Web scraping is when you take any online publicly available data and import the found information into any local file on your computer. The main difference here to data scraping is that web scraping requires the internet to be conducted. These definitions also work for crawling too. If it has the word web in it – it involves the internet.

Have you ever wanted to extract a lot of information from a website?

1. Web scraping is an automated method used to extract large amounts of data from websites. The data on the websites are unstructured. Web scraping helps collect these unstructured data and store it in a structured form. There are different ways to scrape websites such as online Services, APIs or writing your own code.
2. Web scraping is a fast and easy way to extract data from the web. It is an automated process using a bot or a web crawler through the HTTP protocol or a web browser. Target data is stored in a central local database or a spreadsheet and is later used for retrieval or analysis. Web scraping service can be applied for different business processes.

Depending on how much data you’re looking to extract, copying and pasting might not do the job.

Here’s where web scraping can help. Today we will define web scraping and go over how it differs from other similar terms.

What is web scraping?

Web scraping refers to the process of extracting data from a website on to a format that is more convenient for the user.

Web scraping can be done manually, however, automated tools are usually preferred due to speed, convenience, and lower costs.

These automated tools are known as Web Scrapers. These can have different sets of features depending on the kind of website you’re looking to scrape.

Want to learn more about web scraping? Check our in-depth guide on web scraping and what it is used for.

Web Scraping vs Web Crawling

Web Scraping is often confused with Web Crawling. However, they refer to different processes.

Web Crawling refers to the process of using bots and spiders to read, scrape and store all the data from a website. Most commonly, this technique is used by search engines to build their site indexes. This is how Google can tell if what pages contain the information you’re looking for.

If you want to learn more, read our guide on the differences between web scraping and web crawling.

Web Scraping vs Data Mining

Web Scraping is also often confused with Data Mining. Again, in this case, both refer to separate processes.

Data Mining refers to the process of in-depth analysis of massively large databases.

These analyses can be advanced enough to require the use of complex algorithms and AI.

While Web Scraping can be used to build the data sets that will be analyzed via Data Mining, they still stand as separate processes.

Want to learn more? Read our in-depth article about the differences between Web Scraping and Data Mining.

Web Scraping vs API

Lastly, Web Scraping is often also confused with APIs. After all, they do refer to very similar processes.

An API (Application Programming Interface) refers to a set of procedures and protocols that allow for the access of data from a specific database. For example, a weather forecast agency can build an API for news agencies and developers to access weather data and build their own tools or content.

In cases where an API might not be available, a web scraper can help you in accessing the data you want via extraction.

Want to learn more? Read our article about the differences between APIs and Web Scraping.

Getting Started with Web Scraping

Now that you know the basics of web scraping, you might be interested in starting your first web scraping project.

While it might sound intimidating, web scraping is way easier than you think. It can also be done with free tools.

In fact, we’ve put together a step-by-step tutorial on how to scrape data from any website for free.

Happy Scraping!

So, you’ve heard all about web scraping.

Now, it’s time to build your first web scraping project and you might not know where to begin.

One of the first steps toward completing your project will be choosing a web scraping technique.

Today, we’ll review some of the most popular web scraping techniques and which might be the best fit for your business.

What is Web Scraping?

First, a quick refresher on web scraping.

As you may already know, web scraping refers to the extraction of data from any website. Due to its broad definition web scraping can be done in many different ways.

However, you must make sure you don’t confuse web scraping with data mining or APIs.

Want to learn more? Read our guide on what web scraping is and what it is used for.

Web Scraping Techniques

With the refresher out of the way, let’s break down the most common web scraping techniques.

Manual Scraping

Not surprisingly, web scraping can be done manually. All you need is the ability to copy/paste information and a spreadsheet to keep track of the extracted data.

This method comes with many pros and cons.

Pros Download drive detective torrentsoftrareabcsoft.

• Arguably the easiest method of web scraping, no need to learn any new set of skills to perform the scraping
• Allows for human checks of every data point to avoid errors or skip irrelevant data records during your extraction.
• Due to how slow manual scraping can go, it is highly unlikely to get blocked from accessing the website you’re extracting data from.

Cons

• Arguably the slowest method of web scraping. Even at top speeds, a web scraping bot will be significantly faster than a human at scraping data.
• Time is money, therefore, manual web scraping can be quite expensive if only for the time investment. It can be even more expensive if you’re paying someone to do scrape the data.
• With human precision also comes human error. Depending on how important data accuracy is for you, human error can cost you quite a lot.

Automated Scraping

On the other side of the spectrum, we have automated web scraping.

Automated web scraping tools have become increasingly popular due their ease of use and savings in time and costs.

These tools also come in many different shapes and sizes, from simple browser extensions to more powerful software solutions.

Pros

Web Scraper Meaning

• Allow for incredibly fast web scraping, extracting hundreds of records in mere seconds
• Time=money. These tools allow for large savings in web scraping costs.
• They are easy to use. Most modern web scrapers have implemented incredibly friendly UIs that allow anyone to scrape data from the web without the need for any coding skills.
• Most web scrapers offer free plans to scrape data at even lower costs.
• Modern web scrapers can be run on a schedule and made to output data to a Google Sheet or as a JSON file. Essentially creating a live API for any data set on the web.

Cons

• Might require some slight training on how to use the tool itself. Some tools tackle this by implementing friendly UIs and tutorials.
• Some websites actively try to block web scrapers from extracting their data. Some tools tackle this by using tools such as IP Rotation.
• Lack of human checks while the data is being extracted. We recommend you review your data extractions from your web scraper before using the data set.

Outsourced Web Scraping

What Is Web-scraping

Lastly, we wanted to also discuss outsourced web scraping.

After all, you might not want to bother with managing your web scraping projects yourself. In this scenario, you might decide to outsource your web scraping projects.

In this case, you must be wary of the methods used by the contractor you have selected.

What Does Web Scraping Mean

• What web scraper techniques are they using?
• Are they extracting data from sources you’ve approved of?
• Do they allow you to review the data and ask for re-do’s as necessary?

What is the best web scraper?

You now might be wondering what’s the best web scraper for your project.

The truth is that it depends on your specific needs and projects. However, we’ve put together a guide on how to find the best web scraper for your project.

We obviously recommend ParseHub, a free a powerful web scraper than can extract data from any website.

Happy Scraping!