Web Data Scraping - Scrape Business Data in no time

The Internet has evolved as one of the largest repositories of information for your business. You can design intelligent business processes to access a whole host of relevant information sources that will help you strategize, implement and deliver effective business objectives. Leveraging the benefits and usefulness of Web Scraping Tools is one such methodology that most businesses have adopted. Let us take a look at some of the ways it helps you easily scrape data relevant for your business.

Scraping for Business Information

Web Data Scraping is a technique, employed by most organizations. It involves the implementation of tools that help businesses extract unstructured data and convert them into usable business information. The focus of most scraping initiatives revolves around the organization’s need to glean the following information:

•    Competitor analysis to structure and strategist effectively

•    Price comparisons to price their products competitively

•    Customer feedbacks to enhance their product portfolio and provide customers with better brand experience   Market dynamics to help them identify areas of opportunities and threats

Using Scraping Tools

The abundance of information available on the Internet that helps you build up a productive business strategy can be easily extracted and leveraged to benefit your business. Tools have been designed with intuitive interface and intelligent algorithms which help in furthering this end.

Website Data Scraping tools are equipped for compatibility with a wide variety of applications so as to be able to explore a huge range of information sources.  These tools are fully automated and display the drag and drop facility ensuring users get to leverage the benefits of speed and convenience.

Data extraction tools are not only adept at extracting data, but are also equally well-equipped to combine relevant statistics from several social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Google Analytics and so on. This helps businesses to analyse trends and plan strategies accordingly.

Challenges of the Data Scraping Process

Just as there is no dearth of data to be collected from the Web, there is also an abundance of web scraping tools to execute the data collection process. However, the capability of the tool to help you collect the appropriate data needs to be assured before you can proceed with its implementation. Some of the challenges faced by most businesses owing to their wrong choice of tools include the following:

•    Run-of-the-mill extraction tools are unable to scale up sufficiently in order to capture large volumes of data

•    Some tools are also unable to establish compatibility with most data sources and therefore do not provide a holistic data collection approach

•    Some tools are also not equipped to conduct an automatic detection of updates made to a data source and therefore end up providing inaccurate data.

In the light of all this it is essential that you identify the right tool for your need and select one that is embedded with an updated technology to help you achieve the following:

•    Ensure that you are able to access the appropriate data that you want

•    Help you structure it in the format you want

•    Provide quick and easy access to all available data sources no matter how complex

•    Run accurately and is a reliable source to help you churn out usable information.

Source: http://scraping-solutions.blogspot.in/2014_07_01_archive.html

Benefits of Scraping Data from Real Estate Website

With so much of growth in the recent times in real estate industry, it is likely that companies would want to create something different or use another method, so as to get desired benefits. Thus, it is best to go with the technological advancements and create real estate websites to get an edge over others in the industry. And to get all the information regarding website content, one can opt for real estate data scraping methods.

About real estate website scraping

Internet has become an important part of our daily lives and in industry marketing procedures too. With the use of website scraping one can easily scrape real estate listing from various websites. One just needs the help of experts and with proper software and tools; they can easily collect all the relevant real estate data from the required real estate websites and make a structured file containing the information. With internet becoming a valid platform for information and data submitted by numerous sources from around the globe, it is necessary to gather them all in one place for companies. In this way, the company can know what it lacks and work upon their strategies so as to gain profit and get to the top of the business world by taking one step at a time.

Uses of real estate website scraping

With proper use of website scraping one can collect and scrape the real estate listings which can help the company in the real estate market area. One can draw the attention of potential customers by designing the company strategies in such a way as contemplating the changing trends in the real estate global arena. All this is done with the help of the data collected from various real estate websites. With the help of proper website, one can collect the data and these get updated whenever new information gets into the web portal. In this way the company is kept updated about the various changes happening around the global market and thus, ensure in making plans regarding the company. This way one can plan ahead and take steps that can lead to the company gaining profits in future.

Thus, with the help of proper real estate website scraping one can be sure of getting all the information regarding real estate market. This way one can work upon making the company move as per the market trends and get a stronghold in real estate business.

Source: https://3idatascraping.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/benefit-of-scraping-data-from-real-estate-website/

Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel - The Perils of Online Article Marketing

Many online article marketers so desperately wish to succeed, they want to dump corporate life and work for themselves out of their home. They decide they are going to create an online money making website. Therefore, they look around to see what everyone else is doing, and watch the methods others use to attract online buyers, and then they mimic their marketing, their strategies, and their business models.

Still, if you are copying what other people (less ethical people) are doing in online article marketing, those which are scraping the bottom of the barrel and using false advertising and misrepresentations, then all you are really doing is perpetuating distrust on the Internet. Therefore, you are hurting everyone, including people like me. You must realize that people like me don't appreciate that.

Let me give you a few examples of some of the things going on out there, thing that are being done by people who are ethically challenged. Far too many people write articles and then on their byline they send the Internet surfer or reader of the article to a website that has a squeeze page. The squeeze page has no real information on it, rather it asks for their name and e-mail address.

