Web Scraping Usage & Features
The definition of web scraping is an automated method to collect a large amount of data from a website. Usually, on a website, the stored data are unstructured HTML. The main concept of web scrap is to collect these unstructured data and convert it into structured data in a spreadsheet. However, the spreadsheet data can use for data manipulation or do any changes to it.
Web scraping consists of two terms, one is a scraper and another one is a crawler. The crawler is an artificial intelligence application that searches the internet links for particular data. Again, the scraper is a specific tool to extract the data form the selected websites.
In simple words, web scraping is the simple way to capture and store the data which is displaying on a website page.
Below is a detailed discussion about web scraper.
How to Use Web Scraper:
The using process of Web Scraper is a three-step process.
In steps one, a suitable Web Scraper need to design. The design can vary according to the complexity and scope of a project. The design needs to be unique and must have the compatibility to extract the data from the target websites.
The second step involves the extraction of data. While extracting, it is provided the URLs of the required sites. Then it loads all the HTML codes of the sites. Again, the advanced scraping application can extract the CSS and Java scripts as well.
Finally, the scraper obtains the required data and displays it in a structured format. Ultimately, the data is stored and displayed according to the user requirement. Most of the users like it in a raw format like an excel spreadsheet. While others prefer some other format such as a JSON file.
What Can Web Scraper Be Used For:
Web Scraping can use for multiple purposes in various industries. Below is a brief discussion.
Market Research:
Web Scraping use for market research by analyzing the extracted data. The data analysis can give an idea about the present and future market trends. The result of the analysis provides the future strategic direction to the company.
Price Comparison:
Web scraping enables the opportunity to compare the price between own and competitor companies. It can provide to fix the pricing effect of the product of a company.
News Monitoring:
News monitoring provides detailed news of a company. Web Scraping enables to accumulate all the news relates to a particular company and can control their media reputation as well.
Analysis of Social Media:
Companies can use Web Scraping to gather data from various social media to know the sentiment of the users towards a particular product. This action involves getting ideas about the desired and demand of users.
Email Marketing:
Email marketing is important now these days. Email marketing helps to gain more sales and facilitate promoting a product. Web Scraping enables to collect a bulk amount of email address which allows sending product and promotional information.
Job Search:
An online job search is time-consuming and confusing without web scraping. In the case of web scraping, it offers easy job searches by accumulating all the search results on a single page.
What Features Web Scraper Should Have:
A Web Scraper must have the below features.
1. Easy creation of a new project. Sometimes, it is tough to create a new project for wizard-based windows. There needs a step-by-step method to start a new project easily.
2. In the case of web scraping, the tool needs to crawl into millions of websites. The crawling task is time-consuming. Because of this, web scraper should be less time-consuming. A reputed Web Scraper can crawl through more than 30 threads at the same time which leads to saving time.
3. Web Scraper should be able to extract data from any type of website. Presently, the websites are developed in a more advanced way. So, a web scraper should have the function to fit with the recent websites.
4. The best Web Scraper should have the ability to maintain an auto run process. The scraping should process any time without any manipulation.
In Conclusion:
Web Scraping is a golden gate for a company’s growth. There may be lots of pros & cons involved in Web Scraping. It is the best and effective way to get data and use the data for gaining higher market value. However, web scraping can be used for various illogical purposes.
The users should be well educated about the rules and regulations regarding web scraping.
