What is HTML Scraping and how it works

There are many reasons why there may be a requirement to pull data or information from other sites, and usually the process begins after checking whether the site has an official API. There are very few people who are aware about the presence of structured data that is supported by every website automatically. We are basically talking about pulling data right from the HTML, also referred to as HTML scraping. This is an awesome way of gleaning data and information from third party websites.

Any webpage content that can be viewed can be scraped without any trouble. If there is any way provided by the website to the browser of the visitor to download content and use the same in a highly structured manner, in that case, accessing of the content programmatically is possible. HTML scraping works in an amazing manner.

Before indulging in HTML scraping, one can inspect the browser for network traffic. Site owners have a couple of tricks up their sleeve to thwart this access, but majority of them can be worked around.

Before moving on to how HTML scraping works, we must understand the reasons behind the same. Why is scraping needed? Once you get a satisfactory answer to this question, you can start looking for RSS or API feeds or various other traditional structured data forms. It is significant to understand that when compared with APIs, websites are more significant.

The most important advantage of the same is the maintenance of their websites where a lot of visitors visit rather than safeguarding structured data feeds. With Tweeter, the same has been publicly seen when it clamps down on the developer ecosystem. Many times, API feeds change or move without any prior warning. Many times, it can also be a deliberate attempt, but mostly, such issues or problems erupt as there is no authority or an organization that maintains or takes care of the structured data. It is rarely noticed, if the same gets severely mangled or goes offline. In case the website has certain issues or the website no longer works, the problem is more in the form of a ball in your court requiring dealing with the same without losing any time. api-comic-image

Rate limiting is another factor that needs a lot of thinking and in case of public websites, it virtually doesn’t exist. Besides some occasional sign up pages or captchas, many business websites fail to create and built defenses against any unwarranted automated access. Many times, a single website can be scraped for four hours straight without anyone noticing. There are chances that you would not be viewed under DDOS attack unless concurrent requests are being made by you. You will be seen just as an avid visitor or an enthusiast in the logs, that too, in case anyone is looking.

Another factor in HTML scraping is that one can easily access any website anonymously. Behavior tracking can be done with a few ways by the administrator of the website and this turns out to be beneficial if you want to privately gather the data. Many times, registration is imperative with APIs in order to get key and with any request being sent, this key also needs to be sent. But, in case of simple and straightforward HTTP requests, the visitor can stay anonymous besides cookies and IP address, which can again be spoofed.

The availability of HTML scraping is universal and there is no need to wait for the opening of the site for an API or for contacting anyone in the organization. One simply needs to spend some time and browse websites at a leisurely pace until the data you want is available and then find out the basic patterns to access the same.

Now you need to don a hat of a professional scraper and simply dive in. Initially, it may take some time to work up figuring out the way the data have been structured and the way it can be accessed just as we read APIs. If there is no documentation unlike APIs, you need to be a little more smart about it and use clever tricks.

Some of the most used tricks are

Data Fetching

The first thing that is required is data fetching. Find endpoints to begin with, that is the URLs that can help in returning the data that is required. If you are pretty sure about the data and the way it should be structured so as to match your requirements, you will require a particular subset for the same and later you can indulge in site browsing using the navigation tools.

GET Parameter

The URLs must be paid attention to and see the way it changes as you indulge in clicking between the sections and the way they divide into various subsections. Before starting, the other option that can be used is to straight away go to the search functionality of the site. Certain terms can be typed and the URL needs to be focused again for watching the changes on the basis of what is being searched. A GET parameter will be probably seen like q which changes on the basis of the search term used by you. Other GET parameters that are not being used can be removed from the URL until only the ones that are needed are left for data loading. Before a query string, there must always be a “?” beginning.

Now the time has come when you would have started to come across the data that you would like to see and want to access, but sometimes, there may be certain pagination issues that require to be dealt with. Due to these issues, you may not be able to see the data in its entirety. Single requests are kept away by many APIs as well from database slamming. Many times, clicking the next page can add some offset parameter that helps in data visibility on the page. All these steps will help you succeed in HTML scraping.

