Here is a 364 word article comparing sockets and urllib in Python:

Network Programming in Python: Sockets vs. urllib

When writing network applications in Python, two common options for sending and receiving data over the network are the socket module and the urllib module. But what are the differences between these two approaches?

Sockets Provide Low-Level Network Access

The socket module enables low-level access to your computer's underlying network interface. Sockets allow you to:

For example, here is client-server communication using TCP sockets:

# Server
import socket

server = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) 
server.bind(("127.0.0.1", 8000))
server.listen()
client, addr = server.accept()
data = client.recv(1024)
client.send(b"Received")

# Client
import socket

client = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
client.connect(("127.0.0.1", 8000))
client.send(b"Hello")
data = client.recv(1024)

The socket approach is very flexible, but lower-level than other modules. You have fine-grained control but also more complexity.

urllib Simplifies HTTP Requests

The urllib module provides an easy interface for fetching data from HTTP and FTP servers. For example:

from urllib import request

with request.urlopen('https://python.org') as response:
   html = response.read()

urllib handles low-level network details behind the scenes. It supports HTTP features like cookies, redirects, proxies, and authentication without extra effort.

So in summary:

The choice depends on your specific application! Sockets are useful for custom protocols, while urllib works great for basic HTTP APIs.