5 Ways To Streamline Data Collection With Web Scraping Software
Whether you’re a small business or a large company, the ability to collect, analyze, and use data can be a make-it-or-break-it thing. And as you rely on external data, i.e. the one from the internet, not your internal systems, there may be a question about how to collect that information at scale.
One solution is to use software for web scraping. In this article, we’ll explain how this tool can streamline data collection.
What Is Web Scraping Software?
Web scraping software is a tool that automates the process of extracting data from websites. Instead of manually copying and pasting information, this web scraper gathers large amounts of data from various web sources. It can capture everything from text and images to URLs and metadata.
The main advantage of web page scraping software is its ability to transform unstructured data from web pages into structured data you can easily analyze and use. It can be customized to target specific websites and data types, making it a versatile tool for many industries.
Why Use Automated Web Scraping Software?
The research from Accenture and Qlik on data literacy has some shocking findings. Companies lose over five working days per employee each year—around 43 hours—due to delays and sick leave caused by stress from information and technology problems. This translates to billions of dollars in lost productivity globally: $109.4 billion in the US, $15.16 billion in Japan, $13.17 billion in the UK, $10.9 billion in France, and $23.7 billion in Germany.
Web scraper software can reduce these losses through optimized data collection and processing.
With robust web scrapers in place, employees don’t stress about collecting data—scrapers handle it for them. This automation frees up time and reduces the frustration associated with manual data gathering. Many modern solutions, like Nannostomus web scraping software, not only collect data but also post-process it. They can help you clean, verify, and standardize raw data.
How The Best Web Scraping Software Streamlines Data Harvesting
Data analysts report spending around 80% of their time collecting, organizing, and cleaning data, time that could be better spent on value-added activities. Web data scraper software offers a solution to this problem, automating the data collection and wrangling, and freeing up time for analysis and decision-making.
Here are five key features of web screen scraping software that make it an indispensable tool for automated data collection:
- Automated scripts with batch processing capabilities
- Code libraries
- Resource management
- In-built services
- Project management
Let’s look at each feature in more detail.
Automated Scripts With Batch Processing Capabilities
Web data scraping software is usually deployed into your cloud account. Then, developers write modules that instruct on where to go, what data to collect, and how to handle it. Once set up, the modules run on virtual machines, performing the programmed activities automatically and loading the collected data to a specified location—cloud storage service or server.
Some top web scraping software also offers batch processing capabilities. This means the software can fetch all possible data from a few or even thousands of sources simultaneously. Instead of targeting specific data points, batch processing gathers comprehensive datasets from all possible information the websites give.
Code Libraries
Software needed for web scraping often comes with built-in code libraries that simplify the scraping process. They provide pre-written scripts and functions for common tasks, making it easy to extract data from various sources without starting from scratch.
The idea behind these libraries is simple: to save time and reduce the need for extensive programming knowledge.
Python, JavaScript, C#, and Ruby are the most popular languages for web scraping. So, depending on the scraping web software, the libraries will be available in these languages.
Resource Management
Efficient resource management is what you may want to see in web page screen scraping software for handling large-scale tasks at a minimal cost. For example, with proper resource management solutions, the cost of one scraped record can be around $0.0001. So, collecting 1 million records will cost you only $100. How is that possible?
All thanks to fully utilizing cloud resources. For instance, scraping data from five websites might require 15 virtual machines. However, without proper resource management, you might only use 20% of each machine’s capacity, yet still pay the full price for their usage. Scraping the web software with resource management capabilities solves this problem by balancing the load across the virtual machines, ensuring you use nearly 100% of each machine’s resources. This way, you maximize efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
In-Built Services
The best web scraper software is equipped with robust in-built services for handling different types of websites. These proprietary solutions are essential for tackling sophisticated web scraping projects, navigating challenging website security measures, and ensuring smooth data collection.
For example, the easy web scraping software may have proxies that allow your scrapers to access websites from various IP addresses. Or a captcha-solving service that integrates with the scraping system to recognize and solve captchas automatically.
Project Management
Advanced project management features help you organize and oversee your data collection projects. These tools allow you to schedule scraping tasks, monitor progress, and manage the data output. With project management capabilities, you can streamline your workflow and ensure all aspects of your data collection are coordinated and optimized. These may include:
- Statistics on the sources visited, tasks performed, and the time taken for each task. This data helps you understand the efficiency of your scraping activities and identify areas for improvement.
- Billing to get detailed breakdowns of expenditures, so you can manage costs and allocate resources.
- Login of all activities to monitor system performance closely. For example, if issues arise, you can analyze the logged actions to identify what led to the problem.
For instance, if your scraper suddenly slows down or stops working, you can check the activity logs to see what tasks were being performed at the time. If the log shows a high number of captcha challenges or a spike in data requests from a particular source, you can tweak your scraping strategy to avoid similar issues in the future.
Conclusion
Online web scraping software is indispensable for businesses looking to streamline their data collection processes. These tools make it easier and more cost-effective to gather the data you need.
Whether you are a small business or a large company, adopting cloud web scraping software can reduce the time and stress associated with manual data collection. By doing so, you can focus more on analyzing data and making informed decisions that drive success.
