Thursday 12 May 2016

Emergence of Python in Web Data Scraping

Websites are typically written in HTML, making each web page a structured document that you should be able to get information from using a process called web data scraping. This process relies mostly on an automated program that sifts through web pages to gather data in a format that is easier to interpret. At the same time, the data's structure is preserved. There are many ways to extract data from websites, and these include the use of APIs and high-end programming languages like Python.

While APIs are typically preferred for web scraping, there are instances where Python can be more useful and efficient, especially if you need to get data from a non-API website. Websites that do not use APIs do not want their readers to obtain a lot of structured information from them. Python can be a better way to get the data because of its rich and user-friendly ecosystem and libraries. Python offers two web scraping methods: urllib2 and Beautiful Soup. Code that is written in the latter is typically more robust.

Python is an interpreted and object-oriented programming language with dynamic semantics. With it, you can crawl web pages and extract relevant data in a format that is easy to analyze. Python may be the solution you need when you are trying to be better than your competitors, especially in business. Web extraction specialists prefer Python for its accuracy and efficiency. It is a user-friendly, scalable, and fast web data scraping tool. Custom web data scraping professionals can customize their services with Python to provide a bespoke web crawling data extraction software that is tailored to the needs of a business.

Web data scrapers that use Python ensure accurate and prompt results in your desired storage format, like Excel, JSON, CSV, or SQL DB. The most advanced web crawler extraction software combines automation and verification with advanced analytic capability to ensure reliable and accurate data. Python in web data scraping can be used in the extraction of data from various websites, including social media, business directories, real estate portals, and e-stores.

How Can a Web Content Extractor Be Helpful For Your Business?

A web content extractor is an innovative data mining tool that can be programmed to deliver information and data that meets the needs of your business. It can discover certain patterns in large data sets that can be useful for a company that is looking to improve its prospects and sales. Data mining is a widely used technique to gather knowledge across every industry. The information can be extracted from various sources, including social media, ecommerce and business portals, and business directories. Hence, a web content extractor can help your business in the following ways:

1. Affinity analysis – Also known as ‘basket analysis,’ this pertains to looking and identifying the items a customer has purchased from a store. The information can help your business, determine the best way to improve its layout and which products to recommend to your customers. This is done based on the idea that you can predict customer behavior by observing their previous purchases.

2. Database marketing – By determining purchasing patterns and identifying psychological factors and demographics of customers, you can create profiles and come up with innovative products that can sell effortlessly. A web content extractor can help you plan your merchandise and help you decide how to price your products to gain an edge over your competition.

3. Sales forecasting – This pertains to looking at the moment when customers purchased an item or signed up for a service, and then predicting when they are likely to do it again. A web content extractor can provide data that can help you determine which complimentary products or services to promote or sell. Likewise, it can help identify the amount of customers in your market and determine how many of them will actually buy something. 

4. Improve customer loyalty – Customers tend to move on to another business if it offers better products and services at lower prices. A web content extractor can be useful when you want to minimize churn by getting your data from social media users. Data mining techniques can help you identify which customers to sell to and what customers are looking for in a product.