This blog was originally posted to Crawlbase Blog

Established in 2009, Quora, with the advent of tools like Quora Scraper, has become a significant resource for scraping questions and answers. This popular question-and-answer platform is designed for knowledge-sharing across a wide range of topics, thriving on user-generated content and promoting engagement through features like upvoting, anonymous posting, and collaborative editing.

In this guide, we'll explore how to scrape Quora Questions and Answers pages using Crawlbase and JavaScript language. The extracted data from Quora can be used for SEO and content optimization strategies. It can help you come up with ideas for blogs or articles and provide personalized suggestions based on what you're interested in. It's also useful for creating educational resources.

With Crawlbase, building a Quora scraper from the ground up can be simplified, providing an easy solution for extracting valuable insights and enhancing your content strategy. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

I. Why Scrape Quora?

II. Types of Data You Can Get from Scraping Quora

III. Prerequisites for Web Scraping Quora

IV. Project Setup and Dependencies Installation

V. Fetching HTML using Crawling API

VI. How to Scrape Quora using the Crawling API

VII. Executing the Quora Scraper

VIII. Storing the JSON Data

IX. Conclusion

X. Frequently Asked Questions

I. Why Scrape Quora?

People love Quora because it has diverse content, good user contributions, interesting features, and shows up a lot in search results. The significant user base in countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Pakistan underscores its international success.

source

Thus, creating a Quora web scraper to extract data offers several compelling benefits for various purposes. Here are some examples why scraping Quora pages can be valuable:

• Scraping questions in Quora like "What is the best Quora scraper?" can strategically help businesses offering Quora scraping tools. By identifying user queries, businesses can tailor marketing messages, showcase product features, and build visibility in the domain. Engaging with users actively seeking solutions can turn inquiries into leads, boosting sales.

• The scraped data can be used to train language processing models for chatbot development, and language understanding systems. The AI models can learn from the data input by Quora users, improving their ability to comprehend and respond to user queries more accurately.

In essence, using Quora data for AI training enhances the capabilities of machine learning models, enabling them to better understand user intent, language details, and content preferences. This, in turn, contributes to the development of more advanced and context-aware AI applications.

• Quora scraping can also play a crucial role in enhancing products and services by providing valuable insights into user opinions, feedback, and perceptions.

For example, consider a company in the tech industry that has developed a new mobile application. By scraping Quora, the company can collect user questions, reviews, comments, and discussions related to their app. They may discover common issues users are facing, receive feedback on specific features, and identify any recurring complaints or compliments.

In summary, scraping Quora pages allows you to tap into a vast pool of information, aiding in content creation, SEO, competitor analysis, product improvement, educational content development, personalized recommendations, market research, and language model training. It offers a strategic advantage for those seeking to stay informed, engage their audience effectively, and enhance their online presence.

II. Types of Data You Can Get from Scraping Quora

Now that we’ve discussed why one would want to scrape Quora, let’s delve into the key information we can scrape from the Quora questions and answers pages. Here are some of the most notable data that can be obtained:

Question Information:

• The actual question text, e.g., "What are the most viewed questions on Quora?"
• The URL link to the Quora page where the question is located, facilitating direct access.
• The number of answers to the question.
• Specific topics associated with the question.
• Links to Quora topic pages related to the question's topics.

Answers:

For each answer provided to the question:

• The author of the answer.
• The link to the author's Quora profile.
• Information about the author's credentials, e.g., "CMO & Co-founder at Cobloom (2012-present)."
• The date when the answer was posted.
• The author's total answer count on Quora.
• The total views received by the author's answers.
• The original question the author responded to.
• Link to the original question.
• The URL link to the specific answer.
• The actual text content of the answer.

As you can see, this comprehensive set of data allows for a detailed analysis of user interactions, topic relevance, and the popularity of both questions and answers on Quora. It can be particularly valuable for understanding user engagement dynamics, identifying trending topics, gauging the impact of answers within the Quora community, or even distinguishing questions generated by Quora bots or by a real person.