If the would-be Internet surfer is unwise enough to type in their name and email address they will be spammed by e-mail, receiving various hard-sell marketing pieces. Then, if the Internet Surfer does decide to put in their e-mail address, the website grants them access and then takes them to the page with information about what they are selling, or their online marketing "make you a millionaire" scheme.

Generally, these are five page sales letters, with tons of testimonials of people you've never heard of, and may not actually exist, and all sorts of unsubstantiated earnings claims of how much money you will make if you give them $39.35 by way of PayPal, for this limited offer "Now!" And they will send you an E-book with a strategic plan of how you can duplicate what they are doing. The reality is whatever they are doing is questionable to begin with.

If you are going to do online article marketing please don't scrape the bottom of the barrel, there's just too much competition down there from what I can see. Please consider all this.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Scraping-the-Bottom-of-the-Barrel---The-Perils-of-Online-Article-Marketing&id=2710103

Hand Scraped Versus Machine Scraped Floors - The Distinction

In society today hardwood flooring has become the new must have. The days of carpet are gone, and if you have looked into bringing your home up to date with the styling of today you will have noticed by now that there are many different options. At times this may become very overwhelming, especially if you are not a hardwood specialist like most people are not. That is why this article is here to help you understand the many different options available to you.

The flooring type covered in this article is hand scraped flooring. This flooring type is a custom look flooring that is in very high demand in flooring marketplace, which is understandable because it is probably the most unique flooring there is. You can choose from many different types of wood species such as oak, maple, hickory, and most exotic species. There is computerized hand scraped that is when the manufacturer makes one piece of wood and places it into a computer that will cut thousands of different wood types with that one design. This type of process is also known as machine scraping. Hardwood floors employing this type of technology usually cost less, but most of the pieces look the same because the hand scraping is done by a machine.

Then you have actual hand scraped flooring that is done all by hand and takes more time and effort than machine scraped. This flooring is made custom each individual piece is scraped and notched in different ways, so every piece is unique. If you decide to purchase actual hand scraped flooring it will cost you more than mass produced computerized version but it will definitely be the more unique option. If you are the type of person who wants to have a one of kind floor then an actual hand scraped floor is the way to go.

So in conclusion hand scraped flooring is a great option for a lot of people. It comes in several different wood types, and several different colors. You can find flooring options for every budget and to meet every style. If having a custom floor in your home it may be important or not important on whether it be computer or done by hand. Most consumers cannot tell the difference between actual hand scraped flooring and machine scraped when just looking at a small sample. So when shopping at your local retailer ask the tough questions and find out if the manufacturer uses machine or authentic hand scrapping on their products.

To view your many options on hand scraped flooring please check out our website that covers all hardwood flooring options.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Hand-Scraped-Versus-Machine-Scraped-Floors---The-Distinction&id=4151157

Some Traps to know and avoid in Web Scraping

In the present day and age, web scraping comes across as a handy tool in the right hands. In essence, web scraping means quickly crawling the web for specific information, using pre-written programs. Scraping efforts are designed to crawl and analyze the data of entire websites, and saving the parts that are needed. Many industries have successfully used web scraping to create massive banks of relevant, actionable data that they use on a daily basis to further their business interests and provide better service to customers. This is the age of the Big Data, and web scraping is one of the ways in which businesses can tap into this huge data repository and come up with relevant information that aids them in every way.

Web scraping, however, does come with its own share of problems and roadblocks. With every passing day, a growing number of websites are trying to actively minimize the instance of scraping and protect their own data to stay afloat in today’s situation of immense competition. There are several other complications which might arise and several traps that can slow you down during your web scraping pursuits. Knowing about these traps and how to avoid them can be of great help if you want to successfully accomplish your web scraping goals and get the amount of data that you require.

Complications in Web Scraping

Over time, various complications have risen in the field of web scraping. Many websites have started to get paranoid about data duplication and data security problems and have begun to protect their data in many ways. Some websites are not generally agreeable to the moral and ethical implications of web scraping, and do not want their content to be scraped. There are many places where website owners can set traps and roadblocks to slow down or stop web scraping activities. Major search engines also have a system in place to discourage scraping of search engine results. Last but not the least, many websites and web services announce a blanket ban on web scraping and say the same in their terms and conditions, potentially leading to legal issues in the event of any scraping.

Here are some of the most common complications that you might face during your web scraping efforts which you should be particularly aware about –

•    Some locations on the intranet might discourage web scraping to prevent data duplication or data theft.

•    Many websites have in place a number of different traps to detect and ban web scraping tools and programs.

•    Certain websites make it clear in their terms and conditions that they consider web scraping an infringement of their privacy and might even consider legal redress.

•    In a number of locations, simple measures are implemented to prevent non-human traffic to websites, making it difficult for web scraping tools to go on collecting data at a fast pace.

To surmount these difficulties, you need a deeper and more insightful understanding of the way web scraping works and also the attitude of website owners towards web scraping efforts. Most major issues can be subverted or quietly avoided if you maintain good working practice during your web scraping efforts and understand the mentality of the people whose sites you are scraping.

