Does anyone know how to extract

[sniffer]

hi there,
Does anyone know how to extract the Yahoo backlinks with PHP? I want to know if this is possible without too much bother?
thanks,,, -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[comet]

It would involve scraping the actual results pages...
Y! really need to provide an API soon -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[doctrove]

Would it be difficult to scrape those figures from the results pages? I'm trying to figure out if this is worth it before I start learning. -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[taufell]

doctrove,,, I shouldn't think it would be too hard, but it certianly wouldn't be appreciated by Yahoo... -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[doctrove]

I wouldnt be displaying any data that I extract. I would be using it more for calculations Would they still be disappreciative? -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[zeslaw]

I've read that you need to be under 1 query/second to really piss them off 20 queries a day is like a normal user. You can use curl to grab the page - and you can grab the # of back links w/in one query.
Otherwise, if you want to get the sites I'd use LWP and set prefs at 100 results, set the user agent to lynx or something like that and not run more than one query within 5 seconds. The delay will keep you on their good side.

I've sent a spider at yahoo that pissed them off and temporarily blocked my usage. Something like 950 pages one right after the other. I was just trying out a scraping program I grabbed. I'm sure others have seen that kind of behavior using some of the old yahoo scraping programs out there. Most new programs have anti-bombardment timing built in. -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --

[kaneo]

I'd still shoot them a quick email to describe what you are doing and ask if it's permissible... just to be on the safe side... even if they don't reply for a while, you have a record ...sent email,,of your question to them -- This message may have been cut off and the rest will only be shown to members. To become a member, click here --