In the next section of this guide, we’ll provide step-by-step instructions to ensure a systematic approach to building an effective Quora scraper that extracts the data mentioned on our list above by utilizing Crawlbase and JavaScript. Let’s proceed with the prerequisites of how to scrape Quora.

III. Prerequisites for Web Scraping Quora

JavaScript Basics:

Before diving into web scraping, it's crucial to have a basic understanding of JavaScript, the programming language we'll be using for our Quora scraper. Familiarize yourself with concepts like DOM manipulation, which helps interact with webpage elements, making HTTP requests to fetch data, and handling asynchronous operations for efficient coding. Understanding these fundamentals will be essential as we navigate through the project.

Crawlbase API key:

To utilize the power of Crawlbase for our Quora web scraping project, follow these steps to obtain the essential Crawlbase JavaScript token:

1. Log In to Your Crawlbase Account:

• Visit the Crawlbase website and log in using your account credentials.

1. Navigate to Account Documentation:

• Inside your Crawlbase dashboard, locate the Account Documentation page.

1. Copy Your JavaScript Token:

• Securely copy the JavaScript token. This token is fundamental for your scraper to interact effectively with JavaScript-based pages on Quora.

With your token ready, proceed to set up the remaining components for a successful Quora scraping experience.

IV. Project Setup and Dependencies Installation

After establishing the prerequisites, we’re now ready to install the dependencies for our JavaScript code. To set up your scraping environment and initiate your project, execute the following commands in the same order as below:

Create Project Folder:

mkdir quora_scraper

• This command establishes an empty folder named quora_scraper to organize your project. You are free to rename this folder however you like.

Navigate to Project Folder:

cd quora_scraper

• Move into the newly created directory to manage your project files effectively.

Create JavaScript File:

touch scraper.js

• This command generates a new file named scraper.js where you can write your JavaScript code. You are free to rename this file however you like.

Install Crawlbase Package:

npm install crawlbase

• Utilize this command to install the Crawlbase Node.js package, a crucial dependency for interacting with the Crawlbase Crawling API. This package enables efficient retrieval of HTML content from websites.

By executing these commands, you'll establish the necessary structure for your Quora scraping project, including a dedicated folder, JavaScript file, and the essential Crawlbase dependency. This initial setup ensures a streamlined and organized environment to scrape quora.

V. Fetching HTML using Crawling API

In this step, you'll discover how to interact with the Crawling API, providing your API credentials to retrieve HTML content for quick data extraction.

The Crawlbase Crawling API makes HTTP requests to specific URLs, allowing you to obtain the raw HTML data. Notably, the API permits sending up to 20 requests per second to Quora by default without getting blocked, providing an efficient means for extracting data from websites while avoiding IP bans, restrictions, and CAPTCHAs.

Now, let's proceed into the step-by-step guide for writing the code. In your scraper.js file, copy the script below:

1. Import Crawlbase Crawling API:

// import Crawlbase Crawling API package
const { CrawlingAPI } = require('crawlbase');

2. Initialize Crawling API:

// initializing crawling API
const api = new CrawlingAPI({ token: 'Crawlbase_JS_Token' }); // Replace it with your Crawlbase token

3. Specify Quora Question URL

// Quora question URL
const quoraURL = 'https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-start-playing-video-games';

In this instance, we selected this question. However, feel free to modify it to any other question on Quora that you would like to scrape.

4. Execute Crawling API GET Request:

// Crawling API get request execution
api
  .get(quoraURL)
  .then((response) => {
    console.log(response.body);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error, 'ERROR');
  });

This code initializes the Crawlbase Crawling API, passes your API token, specifies the Quora question URL you want to scrape, and executes a GET request to retrieve the HTML content. The fetched HTML content will be displayed in the console, serving as the foundation for further data extraction in your Quora scraping project. Ensure to replace "Crawlbase_JS_Token" with your actual Crawlbase JavaScript request token.

