Web scraping or web data extraction works a bit similarly to how search engines index websites using web crawlers or bots, except that time it aims to transform unstructured data (like HTML) into structured data that can be kept and analyzed in a spreadsheet or a local database. It used to be accomplished by means of copy and pasting, which was heavily reliant on manual human labor. This old method can take lot of time and effort, leaving you unable to focus on other important matters and tasks at hand. It’s better to turn to advanced methods for web data extraction—such as using specially developed software, using custom web crawlers and data miners, and/or outsourcing the service to seasoned providers. Here is a list of a few common methods of web data extraction:
HTTP programming – Dynamic and static web pages are retrieved when HTTP requests are posted to a remote web server through socket programming.
Extraction software – State-of-the-art web scraping software comes with web crawlers that can be customized for every web data extraction requirement. It is developed to automatically do its task and verify the data to ensure accuracy and reliability. With advanced analytic capability, you can be sure that you can receive prompt and accurate results that will be saved in your desired format, such as XML, JSON, CSV, SQL, or XLSX. It can be used to extract contacts from social media sites, aggregate data from business directories, obtain pricing and product details from ecommerce portals, and get property and agent details from real estate websites. You do not need to be a programming genius to be able to use this software.
HTML parsers – Websites typically have vast collections of pages that are dynamically generated from a database or another underlying structured source. Data within the same category are usually encoded into the same pages by a template or a common script. A data mining program can detect those templates in a given information source. It then extracts the content, which is then translated into a wrapper, a relational form. Wrapper generation algorithms are programmed to think that a wrapper induction system’s input pages follow a common template, so it identifies them using a URL common scheme.
About The Author:
Ronak Shah is the co-founder of WebDataGuru, a brand that deals in web data extraction. WebDataGuru extracts web data based on customer specifications from the targeted websites. They offer various software’s like web crawler software, data collection tools and much more. With an experience of over 7 years in the web data extraction industry, they provide services involving web data extraction, python web scraping and processing right from popular websites extractors to highly customized and specialized price comparison service.
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WebDataGuru Joined: April 12th, 2016 Articles Posted: 30
