Spidering Hacks

I bought this book shortly after it came out, and actually still refer to it from time to time. This is just another book that shows you how powerful Perl can be when in the right hands.

Once in a long while you get a book that inspires you with a lot of great small ideas. Spidering Hacks is just that type of book. The web has a wealth of structured and semi-structured that is just waiting to be mined with automated tools. This book not only teaches you how to get the data out of these sources, but gives you idea about where to look for information and what to do with it.This book demonstrates everything I like in a technical book. It not only describes how things are done. It also gives practical examples of how the technology can be useful in the real world, and presents them enthusiastically. It makes you want to go out and implement all of the ideas and to keep on going with some of your own.Nitpicks I have with the book are minor. The 'Hacks' format seems imposed, for example, hack #8 is about installing CPAN. I don't think that section should be left out, but I don't think it's a hack either. But hey, I don't care that much about the structure as long as it isn't an imposing flaw and the content within the structure is great, as it is with this book.Have to say, O'Reilly is on a roll with the Hacks series. They have all been fine books.

The knowledgeable collaboration of Kevin Hemenway and Tara Calishain, Spidering Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools is an extensive, 402-page instructional guidebook and reference to Internet data retrieval through the use of spiders and scrapers. Including information on methodology, philosophies, and ethical considerations, as well as freely available modules, scripts, frameworks, and templates, information on how to build alternative interfaces to online databases, how to keep one's data current and share it in a user-friendly manner, and so much more, Spidering Hacks is an example-filled, easy-to-follow, highly recommended computer shelf resource.