Do you need to extract a large amount of data? You can harvest a lot of data from the web by use of a web scraping tool. It is still possible to do this manually, but it will take you a lot of time and lack accuracy. It is still a waste of time to do it manually.
Web scraping allows you to extract large amounts of data from the website. There are various methods of web scraping namely;
- Text grepping and regular Expression matching
- HTML parsers
- DOM parser
- Web scraping software
Many people use PHP, Java, ASP, AJEX and Python languages for web scraping. For example, using PHP. PHP is a small script that is used to get content from web pages.
Web scraping is vital when you want to harvest data from web pages. The web scraper software can scrape any pages that can be viewed on the web browser. But, is web scraping legal?
Sometimes, the process can go against the terms of use of some web pages. But how these websites enforce these terms is unclear. Today, there are many tools that you can use to web scrape.
Big data is Getting Bigger
In reference to Brian Company, 50% of businesses rely on data to make their decisions. By doing this, many companies have made well-informed decisions using quantitative data. For sure, companies have stopped working on ‘trial and error’ basis.
The benefits of using analytics are invaluable as compared to using software to get solutions. Using web scraped data helps companies in making the right decisions when running their businesses. Big data is here to stay, and you should know how to benefit from it.
The right Tools For big Data Web Scraping
 Addressing this new technology needs the use of appropriate tools to do the work of data harvesting. Old and traditional methods will not help in collecting and analyzing the unstructured data collected. To do this successfully, you need to invest or rather use a tool that will help you organized your data.
For example, you can web scraping tools to monitor the prices of your competitor. This will allow you to access up to date pricing information on your competitors’ prices. Usable data is everywhere on the net, and it only needs to be unlocked from its unstructured status using the right tool.
 Overcoming the obstacles to Big data
Is Web Data big Data? We are currently living in the world of big data. We have unstructured data online that can be useful. Have you ever wondered how these data could be read? With the right tool, it is possible to tame data-rich websites. If you are a programmer, you can confirm that web pages are visualizations of HTML. In fact, web pages are visible as big strings of text.
When collecting data from the website, you encounter a lot of problems. Think of this two scenarios. In the first case, you are collecting data from a search engine to look at your SEO ranking. You will need to look at many different terms and not just the results on the first page. This will definitely add up to a lot of hits on the search engine. As a result of this, they will detect your activity and block your activity. This means they will prevent you from conducting the searches.
Imagine you want to get pricing information on your competitors. You have many different reasons as to why you want to know more about your competitors. You may find yourself blocked when you are doing much activity exceeding the limit.
Detection is one of the major reasons that affect web scraping. For you to harvest data successful from the internet, you need to do it anonymously. Another drawback may be location, the time and many other reasons.
Big data is a big thing today. If you need to collect data from the website, you need to come up with the right tool and strategies to do that. You do not want to be left behind when everything is advancing.
