Why is web scraping worldwide used

Why is web scraping worldwide used

Nowadays a huge amount of information is placed online, and alongside with it, appeared new techniques and software that analyse and extract it. Such a software technique is web scraping, which simulates human exploration of the World Wide Web. The software that does this either implements the low-level Hypertext Transfer Protocol or embeds a web browser. Its main goal is to automatically collect information from the World Wide Web. This process requires semantic understanding, text processing, artificial intelligence and a close interaction between human and computer. This technique is widely used by business owners that want to find new ways of increasing their profit and using the relevant marketing strategies.

Web scraping is important for successful businesses because it provides three categories of information: web content, web usage and web structure. This means that it extracts information from web pages, server logs, links between pages and people, and browser activity data. This helps companies having access to the needed data, because web scrapping services transform unstructured data into structured data. The direct result of this process is seen on the outcome of the businesses. Companies set up easy web scraping programs that have the purpose to provide reliable and efficient information for its users. These services make this process much easier. Because companies are the ones that focused their energy to implement such a program, they benefit from multiple advantages. The companies that want to have a close relation with their clients, have the opportunity to send notifications to their customers that include promotions, price changes, or the launching of a new product. When using web scraping, companies have the opportunity of comparing their product prices with the ones of the similar ones.

Web data extraction proves to be very useful when meteorologists want to monitor weather changes. The companies that use this type of information extraction have also other advantages alongside with the ones listed above. This process allows them to transform page contents according to their needs, and they can be sure that the data collected is reliable and accurate. They can retrieve the data from their websites, because this process can be used with both dynamic and static pages. Web data extraction is very valuable because it is able to recognize semantic annotation. The companies that need complicated data can get it by using web scraping, and this leads to minimizing costs and more sales. Companies choose to use marketing intelligence because it helps them increase their profit through good business practices. The companies that use these services are the ones that practice online shipping, because they want to provide their clients information about services, terms of services and products. Other type of businesses that uses this service are stores, which supply their products online. This service helps them provide information about their services and products, but if it is a more complex store, then it helps them offer their clients details about their procedures and head offices. Web scraping proves to be a successful way of achieving success in many domains.

Source: http://www.amazines.com/article_detail.cfm/6193234?articleid=6193234

Data Mining's Importance in Today's Corporate Industry

Data Mining's Importance in Today's Corporate Industry

A large amount of information is collected normally in business, government departments and research & development organizations. They are typically stored in large information warehouses or bases. For data mining tasks suitable data has to be extracted, linked, cleaned and integrated with external sources. In other words, it is the retrieval of useful information from large masses of information, which is also presented in an analyzed form for specific decision-making.

Data mining is the automated analysis of large information sets to find patterns and trends that might otherwise go undiscovered. It is largely used in several applications such as understanding consumer research marketing, product analysis, demand and supply analysis, telecommunications and so on. Data Mining is based on mathematical algorithm and analytical skills to drive the desired results from the huge database collection.

It can be technically defined as the automated mining of hidden information from large databases for predictive analysis. Web mining requires the use of mathematical algorithms and statistical techniques integrated with software tools.

Data mining includes a number of different technical approaches, such as:

-  Clustering
-  Data Summarization
-  Learning Classification Rules
-  Finding Dependency Networks
-  Analyzing Changes
-  Detecting Anomalies

The software enables users to analyze large databases to provide solutions to business decision problems. Data mining is a technology and not a business solution like statistics. Thus the data mining software provides an idea about the customers that would be intrigued by the new product.

It is available in various forms like text, web, audio & video data mining, pictorial data mining, relational databases, and social networks. Data mining is thus also known as Knowledge Discovery in Databases since it involves searching for implicit information in large databases. The main kinds of data mining software are: clustering and segmentation software, statistical analysis software, text analysis, mining and information retrieval software and visualization software.

Data Mining therefore has arrived on the scene at the very appropriate time, helping these enterprises to achieve a number of complex tasks that would have taken up ages but for the advent of this marvelous new technology.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Data-Minings-Importance-in-Todays-Corporate-Industry&id=2057401