What Exactly Is Meant By “Machine Learning”?
To begin, let’s take a more in-depth look at the basic characteristics of machine learning, often known as ML. It is both a vital part of data science and a discipline of artificial intelligence (AI) that seeks to model the method in which people acquire knowledge. It achieves this goal by collecting data and making use of algorithms, both of which are then put to use for the purpose of progressive self-improvement in terms of the accuracy of the predictions made [1].
This means that rather than manually writing different software routines or instructions, you will be able to do a certain given job mostly via a machine with very little intervention from a developer. This makes such features fairly handy since they allow for a more hands-off approach, which is a more comfortable way of working.
By using web scraping, you may tailor your query and collect data in an organized manner. In this way, the AI may “learn” about the many domains in which it will be useful to you. More automation may be added at this point, allowing the machine to learn how to do more sophisticated and helpful searches [1].
The statistical accuracy of the machine is taken into consideration while doing analyses and ranking data in machine learning. Having access to a large and diverse data set allows the device to make more informed judgments.
By using web scraping, you may tailor your query and collect data in an organized manner. In this way, the AI may “learn” about the many domains in which it will be useful to you. More automation may be added at this point, allowing the machine to learn how to do more sophisticated and helpful searches.
The statistical accuracy of the machine is taken into consideration while doing analyses and ranking data in machine learning. Having access to a large and diverse data set allows the device to make more [1].
Online scraping relies on proper parsing of online pages in order to correctly retrieve data of interest. Finding HTML tags and using regular expressions to extract data was the norm in the past. When dealing with complicated or badly structured websites, however, this method may be a burden [2].
Data extraction may be improved via the use of machine learning algorithms that have been taught to understand the semantic context of web pages. Algorithms can now find useful information in poorly organized files with the aid of NLP and deep learning techniques that enable them to understand the semantics of the material [2].
Web scraping is the process of extracting data from websites. While machine learning can be used to enhance certain aspects of web scraping (like analyzing the data or making predictions based on the scraped content), web scraping itself doesn’t usually require machine learning. Instead, it typically involves parsing HTML, extracting data, and organizing it into a structured format. Here’s a sample Python code for web scraping using the popular libraries BeautifulSoup and requests [2]. This code will fetch data from a website and extract some information from it:
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import requests from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
def scrape_website(url): # Send an HTTP request to the website response = requests.get(url)
if response.status_code == 200: # Parse the HTML content soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, ‘html.parser‘)
# Find and extract the relevant data data = [] for item in soup.find_all(‘div’, class_=’item’): title = item.find(‘h2’).text.strip() price = item.find(‘span’, class_=’price’).text.strip() data.append({‘title’: title, ‘price’: price})
return data else: print(f”Failed to retrieve data. Status code: {response.status_code}”) return None
if __name__ == “__main__”: # URL of the website you want to scrape target_url = “http://example.com”
scraped_data = scrape_website(target_url) if scraped_data: for item in scraped_data: print(f”Title: {item[‘title’]}, Price: {item[‘price’]}”) |
References
[1] D. Radavicius, “Web scraping for machine learning,” Oxylabs, https://oxylabs.io/blog/web-scraping-for-machine-learning (accessed Jul. 30, 2023).
[2] How web scraping can revolutionize machine learning?, https://scrapfly.io/use-case/how-web-scraping-can-revolutionize-machine-learning (accessed Jul. 30, 2023).
[3] The DataEntryIndia.in BlogBrought to you by the Marketing & Communications Team at DataEntryIndia.in. As an eCommerce Data Entry Company, “7 ways to use web data scraping for your business,” DataEntryIndia, https://www.dataentryindia.in/blog/7-ways-to-use-web-data-scraping-for-your-business/ (accessed Jul. 30, 2023).
[4] “Web scraping using Python – Javatpoint,” www.javatpoint.com, https://www.javatpoint.com/web-scraping-using-python (accessed Jul. 30, 2023).