Common Problems

With automated scraping, you might face a number of common problems. The behavior of web scraping programs or spiders presents a certain picture to the target website. It then uses this behavior to distinguish between human users and web scraping spiders. Depending on that information, a website may or may not employ particular web scraping traps to stop your efforts. Some of the commonly employed traps are –

Crawling Pattern Checks – Some websites detect scraping activities by analyzing crawling patterns. Web scraping robots follow a distinct crawling pattern which incorporates repetitive tasks like visiting links and copying content. By carefully analyzing these patterns, websites can determine that they are being caused by a web scraping robot and not a human user, and can take preventive measures.

Honeypots – Some websites have honeypots in their webpages to detect and block web scraping activities. These can be in the form of links that are not visible to human users, being disguised in a certain way. Since your web crawler program does not operate the way a human user does, it can try and scrape information from that link. As a result, the website can detect the scraping effort and block the source IP addresses.

Policies – Some websites make it absolutely apparent in their terms and conditions that they are particularly averse to web scraping activities on their content. This can act as a deterrent and make you vulnerable against possible ethical and legal implications.

Infinite Loops – Your web scraping program can be tricked into visiting the same URL again and again by using certain URL building techniques.

These traps in web scraping can prove to be detrimental to your efforts and you need to find innovative and effective ways to surpass these problems. Learning some web crawler tips to avoid traps and judiciously using them is a great way of making sure that your web scraping requirements are met without any hassle.

What you can do

The first and foremost rule of thumb about web scraping is that you have to make your efforts as inconspicuous as possible. This way you will not arouse suspicion and negative behavior from your target websites. To this end, you need a well-designed web scraping program with a human touch. Such a program can operate in flexible ways so as to not alert website owners through the usual traffic criteria used to spot scraping tools.

Some of the measures that you can implement to ensure that you steer clear of common web scraping traps are –

•    The first thing that you need to do is to ascertain if a particular website that you are trying to scrape has any particular dislike towards web scraping tools. If you see any indication in their terms and conditions, tread cautiously and stop scraping their website if you receive any notification regarding their lack of approval. Being polite and honest can help you get away with a lot.

•    Try and minimize the load on every single website that you visit for scraping. Putting a high load on websites can alert them towards your intentions and often might cause them to develop a negative attitude. To decrease the overall load on a particular website, there are many techniques that you can employ.

•    Start by caching the pages that you have already crawled to ensure that you do not have to load them again.

•    Also store the URLs of crawled pages.

•    Take things slow and do not flood the website with multiple parallel requests that put a strain on their resources.

•    Handle your scraping in gentle phases and take only the content you require.

•    Your scraping spider should be able to diversify its actions, change its crawling pattern and present a polymorphic front to websites, so as not to cause an alarm and put them on the defensive.

•    Arrive at an optimum crawling speed, so as to not tax the resources and bandwidth of the target website. Use auto throttling mechanisms to optimize web traffic and put random breaks in between page requests, with the lowest possible number of concurrent requests that you can work with.

•    Use multiple IP addresses for your scraping efforts, or take advantage of proxy servers and VPN services. This will help to minimize the danger of getting trapped and blacklisted by a website.

•    Be prepared to understand the respect the express wishes and policies of a website regarding web scraping by taking a good look at the target ‘robots.txt’ file. This file contains clear instructions on the exact pages that you are allowed to crawl, and the requisite intervals between page requests. It might also specify that you use a pre-determined user agent identification string that classifies you as a scraping bot. adhering to these instructions minimizes the chance of getting on the bad side of website owners and risking bans.

Use an advanced tool for web scraping which can store and check data, URLs and patterns. Whether your web scraping needs are confined to one domain or spread over many, you need to appreciate that many website owners do not take kindly to scraping. The trick here is to ensure that you maintain industry best practices while extracting data from websites. This prevents any incident of misunderstanding, and allows you a clear pathway to most of the data sources that you want to leverage for your requirements.

Hope this article helps in understanding the different traps and roadblocks that you might face during your web scraping endeavors. This will help you in figuring out smart, sensible ways to work around them and make sure that your experience remains smooth. This way, you can keep receiving the important information that you need with web scraping. Following these basic guidelines can help you prevent getting banned or blacklisted and stay in the good books of website owners. This will allow you continue with your web scraping activities unencumbered.

Source: https://www.promptcloud.com/blog/some-traps-to-avoid-in-web-scraping/

Thoughts on scraping SERPs and APIs

Google says that scraping keyword rankings is against their policy from what I've read. Bummer. We comprise a lot of reports and manual finding and entry was a pain. Enter Moz! We still manually check and compare, but it's nice having that tool. I'm confused now though about practices and getting SERPs in an automated way. Here are my questions

1.     Is it against policy to get SERPs from an automated method? If that is the case, isn't Moz breaking this policy with it's awesome keyword tracker?
2.     If it's not, and we wanted to grab that kind of data, how would we do it? Right now, Moz's API doesn't offer this data. I thought Raven Tools at one point offered this, but they don't now from what I've read. Are there any APIs out there that we can grab this data and do what we want with it? (let's day build our own dashboard)?

Thanks for any clarification and input!

Source: http://moz.com/community/q/thoughts-on-scraping-serps-and-apis