Source: https://www.promptcloud.com/blog/what-is-html-scraping-and-how-it-works/

The Nasty Problem with Scraping Results from the Engines

One theme that I've been concerned with this week centers around data transparency in the search engine world. Search engines provide information that is critical to the business of optimizing and growing a business on the web, yet barriers to this data currently force many companies to use methods of data extraction that violate the search engines' terms of service.

Specifically, we're talking about two pieces of information that no large-scale, successful web operation should be without. These include rankings (the position of their site(s) vs. their competitors) for important keywords and link data (currently provided most accurately through Yahoo!, but also available through MSN and in lower quality formats from Google).

Why do marketers and businesses need this data so badly? First we'll look at rankings:

•    For large sites in particular, rankings across the board will go up or down based on their actions and the actions of their competition. Any serious company who fails to monitor tweaks to their site, public relations, press and optimization tactics in this way will lose out to competitors who do track this data and, thus, can make intelligent business decisions based on it.

•    Rankings provide a benchmark that helps companies estimate their global reach in the search results and make predictions about whether certain areas of extension or growth make logical sense. If a company must decide on how to expand their content or what new keywords to target or even if they can compete in new markets, the business intelligence that can be extracted from large swaths of ranking data is critical.

•    Rankings can be mapped directly to traffic, allowing companies to consider advertising, extending their reach or forming partnerships

And, on the link data side:

•    Temporal link information allows marketers to see what effects certain link building, public relations and press efforts have on a site's link profile. Although some of this data is available through referring links in analytics programs, many folks are much more interested in the links that search engines know about and count, which often includes many more than those that pass traffic (and also ignores/doesn't count some that do pass traffic).

•    Link data may provide references for reputation management or tracking of viral campaigns - again, items that analytics don't entirely encompass.

•    Competitive link data may be of critical importance to many marketers - this information can't be tracked any other way.

I admit it. SEOmoz is a search engine scraper - we do it for our free public tools, for our internal research and we've even considered doing it for clients (though I'm seriously concerned about charging for data that's obtained outside TOS). Many hundreds of large firms in the search space (including a few that are 10-20X our size) do it, too. Why? Because search engine APIs aren't accurate.

Let's look at each engine's abilities and data sources individually. Since we've got a few hundred thousand points of data (if not more) on each, we're in a good position to make calls about how these systems are working.

Google (all APIs listed here):

•    Search SOAP API - provides ranking results that are massively different from almost every datacenter. The information is often less than useless, it's actually harmful, since you'll get a false sense of what's happening with your positions.

•    AJAX Search API - This is really designed to be integrated with your website, and the results can be of good quality for that purpose, but it really doesn't serve the job of providing good stats reporting.

•    AdSense & AdWords APIs - In all honesty, we haven't played around with these, but the fact that neither will report the correct order of the ads, nor will they show more than 8 ads at a time tells me that if a marketer needed this type of data, the APIs wouldn't work.

Yahoo! (APIs listed here):

•    Search API - Provides ranking information that is a somewhat accurate map to Yahoo!'s actual rankings, but is occassionally so far off-base that they're not reliable. Our data points show a lot more congruity with Yahoo!'s than Google's, but not nearly enough when compared with scraped results to be valuable to marketers and businesses.

•    Site Explorer API - Shows excellent information as far as number of pages indexed on a site and the link data that Yahoo! knows about. We've been comparing this information with that from scraped Yahoo! search results (for queries like linkdomain: and site:) and those at the Site Explorer page and find that there's very little quality difference in the results returned, though the best estimate numbers can still be found through a last page search of results.

•    Search Marketing API - I haven't played with this one at all, so I'd love to hear comments from those who have.

MSN:

•    Doesn't mind scraping as long as you use the RSS results. We do, we love them and we commend MSN for giving them out - bravo! They've also got a web search SDK program, but we've yet to give it a whirl. The only problem is the MSN estimates, which are so far off as to be useless. The links themselves, though, are useful.