HTML Response:

VI. How to Scrape Quora using the Crawling API

Crawlbase data scrapers are tailored for different platforms, including Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Quora, and more. For our Quora scraping example, we will utilize the scraper designed for Quora Question pages.

A Data Scraper is a specialized tool designed to extract and parse specific information from web pages, transforming raw HTML content into a structured and easily understandable format, typically in JSON. When using the Crawling API, the default response includes the complete HTML of the requested page. However, to streamline the extraction process and obtain relevant data in a more organized manner, data scrapers come into play.

The process is straightforward—simply add the parameter scraper: "quora-question" to your existing code. This modification ensures that the Crawling API applies the Quora Question Page scraper for optimal data extraction.

For your convenience, here is the complete code. Copy and paste to your JavaScript file:

// import Crawlbase crawling API package
const { CrawlingAPI } = require('crawlbase');

// initializing crawling API
const api = new CrawlingAPI({ token: 'Crawlbase_JS_Token' }); // Replace it with you Crawlbase token

// Quora question URL
const quoraURL = 'https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-start-playing-video-games';

// Defining the targetted scraper in options object.
const options = {
  scraper: 'quora-question',
};

// Crawling API get request execution
api
  .get(quoraURL, options)
  .then((response) => {
    console.log(response.body);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error, 'ERROR');
  });

The Crawling API data scraper provides a user-friendly and efficient approach to web scraping, offering a quick solution without the manual complexities associated with libraries like BeautifulSoup or Cheerio. This ease of use translates to faster development, reduced errors, and a more straightforward Quora web scraping experience.

VII. Executing the Quora Scraper

Now that we have set up our project, initialized the Crawling API, and integrated the Quora Question Page scraper, let's proceed to execute the scraper. The goal is to showcase the JSON response obtained from the Crawling API after successfully scraping Quora's question page.

Run your JavaScript code using your preferred environment or you can simply execute the command below:

node scraper.js

After successful execution, inspect the console output. The response body will contain the scraped content in JSON format as shown below:

