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What is Web Scraping?

Published time:27/03/2025 Reading time:5 min read

What is Web Scraping?

Web scraping is an automated technique that allows users to extract data from websites without manually copying and pasting. This process is usually carried out by web crawlers or scraping scripts, which collect webpage information in a structured way and store it in a database, CSV, or JSON file.

Web scraping is widely used in market analysis, price monitoring, SEO research, financial data analysis, and many other industries. For businesses, web scraping not only provides competitive intelligence but also optimizes decision-making and improves operational efficiency.

What is Web Crawling?

Web crawling refers to the automated process where programs traverse the internet and collect webpage information. Search engines like Google and Bing use web crawlers to index webpages, enabling users to find relevant content through search queries.

While web crawling and web scraping share similarities, their main differences are:

Web Scraping vs. Screen Scraping

Comparison CriteriaWeb ScrapingScreen Scraping
Data SourceStructured HTML dataVisual content on the screen
Working MethodParses webpage code to extract dataReads on-screen content via OCR recognition
Use CasesPrice monitoring, SEO, market researchLegacy system data migration, application integration
AccuracyHigher, as data is structuredMay be affected by screen resolution and UI changes

Screen scraping is typically used to extract data that cannot be parsed via HTML, such as PDFs, Flash content, or certain application interfaces, whereas web scraping is more suitable for structured data extraction.

Web Scraping Process

  1. Target Website Analysis: Determine the data to be scraped, such as product information, prices, or user reviews.
  2. Sending HTTP Requests: Use GET or POST requests to retrieve webpage content.
  3. Parsing Web Data: Utilize tools like BeautifulSoup, Scrapy, and Selenium to parse HTML code.
  4. Data Extraction: Use XPath, CSS selectors, or regex to extract specific information.
  5. Storing Data: Save extracted data in CSV, JSON, or databases.
  6. Data Cleaning & Processing: Remove duplicate data and convert formats for further analysis.

Types of Web Crawlers

Use Cases of Web Scraping

Common Challenges in Web Scraping

How to Perform Effective Web Scraping?

Technical Solutions

The Role of 922S5Proxy Residential Proxies in Web Scraping

Why Do You Need Proxies for Web Scraping?

Why Choose 922S5Proxy?

Conclusion

Web scraping is a powerful data collection technique, but it also comes with challenges. By using high-quality proxy services like 922S5Proxy, businesses and individuals can scrape data efficiently while avoiding bans and improving success rates. In the future, web scraping will become even smarter with the integration of AI, automation, and big data processing technologies, providing stronger support for data-driven decision-making.

Use 922S5Proxy Residential Proxies to enhance your web scraping efficiency and simplify data collection!

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