Ask.com

•    Though it's somewhat hidden, the XML.Teoma.com page allows for scraping of results and Ask doesn't seem to mind, though they haven't explicitly said anything. Again, bravo! - the results look solid, accurate and match up against the Ask.com queries. Now, if Ask would only provide links

I know a lot of you are probably asking:

•    "Rand, if scraping is working, why do you care about the search engines fixing the APIs?"

•    The straight answer is that scraping hurts the search engines, hurts their users and isn't the most practical way to get the data. Let me give you some examples:

•    Scraped queries have to look as much like real users as possible to avoid detection and banning - thus, they affect the query data that search engineers use to improve web search.

•    These queries also hit advertisers - falsifying the number of "real" impressions that advertisers see and lowering their CTRs unnaturally.

•    They take up search engine resources and though even the heaviest scraping barely impacts their server loads, it's still an annoyance.

•    With all these negative elements, and so many positive incentives to have the data, it's clear what's needed - a way for marketers/businesses to get the data they need without hurting the search engines. Here's how they can do it:

•    Provide the search ranking position of a site in the referral string - this works for ranking data, but not for link data and since Yahoo! (and Google) both send referrals through re-directs at times, it wouldn't be a hard piece to add.

•    Make the API's accurate, complete and unlimited

•    If the last option is too ambitious, the search engines could charge for API queries - anyone who needs the data would be more than happy to pay for it. This might help with quality control, too.

•    For link data - serve up accurate, wholistic data in programs like Google Sitemaps and Yahoo! Search Submit (or even, Google Analytics). Obviously, you'd only get information about your own site after verifying.

I've talked to lots of people at the search engine level about making changes this week (including Jeremy, Priyank, Matt, Adam, Aaron, Brett and more). I can only hope for the best...

Source: http://moz.com/blog/the-nasty-problem-with-scraping-results-from-the-engines

Pick the top data extraction services for your needs

Data extraction has changed the way companies gather the information that they require. Long gone are the days when company dedicated entire teams to the gathering and organization of data, and instead they have come to use automated web data extraction software solutions. These solutions are faster, cheaper, and produce the result that you want in an easy manner.

How can web data extraction software help you?

There are virtually unlimited data on the internet, and you can have access to anything as long as it is in the public domain. But finding this information on your own can be one of the biggest challenges you can ever face. Collecting information on something as simple as product descriptions for an eCommerce store can take months and you still might not have complete information. No matter what field or topic, if information about it is available online, web data extraction software will find it.

Typical uses of data extraction service

There are many instances when a web data extraction service is the only sure way to get the amount of data that you require. The quality extraction software can also ensure a high level of quality in this data, and provide you the information that you require at the best prices:

•     Get the latest updates on classified websites in your region or area of interest. You can even have the data extraction customized to collect only emails or phone numbers.
•     Extract all useful information from online directories and yellow pages
•     Get every contact information that can be found on a website in the shortest possible time
•     Keep up with the job market, and get all the latest vacancies as soon as they are updated online.
•     Use the web data extraction software to generate viable business leads for you. Point it in the right direction and let it forward all relevant information to you immediately
•     Keep abreast of all the policy changes for your township, city, or country by monitoring updates on the official websites for the related organizations.
•     Follow updates from key people in your industry by extracting all the updates that they make on their social media profiles.
•     Download entire websites and have them available locally whenever you need them
•     Get web bots that not only index all the websites which you are trying to target, but also help you get access to everything that is stored on them
•     Get business intelligence that it critical to your growth in a timely and highly cost efficient manner.

There is simply too much that is possible when you make use of web data extraction services. The power that they put at your fingertips is impressive. You get complete control, and can put in highly specific requests. In fact, you can focus your data extraction efforts by websites and get tools that are designed specifically for a website. With options like LinkedIn Scraper, Google Maps Scraper and Facebook scraper available, you will never face any data shortage problems.

Websitedatascraping.com is enough capable to web data scraping, website data scraping, web scraping services, website scraping services, data scraping services, product information scraping and yellowpages data scraping.

Web Data Extraction Services and Data Collection Form Website Pages

For any business market research and surveys plays crucial role in strategic decision making. Web scrapping and data extraction techniques help you find relevant information and data for your business or personal use. Most of the time professionals manually copy-paste data from web pages or download a whole website resulting in waste of time and efforts.

