Web Content Scraper: Is It The Best Way To Get Data From The Web? – Semalt Gives The Answer
Getting data from the web is not always an easy task. You've probably tried everything to find a site that contains the data you want but couldn't download or copy and paste its content. However, don't give up! There are some advanced ways to get the data in a format suitable for further manipulation:
- You can get data from web-based APIs (application programming interfaces). Many web applications like Facebook and Twitter provide interfaces that allow easy access to their data. It's fairly easy to get commercial and even government data using such interfaces.
- You can also extract data from PDFs. However, it might not be easy since PDF is a format suited for printers. There are chances that you may lose the structure of the data needed when downloading from a PDF.
- There's an advanced way of extracting web data – extracting data using a website content scraper.
Why To Use A Website Content Scraper?
Taking into account the changing nature of the content available online as well as the complexity of web-based platforms, there are many great reasons why you should consider using a website scraper to get the information you need. Here is a brief overview of these reasons:
- Scrapping a site without a hitch
Rate-limiting is an aspect you need to consider when choosing a method to get data from the net. In practice, it means setting a limit on the number of times a visitor can access a site without being considered as a DDoS(distributed denial of service.) attack. If you want to get the most from your data extraction experience, use a proper web content scraper. The majority of sites don't defend their content from scrapers so that you can get the needed information without any issue.
- Stay anonymous while scraping
If you want to get data from a web privately, web scraping is the best way to go about this. A web content scraper allows you to make simple HTTP requests without registering. Apart from your cookies and IP address, there's nothing else that can lead a site admin to you.
- Web scraping gets you data that is readily available
Web scraping is not a rocket science. There's no need to contact anyone in the organization or wait a site to open up an API. Just figure out some basic access patterns and your web content scraper will do the rest of the work.
You can use web scrapers to get almost all types of data from virtually any site. It is, therefore, the best way to get data from the web compared to other data extraction techniques. Next time you want to get any data out of the web, use a web content scraper and your work will be much easier and interesting than ever.
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