diff --git a/README.rdoc b/README.rdoc
index a115b186..39084301 100644
--- a/README.rdoc
+++ b/README.rdoc
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ See http://anemone.rubyforge.org for more information.
 * Built-in BFS algorithm for determining page depth
 * Allows exclusion of URLs based on regular expressions
 * Choose the links to follow on each page with focus_crawl()
+* Allows to stop crawl
 * HTTPS support
 * Records response time for each page
 * CLI program can list all pages in a domain, calculate page depths, and more
diff --git a/lib/anemone/core.rb b/lib/anemone/core.rb
index d1629a49..d1c4bd5f 100644
--- a/lib/anemone/core.rb
+++ b/lib/anemone/core.rb
@@ -55,7 +55,11 @@ class Core
       # proxy server port number
       :proxy_port => false,
       # HTTP read timeout in seconds
-      :read_timeout => nil
+      :read_timeout => nil,
+      #limit number of crawled pages queue
+      :pages_queue_limit => 1000,
+      #limit number of unique allowed links per crawl (TODO: move links queue to external storage)
+      :links_limit => 500000
     }
 
     # Create setter methods for all options to be called from the crawl block
@@ -79,6 +83,7 @@ def initialize(urls, opts = {})
       @skip_link_patterns = []
       @after_crawl_blocks = []
       @opts = opts
+      @stop_crawl = false
 
       yield self if block_given?
     end
@@ -142,6 +147,18 @@ def focus_crawl(&block)
       self
     end
 
+    #
+    # Signals the crawler that it should stop the crawl before visiting the
+    # next page.
+    #
+    # This method is expected to be called within a page block, and it signals
+    # the crawler that it must stop after the current page is completely
+    # processed.  All pages and links currently on queue are discared.
+    #
+    def stop_crawl
+      @stop_crawl = true
+    end
+
     #
     # Perform the crawl
     #
@@ -152,7 +169,7 @@ def run
       return if @urls.empty?
 
       link_queue = Queue.new
-      page_queue = Queue.new
+      page_queue = SizedQueue.new(@opts[:pages_queue_limit])
 
       @opts[:threads].times do
         @tentacles << Thread.new { Tentacle.new(link_queue, page_queue, @opts).run }
@@ -163,24 +180,32 @@ def run
       loop do
         page = page_queue.deq
         @pages.touch_key page.url
-        puts "#{page.url} Queue: #{link_queue.size}" if @opts[:verbose]
+        puts "#{page.url} Queue: #{link_queue.size} PageQueue #{page_queue.size}" if @opts[:verbose]
         do_page_blocks page
         page.discard_doc! if @opts[:discard_page_bodies]
 
-        links = links_to_follow page
-        links.each do |link|
-          link_queue << [link, page.url.dup, page.depth + 1]
+
+        if link_queue.size < @opts[:links_limit] and !@stop_crawl
+          links = links_to_follow page
+          links.each do |link|
+            link_queue << [link, page.url.dup, page.depth + 1]
+          end
+          @pages.touch_keys links
         end
-        @pages.touch_keys links
 
         @pages[page.url] = page
 
+        if @stop_crawl
+          link_queue.clear
+        end
+
         # if we are done with the crawl, tell the threads to end
         if link_queue.empty? and page_queue.empty?
           until link_queue.num_waiting == @tentacles.size
             Thread.pass
+            break unless page_queue.empty? #page queue could be filled again by waiting threads 
           end
-          if page_queue.empty?
+          if page_queue.empty? 
             @tentacles.size.times { link_queue << :END }
             break
           end
diff --git a/lib/anemone/storage/redis.rb b/lib/anemone/storage/redis.rb
index f063a5f4..2a430a74 100644
--- a/lib/anemone/storage/redis.rb
+++ b/lib/anemone/storage/redis.rb
@@ -5,10 +5,12 @@ module Storage
     class Redis
 
       MARSHAL_FIELDS = %w(links visited fetched)
+      DOZEN_HOURS = 43200
 
       def initialize(opts = {})
         @redis = ::Redis.new(opts)
         @key_prefix = opts[:key_prefix] || 'anemone'
+        @expiration = opts[:key_expiration] || DOZEN_HOURS
         keys.each { |key| delete(key) }
       end
 
@@ -23,9 +25,12 @@ def []=(key, value)
         MARSHAL_FIELDS.each do |field|
           hash[field] = Marshal.dump(hash[field])
         end
+        key_vals = []
         hash.each do |field, value|
-          @redis.hset(rkey, field, value)
+          key_vals += [field, value]
         end
+        @redis.hmset(rkey, key_vals)
+        @redis.expire(rkey, @expiration)
       end
 
       def delete(key)
diff --git a/spec/core_spec.rb b/spec/core_spec.rb
index 775c79f1..d61d418b 100644
--- a/spec/core_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/core_spec.rb
@@ -227,6 +227,37 @@ module Anemone
           core = Anemone.crawl(@pages[0].url, @opts.merge({:depth_limit => 3}))
           core.should have(4).pages
         end
+
+        it "should stop crawl if requested" do
+          num_pages = 0
+          Anemone.crawl(@pages[0].url, @opts.merge({:pages_queue_limit => 1})) do |anemone|
+          anemone.on_every_page do
+            num_pages += 1
+            anemone.stop_crawl if num_pages == 2
+          end
+        end
+        num_pages.should == 2
+        end
+
+        it "should limit number of links per crawl" do
+          num_pages = 0
+          Anemone.crawl(@pages[0].url, @opts.merge({:links_limit => 0})) do |anemone|
+            anemone.on_every_page do
+              num_pages += 1
+            end
+          end
+          num_pages.should == 1
+        end
+
+        it "should limit pages queue per crawl" do
+          num_pages = 0
+          Anemone.crawl(@pages[0].url, @opts.merge({:pages_queue_limit => 1})) do |anemone|
+            anemone.on_every_page do
+              num_pages += 1
+            end
+          end
+          num_pages.should == 5
+        end
       end
 
     end