Instead, consider using web scraping techniques that crawls through thousands of website pages to extract specific information and simultaneously save this information into a database, CSV file, XML file or any other custom format for future reference.

Examples of web data extraction process include:

• Spider a government portal, extracting names of citizens for a survey

• Crawl competitor websites for product pricing and feature data

• Use web scraping to download images from a stock photography site for website design

Automated Data Collection

Web scraping also allows you to monitor website data changes over stipulated period and collect these data on a scheduled basis automatically. Automated data collection helps you discover market trends, determine user behavior and predict how data will change in near future.

Examples of automated data collection include:

• Monitor price information for select stocks on hourly basis

• Collect mortgage rates from various financial firms on daily basis

• Check whether reports on constant basis as and when required

Using web data extraction services you can mine any data related to your business objective, download them into a spreadsheet so that they can be analyzed and compared with ease.

In this way you get accurate and quicker results saving hundreds of man-hours and money!

With web data extraction services you can easily fetch product pricing information, sales leads, mailing database, competitors data, profile data and many more on a consistent basis.

Should you have any queries regarding Web Data extraction services, please feel free to contact us. We would strive to answer each of your queries in detail.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Web-Data-Extraction-Services-and-Data-Collection-Form-Website-Pages&id=4860417

Why Online Coverage Matters

To track online coverage is not just a fad these days. It is one of the tools that everyone can use to maintain a good image; monitor responses from guests or clients; and sell your ideas, products or services. It is one of the innovations of the computer age that has really made online presence a very strategic place to gain success in business, research, and all other ventures that one can think about.

The benefits that tracking online brings can never be measured by money because it in itself is an investment that no one can steal from you. You control it and you make good things happen to you and your business beyond your expectations.

Maintain a Good Image

A good image is something everyone works hard to achieve which with just one simple error of judgment or destructive criticism may ruin it in just a split second. As with all the best efforts you put on yourself to look good and attractive, you should also exert time and energy to make your online presence appealing and pleasing to all viewers regardless of age, nationality, and preferences.

Maintaining online presence can be done by the owner him or herself if the company is easy enough to  single handy or you may need an expert to do it for you at a reasonable coast. If you do not know how to do it, you read a lot of instructional articles and blogs or you can research the providers who can do the job for you efficiently and effectively.

Source: http://www.loginworks.com/blogs/web-scraping-blogs/online-coverage-matters/

Why Outsourcing Data Mining Services is the Leading Business Trend

Businesses usually have huge volumes of raw data that remains unprocessed. Processing data results into information. A company’s hunt for valuable information ends when it outsources its data mining process to reputable and professional data mining companies. In this way a company is able to derive more clarity and accuracy in the decision making process.

It is important too note that information is critical to the growth of a business. With the internet you are offered flexible communication and good flow of data. It is a good idea to make the data that is available readily and in a workable format where it will be useful to a business. The filtered data is deemed important to the organization and the services can be used to increase profits, ameliorating overall risks and smooth work flow.

Data mining process must engage the sorting data process through the vast data amounts of data and acquire pertinent information. Data mining is usually undertaken by professional, financial and business analysts. Nowadays, there are many growing fields that require data extraction services.

When making decisions data mining plays an important role as it enables experts to make decisions quick and in a feasible manner. The information that is processed finds wide applications for decision making that relate to e-commerce, direct marketing, health care, telecommunications, customer relationship management, financial utilities and services.

The following are the data mining services that are commonly outsourced to the professional data mining companies:

•    Data congregation. This is the process of extracting data from different websites and web pages. The common processes involved here include web scraping and screen scraping services. The data congregated is then in put into databases.

•    Collecting of contact data. This is the process of searching and collecting of information concerning contacts from different websites.

•    E-commerce data. This is data about various online stores. The information collected includes the various products and prices offered. Other information that is collected is about discounts.

•    Competitors. Information about your business competitors is quite important as it helps a business to gauge itself against other businesses. In this way a company can use this information to re-design its marketing strategies and develop its own pricing matrix.

