The Advantages of Data Scraping

Unlike traditional search engines, which compile web sites based on popularity but provide no mechanism for extracting information, new software from companies such as Mozenda www.mozenda.com, Screen Scraper www.screen-scraper.com, and Fetch www.fetch.com utilize a process called data scraping to gather relevant information from any website. Data scraping allows an organization to quickly and efficiently gather the needed data in an accessible format, without the bother of cutting and pasting. A user can have instant access to email addresses, competitor pricing, supplier information, and other specific data, arranged in a single display page that can double as a document.


Data Scraping Tools combines the broad collective power of a traditional search engine with the refined nuance of a personal file clerk. By pulling the needed information, based on the specific criteria entered by the user, the software can greatly simplify the process of assembling reports, comparing prices, and performing other analysis. Plus, Mozenda has an easy to use graphic interface, which allows anyone to use familiar browser features to master the software’s functionality instantly.

Data scraping culls incredibly valuable information that would otherwise be nearly impossible to acquire using traditional search engines and copy paste methodologies. While search engines tend to focus on displaying web site addresses, Mozenda goes into the website itself to extract the information you need. To demonstrate this specificity, Mozenda is able to recognize types of data formats like addresses, prices, and emails, and then capture those results cleanly into a CSV, XLS, or XML file.

Data scraping also allows you to quickly identify other specific information such as changes on web pages, new data values, and general updates to specific data sets. For example, if you’re scraping information from your suppliers catalog, Mozenda will not only compile recent products and prices, but also automatically update new products and price changes that the supplier adds to the catalog. By using data scraping, you can begin acquiring information that you can utilize in mere minutes instead of spending days or even weeks attempting to dig up the same information with traditional copy and paste.

In the case of Mozenda, their highly efficient data scraping software has won the company several high-profile clients, many among the Fortune 100 elite. These companies recognize that if the internet can be thought of as a giant database, then data scraping software is the ultimate database mining tool. In an age where every second counts against the competition, data scraping is the quickest route to getting critical information from the web in a useable format.

Additionally, for companies that compile detailed text-based reports, the time consuming chore of research is abbreviated by employing data scraping. By virtue of refinement and highly advanced programming, data scrapers can procure large amounts of information in readily useable formats at incredible speed. Individual user data, which previously had to be compiled by hand from a multitude of sources, becomes so simple and efficient to procure that any company can instantly make adjustments to implement more automated processes.

As the number of companies using data scraping technology grows, the marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive and proficient at finding new ways to seek out information. The software is constantly being refined and developed to match the needs of its users. Because the internet is such a rapidly changing medium, and the amount of information is always increasing, the need for an automated method of finding, acquiring, and utilizing this information is more important than ever. Data Scraping is one way to do this and provides a huge advantage to the companies that have figured it out.

Capture Website Data

Capture Data from websites can be easily captured and archived even after the original site has been rendered out of service. This can be done using a number of useful API that is, Application Program Interface. These are libraries that hold code tags that can be used to prompt the websites’ data base to allow you to retrieve the data with which you have interest. This may include email messages, blog feeds, office documents and news site posts.
The pages stored can also have keywords included for easy finding in future. Thus if the information gets obscured online, the document can still be retrieved without hustle. Simple control structures ease the work of information retrieval.
Web Scraper

Website Scraper Uses

Website scrapers can be used in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes. The use of website scrapers range from the useful, such as the collecting and displaying of a wide range of knowledge from many different fields for the purpose of education to the use of website scrapers to generate traffic for a site full of stolen content for the purpose of advertisement revenue. The use of a website scraper is up to the individual who uses it rather for benefit or personal gain. A website scraper is like every bit of technology. The ultimate good or bad is up to the user.