comes next
AI-assisted data extraction

AI and the web: What 2025 changed and what comes next

2025 was the year AI learned to reason. From reasoning-first LLMs to autonomous agents and a reshaped web economy, this retrospective explores what changed—and what’s coming next.

Iván Sánchez10 min read
Best Web Scraping APIs for 2026 | Benchmark Analysis
Web scraping APIs

Best Web Scraping APIs for 2026 | Benchmark Analysis

See the best web scraping APIs for 2026 based on Proxyway’s December 2025 benchmark. Compare success rates, speed, cost predictability, and architectural differences.

Mitch Holt10 min read
2026 Web Scraping Industry Report by Zyte

2026 Web Scraping Industry Report by Zyte

A practical walkthrough of the Web Scraping Industry Report 2026, covering how AI, automation, and access controls are reshaping web data collection at scale.

2 min read
Your Web Scrapers Keep Getting Blocked. Here's Why

Your Web Scrapers Keep Getting Blocked. Here's Why

John Rooney6 min read
Making Your First Zyte API Request

Making Your First Zyte API Request

John Rooney10 min read
Introducing Web Scraping Copilot for VS Code.

Introducing Web Scraping Copilot for VS Code.

John Rooney16 min read
Why Does No one use this KILLER Scrapy Addon?

Why Does No one use this KILLER Scrapy Addon?

John Rooney7 min read
Web Scraping API's are cheaper than Proxies?

Web Scraping API's are cheaper than Proxies?

John Rooney8 min read