In this era where business is hugely impacted by globalization, handling data is becoming a headache. This is where outsourcing becomes quite profitable and important to your business. Huge savings in terms money, time and infrastructure can be realized when data mining projects are customized to suit exact needs of a customer.

There are many benefits accrued when outsourcing data mining services to professional companies. The following are some of benefits that are accrued from the outsourcing process:

•    Qualified and skilled technical staff. Data mining companies employ highly competent staffs who have a successful career in IT industry and data mining. With such personnel you are assured of quality information extracted from databases and websites.

•    Improved technology. These companies have invested huge resources in terms of software and technology so as to handle the information and data in a technological way.

•    Quick turnaround time. Your data is processed in an efficient way and information presented in a timely way. These companies are able to present data in a timely manner even in tight deadlines.

•    Cost-effective prices. Nowadays there are many companies dealing with web scraping and data mining. Due to competition, these companies offer quality services at competitive prices.

•    Data safety. Data is quite critical and should not leak to your competitors. These companies are using the latest technology in ensuring that your data is not stolen by other vendors.

•    Increased market coverage. These companies serve many businesses and organizations with different data needs. By outsourcing to them you are assured of expertise dealing with your data have wide market coverage.

Outsourcing enables a company to shift its focus to the core business operations and improve its overall productivity. In fact outsourcing can be considered as a wise choice for any business. Therefore outsourcing helps businesses in managing data effectively. In this way you will be able to achieve and generate more profits. When outsourcing, it is advisable that you only consider professional companies only so as to be assured of high quality services.

Source: http://www.loginworks.com/blogs/web-scraping-blogs/216-why-outsourcing-data-mining-services-is-the-leading-business-trend/

Online Retail - Mining for Gold

Online retailers live in an ever-changing environment, and the ability to stay competitive is the difference between doing well and doing nothing. In today's fast paced internet market place, if you aren't using web scraping, you are missing a key component to growing your business.

Data Mining

Data mining your competition's prices and services and making sure your prices and services are similar, or even lower, is what makes the difference. Why should your customer choose you if they can get the same product somewhere else for less? What data you collect and how often you update it is also another key ingredient to success.

Extract Website Data

Web scraping allows you to gather information from your competition and use it improve your position in the market. When you extract website data from your competitor's website, it allows you to conduct business from a position that doesn't involve guess work. The internet is an environment that is constantly being updated and changed. It is vital that you have the ability to have up-to-date information on what others in your market are doing. If you can't do this, you really can't compete.

Application of Information

When you know what your competitors are doing all the time, you can keep your business a little more competitive than they are. When you have information such as monthly and even weekly price variations in the market and what products and services are being offered, you can apply that information to your own pricing matrix and ensure a competitive edge in your market.

An Army of One

Web scraping gives you the ability to see what is going on in the market at all times. You can monitor just about anything you choose with a web scraping service. Many online retailers are very small operations and they don't have the resources to constantly monitor each competitor's website - so engaging a web scraping service is like having your own marketing and research team working for you night and day to keep tabs on them. You choose what it is you want to know, and your research team goes to work. Simple.

Staying Ahead of Trends
Having the ability to recognize trends is the key to any business, especially on the internet were information is so fluid. The business that can identify a trend quickly and take advantage of it will always stay one step ahead. That's why big corporations have teams dedicated to researching market trends and predictions. If you can see where something is going, you can always get ahead of it. That's what web scraping can help you do - identify those trends in your market so you can get in ahead of the pack.

A Helping Hand

Sometimes running your own online retail business can be a daunting and lonely ordeal. Even those that have a great deal of experience with the internet can feel lost at times. A web scraping service is a tool you can use to help yourself in such times. Web scraping is automated and precise, and it gives you the ability to have vital information delivered to you in a manner you can understand and use. It's one less thing to worry about - and the information you get from data mining is what every business owner actually should worry about - what the competition is doing? With a web scraping service, you can concern yourself with other things - like making more profits.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Online-Retail---Mining-for-Gold&id=6531024