{
  "question": {
    "text": "How do I start playing video games?",
    "link": "https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-start-playing-video-games",
    "answerCountScraped": 3,
    "answerCount": 53,
    "topicList": [],
    "questionAds": [],
    "answers": [
      {
        "answerHeader": {
          "answerAuthor": "René Chiquete",
          "authorProfileLink": "https://www.quora.com/profile/Ren%C3%A9-Chiquete",
          "authorCredential": "Lifelong Hardcore Gamer",
          "answerTitle": "",
          "answerCredibilityFacts": {
            "answerDate": "6y",
            "authorAnswerCount": "142",
            "authorAnswerViewsCount": "307.6K",
            "originallyAnswered": "",
            "originallyAnsweredLink": "https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-start-playing-video-games/answer/Ren%C3%A9-Chiquete"
          }
        },
        "answerLink": "https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-start-playing-video-games/answer/Ren%C3%A9-Chiquete",
        "answerText": ["Playing video games is simple, the game will give you some rules, and you play by them."],
        "linksInAnswer": [],
        "ImagesInAnswer": [],
        "answerViewCount": "",
        "answerUpvoteCount": "7",
        "answerDownvoteCount": "",
        "answerShareCount": 1,
        "answerCommentCount": null,
        "answerPosition": 1
      },
      {
        "answerHeader": {
          "answerAuthor": "Deepak MehtaFeifei WangFranklin Veaux",
          "authorProfileLink": "https://www.quora.com/profile/%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5",
          "authorCredential": "amateur productivity hacker",
          "answerTitle": "Is playing video games a waste of time?",
          "answerCredibilityFacts": {
            "answerDate": "3y",
            "authorAnswerCount": "3.9K",
            "authorAnswerViewsCount": "114.8M",
            "originallyAnswered": "Is playing video games or computer games a waste of time?",
            "originallyAnsweredLink": "https://www.quora.com/Startups-Is-playing-video-games"
          }
        },
        "answerLink": "https://www.quora.com/Are-video-games-a-worthless-pursui",
        "answerText": ["Yes it is. So is, 1. Watching movies2. Reading fiction3. Talking to people4.."],
        "linksInAnswer": [],
        "ImagesInAnswer": [],
        "answerViewCount": "",
        "answerUpvoteCount": "3.7K",
        "answerDownvoteCount": "",
        "answerShareCount": 7,
        "answerCommentCount": 66,
        "answerPosition": 2
      },
      {
        "answerHeader": {
          "answerAuthor": "Teofil-Codrin Bradea-Brânzaş",
          "authorProfileLink": "https://www.quora.com/profile/Teofil-Codrin-Bradea-Br%C3%A2nza%C5%9F",
          "authorCredential": "Barosan (2014–present)",
          "answerTitle": "What will happen to me if I stop playing video games?",
          "answerCredibilityFacts": {
            "answerDate": "6y",
            "authorAnswerCount": "",
            "authorAnswerViewsCount": "",
            "originallyAnswered": "",
            "originallyAnsweredLink": "https://www.quora.com/What-will-happen-to-me-if-I-stop-playing-video-games/answer"
          }
        },
        "answerLink": "https://www.quora.com/What-will-happen-to-me-if-I-stop-playing-video-games/answer/Teofil-Codrin-Bradea-Br%C3%A2nza%C5%9F",
        "answerText": [
          "10 minutes: A tear will come out of your eye. 1 hour: You try to lie yourself you don’t need video games. 2 hours: Convulsions. 3 hours: You end up playing video games again."
        ],
        "linksInAnswer": [],
        "ImagesInAnswer": [],
        "answerViewCount": "",
        "answerUpvoteCount": "16",
        "answerDownvoteCount": "",
        "answerShareCount": null,
        "answerCommentCount": null,
        "answerPosition": 3
      }
    ],
    "relatedQuestions": [
      {
        "text": "I have never played video games in my life. I want to start now, but I have no clue about it. How can I start? Where do I start?",
        "link": "https://www.quora.comhttps://www.quora.com/I-have-never-played-video-games-in-my-life-I-want-to-start-now-but-I-have-no-clue-about-it-How-can-I-start-Where-do-I-start"
      },
      {
        "text": "How do I start playing video games on a computer?",
        "link": "https://www.quora.comhttps://www.quora.com/How-do-I-start-playing-video-games-on-a-computer"
      },
      {
        "text": "I quit playing video games. Is that good for me?",
        "link": "https://www.quora.comhttps://www.quora.com/I-quit-playing-video-games-Is-that-good-for-me"
      },
      {
        "text": "I want to start playing video games, where should I start for Xbox?",
        "link": "https://www.quora.comhttps://www.quora.com/I-want-to-start-playing-video-games-where-should-I-start-for-Xbox"
      }
    ]
  }
}

This structured data includes relevant information from the Quora question page, making it easily understandable and ready for further analysis or integration into your projects.

VIII. Storing the JSON Data

In Node.js, the fs (File System) module is a built-in module that provides functionality for interacting with the file system. It allows you to perform operations such as reading from and writing to files, creating directories, and more. In the context of web scraping, the fs module becomes handy when you want to store the scraped JSON data in a file for further use or analysis.

Here's how you can use the fs module to save the JSON data obtained from scraping Quora:

1. Include the fs Module: Start by requiring the fs module at the beginning of your JavaScript code.

const fs = require('fs');

2. Modify the Code to Save JSON Data: Update your existing code (scraper.js) to include a function that writes the JSON data to a file using the fs module.

// import Crawlbase crawling API package
const { CrawlingAPI } = require('crawlbase');

// Import the 'fs' module
const fs = require('fs');

// initializing crawling API
const api = new CrawlingAPI({ token: 'Crawlbase_JS_Token' }); // Replace it with you Crawlbase token

// Quora question URL
const quoraURL = 'https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-start-playing-video-games';

// Defining the targetted scraper in options object.
const options = {
  scraper: 'quora-question',
};

// Crawling API get request execution
api
  .get(quoraURL, options)
  .then((response) => {
    const scrapedData = response.json.body;

    fs.writeFileSync('quora_scraped.json', JSON.stringify({ scrapedData }, null, 2));
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error, 'ERROR');
  });

Execute your JavaScript code, and it will not only print the JSON data to the console but also save it to a file named "quora_scraped.json."

