title: Pandas read_excel
body: <p>I struggled for a few hours how to read an excel file with pd.read_excel where the path is a website address. I figured out that the link doesn't go directly to the file but just triggers downloading. Is there any easy way to solve it?</p>
  
  <p>Part of code: </p>
  
  <pre><code>link_energy = 'http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/excel_file_tables/2013/Energy%20Indicators.xls'
  df_energy = pd.read_excel(link_energy)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Error message:</p>
  
  <pre><code>XLRDError: Unsupported format, or corrupt file: Expected BOF record; found b'\n\n\n&lt;!DOC'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Probably it's not a problem of pandas but my lack of skills how do do it.</p>