Data scraping or more preferably web scraping is extracting data from a website into a local file or spreadsheet on your computer. It is a method of importing information to a human-readable output.
1. Data Scraping – Make the
Best of Data
Data scraping or more preferably web scraping is extracting data from a
website into a local file or spreadsheet on your computer. It is a method of
importing information to a human-readable output. Data scraping also termed
as Web Harvesting or Web Data Extraction is employed to extract a large
chunk of data and save it to a database in spreadsheet format. It is most
efficiently used to collect data from various websites. Even data scraping helps
2. in channelling information from one website to another. Generally, data
transfer from one program to another is totally computer-centric. No
involvement of human interaction is required. Data scraping is generally
considered, inelegant technique, often used only as a “last resort” when no
other mechanism for data interchange is available. Data displayed by websites
can only be seen using browsers. There are no functionality of the option for
saving an offline version in your device. One has to manually copy and paste
the data which is a very tedious and time-consuming job It can take days to
extract data and import it to a local file in your device. To curb this problem
and to make the process easier data scraping software is used. They perform
the same task within a fraction of second. This web scraping software would
automatically load and extract data from multiple sites depending upon your
preference and requirements. Just one click away you can file and document
the information directly from the websites. The basics for web scraping is
relatively easy to master.
Popular uses of data scraping
Data scraping is used popularly to channel constructive data from website to
another or from multiple websites to your local file on computer. Data
scraping Popular uses of web data scraping includes–
3. ➢ Research purposes- Generally when we intend to do research on a
particular topic, this technology comes handy in analyzing and
channeling data directly between various websites offering you the
information as per requirement.
➢ Comparing cost and price change monitoring – It is also used for travel
booking of tickets in various price comparing sites.
➢ Contact scraping- It is used to obtain access to customer’s email account
for marketing purposes.
➢ Sending product details from an e-commerce site to another online
vendor.
➢ Weather data comparison.
➢ Gathering real estate listings.
➢ Web data integration and web mashup.
Technique
Web scraping is process of automatically mining and extracting
information from internet and document it. The field is actively developing. It
ranges from fully automatic computerized programs to programs requiring
human-computer interaction. Data scraping are structured on basis of-
Human manual copy-and-paste, Text pattern matching, HTTP programming
and parsing, computer vision webpage analysis and so on.
Dark side of Data Scraping
Despite having the positive views, data scraping technology gets abused by a
small proportion. The most prevalent misuse being email harvesting leading
to scamming and spamming of email addresses of the customers. There is an
ongoing legal battle prevalent between the data scrappers and website
developers.
4. Conclusion
Data scraping in modern times has advanced the internet usage, marketing
and management to a whole new dimension. The job which demanded days
can be finished within few seconds. Extensively used in marketing and
artificial intelligence analysis it’s importance cannot be ignored.
www.itsyssolutions.com
Mail: info@itsyssolutions.com
Call
+1-(518) 481-3433
Thanks for Reading.
-