What to do when websites change and your spider doesn't know

Short summary

Silent data corruption occurs when websites change structure but return syntactically valid values. Create normalized structural fingerprints of stable page elements and compare hashes across requests to detect real changes while filtering cosmetic noise. Use fingerprints as review triggers, not automatic alerts.

• •Schema drift is most dangerous when extraction returns plausible-but-wrong data
• •Normalize HTML fingerprints to capture structural changes while ignoring cosmetic variations
• •Treat hash mismatches as smoke alarms requiring human review, not automatic actions

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.