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What Is JSON?

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight, text-based data-interchange format that represents structured data as key-value pairs, widely used for transmitting data between servers and applications.

Why JSON is the standard for data APIs

JSON is human-readable, language-independent, and maps cleanly onto structured records like a product listing or a real estate record, making it the default output format for most data APIs and scraping tools.

Example structure

A JSON record for a scraped product might include fields such as name, price, currency, and availability, nested in a single object that’s easy for any programming language to parse.