By utilizing the fs module, you can easily store the scraped JSON data, making it easily accessible for future use or integration into your projects. Feel free to customize the saving process according to your needs and preferred file format.

IX. Conclusion

We've explored the process of scraping Quora using the Crawling API, making web scraping a more accessible and efficient task. By utilizing Crawlbase's specialized Quora Question Page scraper, we've demonstrated how to retrieve structured JSON data from Quora's question pages with ease.

As you run the provided code and obtain the scraped JSON data, consider this guide as a starting point for your web scraping endeavors. The simplicity of the Crawling API and the flexibility of Node.js allow you to easily modify the code to suit your specific needs. Whether you want to expand its functionality, integrate it into larger projects, or customize the data storage format, the possibilities are endless.

Remember, the code provided is just a glimpse into the potential of web scraping with Crawlbase. Feel free to experiment, innovate, and tailor the code to unleash the full power of your web scraping projects.

If you want to scrape other social media platforms, check out our guides on:

📜 Facebook Scraper
📜 Linkedin Scraper
📜 Twitter Scraper
📜 Reddit Scraper
📜 Instagram Scraper
📜 Youtube Channel Scraper

And, If you want to browse other JavaScript projects, we recommend checking the links below:

Mastering E-Commerce Web Crawling with JavaScript
How to Scrape G2 Using JavaScript
How to Scrape eBay using JavaScript

If you have questions or need further assistance in your scraping projects, the Crawlbase support team is at your service 24/7. Don't hesitate to reach out for guidance, clarification, or any support you may require on your web scraping ventures.

X. Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Can I use other programming languages with Crawlbase?

Yes, you can use other programming languages to build a Quora scraper with Crawlbase. Crawlbase offers libraries and software development kits (SDKs) for various programming languages, providing flexibility and ease of integration.

Whether you prefer Python, JavaScript, PHP, or another language, you can leverage the tools provided by Crawlbase to optimize the process of building and executing your Quora scraper. You can explore the available libraries and SDKs for free, making the integration process smoother and more accessible.

Q. How do I scrape business information with Python on Quora?

To scrape business information on Quora using Python, you can follow these general steps:

1. Choose the Right Tool: Select the appropriate tool for web scraping. While libraries like BeautifulSoup are popular, consider using the specialized data scrapers provided by the Crawling API. These scrapers are tailored for specific platforms like Quora, making the scraping process more efficient.
2. Understand Quora's Structure: Familiarize yourself with Quora's HTML structure, especially the elements containing the business information you want to scrape.
3. Write Your Python Script: Develop a Python script that sends HTTP requests to Quora, retrieves the HTML content, and extracts the desired business information using the chosen web scraping library.
4. Handle Dynamic Content: Quora may use dynamic content loading techniques. Ensure your script can handle such scenarios using libraries like Selenium if needed.

Q. Can you scrape Quora for free?

Yes, it is possible to create a free Quora scraper. However, building a scraper from scratch may require significant coding expertise, and the development process can be time-consuming. It's important to consider that the more intricate the scraper, the more time it may take, potentially leading to higher costs.

For a more efficient approach, especially if you're looking to save time and resources, you might consider using the Crawling API provided by Crawlbase. The data scrapers of the Crawling API simplifies the scraping process and is designed to be user-friendly, making it an excellent choice for those who want to avoid the complexities of coding a scraper from the ground up.

As an added benefit, Crawlbase provides 1,000 free requests, allowing you to explore the functionality and efficiency of the Crawling API without incurring immediate costs. This can be a valuable resource to help you get started on your scraping project.