Do you know what’s common between an entrepreneur starting their business, an owner of the world’s top company, a journalist, a marketer, and an analyst? They all rely on data.
Accurate data is the backbone of any business’s success because it offers ways to strategize your existing business and take it to new heights.
Many industries utilize web scraping to collect large volumes of data. On top of that, they suggest it to other companies.
But what exactly is web scraping, how does it work, and how has it changed over the years? We’ll discuss this in the guide below.
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What Is Web Scraping?
Web scraping means extracting data from any website. Although you can do it manually, industries prefer using automated tools for scraping data. The latter process is cost-effective and works faster – reasons enough to consider it.
Oftentimes, websites do not have data for you to copy and paste. Here’s also when web scraping saves your day. You can extract the data – in an automated way – from any online website.
Further, the procedure also converts and saves data into a preferred format. This allows for more convenient data extraction and analysis.
Web Scraping – Then Vs. Now
The history of web scraping is as old as the hills. It all began from the time the internet first emerged.
Although today it is described as a method used to collect content from the internet, it wasn’t utilized precisely for this purpose back in the day.
Initially, it was introduced to automate complex and troublesome tasks. Today, people essentially use it for commercial purposes. From scraping competitor product prices to attracting new customers and boosting sales, companies have used it to their full advantage – and have benefited tremendously.
Although sharing data online is pretty simple, retrieving and downloading it isn’t as straightforward. With more people on the world wide web, the amount of data increases with each passing day. It’s challenging to collect data on a large scale because IP blocking is an issue that every developer encounters. If you want to know how to crawl a website without getting blocked, you should learn about advanced web scraping tools and how they help companies deal with various issues.
Importance of Web Scraping
Web scraping – if used right – can benefit your existing business beyond what you can think. A look into its substantial advantages will provide a clear picture of its importance.
Automation
A powerful web scraper allows you to download data automatically. Consequently, it saves time otherwise spent on tedious manual data extraction tasks.
Data automation also signifies that you can collect larger volumes of data than a human can deal with at a given time.
You can also create robust web crawlers to automate your online activities with web scraping software or programming languages like PHP, Javascript, Python, and others.
Cost-Effectiveness
Manual data collection necessitates more employees and escalated budgets. Web scraping, however, resolves the problem like other digital technologies.
Different services available on the market help you do it cost-effectively. However, note that it largely depends on your project goals, the amount of data required, and extraction tools. Nonetheless, you can always calculate costs beforehand to determine yours.
Speed
While incentives are probably the first and most enticing thing for any employee, it wouldn’t be wrong to consider speed as the second most valuable asset for the workforce.
Luckily, web scraping ends manual data collection and automates the entire process, speeding it up. You can scrape websites at a blazing fast speed without the need to watch and control every request.
You can set up the scraper, and it will take an hour or so to finish the entire data collection – a process that typically takes a week to complete.
Low Maintenance
Maintenance is one of the primary factors companies consider when installing new services.
Fortunately, web scraping requires little to no maintenance in the long run. Therefore, your company would not undergo significant, unwanted budget changes.
Varying Datasets
Web scraping technologies give you an insight into unique and rich datasets. Because the internet isn’t limited to text-based information, you might need to collect varying data.
Consider you’re interested in American volleyball and wish to understand its market in depth. You can access video content, historical match stats, betting odds, and more, all with web scraping tools.
Various Developments In Web Scraping
Web scraping techniques and technologies are developing with each passing day. Because companies face a set of challenges during data collection, various tools do the heavy lifting and overcome the complexities of the process.
Advanced web scraper APIs gained traction in the past few years, and for good reasons. Here are the main criteria when choosing a reliable web scraper API:
- A trustworthy web scraper API allows you to collect the HTML from almost any web page and gives you ready-to-access data.
- It should handle Javascript rendering, browsers, proxies, and CAPTCHAs.
- With a handy scraping tool, you should access unlimited public data without getting blocked.
- You should be able to customize requests, and it should be easy to use; you don’t have to spend a lot of time learning to use it.
Conclusion
Web scraping works for everyone wanting to collect data from the web.
Initially, it offered limited features due to fewer available tools. However, today, the process has become much more efficient. Several tools make data extraction even faster and more convenient.
Advanced web scraper API is also a software that solves many challenges presented when harvesting data, easing the entire process for you.
