4CAT App and Web Studies

The 4CAT Web Studies extension adds functionality to 4CAT. You can add this extension to any version of 4CAT including installing it on your own computer or laptop. DMI hosts a a version at https://appstudies.digitalmethods.net/ that is available to University of Amsterdam researchers and students by request.

General web studies

• Selenium URL Collector
  • Collect HTML, text, and links from a list of URLs
• Web Archive Collector
  • Use Archive.org's Wayback Machine to collect archives of a URL over time
• Screenshot Generator
  • Take screenshots of web pages

App store studies

• Apple Store apps
• Google Play Store apps

Cloud app store studies

• Microsoft Azure App Store
• Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace
• Google Cloud Marketplace

New analysis processors

• Take screenshots of any column containing URLs
• Detect trackers with Ghostery
  • Use collected source code/HTML and search for links found in Ghostery's database

It is possible (and quite straightforward) to install 4CAT for yourself with Docker. The GitHub repository has more instructions. We also have a playlist of video tutorials.