idealista

Selector-First Thinking Saves Your Scraper

A Dev.to technical post by Nova Chen (Automation Dev Advocate at SIÁN Agency) argues that web scrapers break when engineers write extraction logic before choosing stable selectors. The article promotes a "selector-first" mindset: decide how the page identifies data before coding. It presents a selector-priority ladder (semantic/accessibility selectors, data-* attributes, structured data such as JSON-LD) and treats CSS class chains as a last-resort fallback. Chen gives a three-step checklist (inspect the accessibility tree, search for application/ld+json, look for data-* attributes), a 10-line Playwright-style extraction example prioritizing JSON-LD then semantic selectors and data attributes, and a brief case study: applying this approach to an Idealista scraper reduced selector fixes from roughly every 6 weeks to twice a year, with JSON-LD covering ~95% of listings. The post links to an Apify Idealista actor and encourages audits when CSS fallbacks are used.

Eurovision in Vienna: The Million‑Euro Business

The article analyzes the financing behind the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, explaining how the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), participating broadcasters and commercial sponsors jointly fund the event. Despite a boycott by five countries over Israel’s participation, the contest’s business model remains intact: high TV reach (more than 160 million viewers annually, peak >200 million in 2016) supports sponsor deals, ticket sales and tele-voting revenue. Big contributors pay much higher participation fees (the “Big 5” estimated at €350k–€640k); Germany’s entry costs about €500k and is covered by public broadcasters. Host-city and broadcaster budgets are substantial: Vienna budgeted €22.6 million, ORF expects €16 million, and Eco Austria estimates Stadthalle rent at ~€12 million. Major international sponsors for ESC 2026 include Moroccanoil, Easyjet, Idealista and Zoop; national partners and local sponsors also generate revenue. Artists typically receive no participation fee; winners gain exposure and potential downstream earnings from touring and streaming.