The development of Information Technologies (IT) has forever changed how we absorb, store, and utilize information. With a vast ocean of knowledge at our fingertips, digital devices have become an inseparable part of everyday life, like a detachable body part. While finding specific information has never been easier, the indomitable human spirit forces us to compete and outperform our peers.
In the context of digital data, the most sought-after resource of the modern world, businesses and freelancers master the intricacies of information collection and manipulation. With so many sources of public data, finding ways to process everything is impossible without technical assistance and key players in the digital business environment leverage IT solutions to stay ahead of competitors.
This article will cover the basics of data collection and manipulation, with a focus on two key techniques – web scraping and cURL. Here you will learn the differences and benefits of both strategies, as well as appropriate use cases of each one. Utilizing data collection resources properly is essential for streamlined extraction. For example, while many business-oriented tasks utilize web scraping software, there are instances where a cURL get request, a powerful feature of this versatile command line tool, which is sometimes more suitable than data scraping software. Keep reading to learn more about these data collection solutions and their benefits.
Web scraping is a powerful data collection technique used to automate the extraction of information from websites. It is particularly useful for gathering large datasets that would be time-consuming to collect manually. This technique is commonly employed in various fields such as market research, competitive analysis, and data journalism.
How Digital Data Collection Works
To tackle the massive storage of digital information, everything depends on the automation of processes. Web scraping can be automated to retrieve targeted web pages and structure the data into a readable and understandable format.
While some steps may differ depending on the programming language, most web scrapers send HTTP connection requests, just like a browser does, to retrieve the rendered document. Once it is extracted, data scrapers use parsers to clean up the document, eliminating all code elements and only saving extracted information into a format ready for analysis. The most efficient web scraping procedures collect information in real-time, at frequent intervals, and save updates in a database or a simple data set.
As for best tools and programming libraries for web scraping, Python is the most popular choice, with BeautifulSoup, Scrapy, and Selenium as powerful frameworks for web navigation, parsing, and efficient extraction.
cURL (Client URL) is a powerful tool that uses your device’s command prompt for transferring data. A cURL GET request lets you target specific internet resources, such as a web page, file, or API endpoint to send or retrieve information. Just like web scrapers, it is often used to send HTTP requests, but it also supports other communication protocols.
Sending GET Requests with cURL
The cURL GET request is the simplest type of HTTP request and is used to download information from a chosen source. Here is an example:
With this simple line, your device will instantly show the HTML code of a page in your command line. However, that is not very beneficial. To mimic the initial steps of data collection with web scrapers, we must add custom arguments to store information in a separate file:
curl -o output.html http://google.com
Sending a cURL request is more suitable in cases where parsing is not an essential part of the process. For example, there is no need to employ data scrapers when access to data is available via REST APIs. At the same time, cURL commands are automatable, allowing constant, lightning-quick interactions with pages where parsing is not needed. Although not as powerful as dedicated scraping libraries, cURL can be used in multiple parallel scripts to fetch and process web data.
Manipulation of HTML Documents
While a cURL GET request is a better option for fast exchanges with data sources already ready for analysis, the biggest benefit of web scrapers comes from parsing, a tricky process that cannot always be subjugated with automation. Because there are no universal scrapers, as website structures are often different, it is the most resource-intensive process because it requires attention from developers to make adjustments and make sure that the uptime of continuous data delivery encounters as few obstacles as possible.
When targeting multiple pages at the same time, each one might require slight tweaks in deployed parsers. However, once information is structured into a readable and understandable format, without extra clutter from the HTML document, data analysts can use visualization tools, deploy AI assistance for pattern recognition and prediction of trends, and set up alerts when information changes meet certain conditions.
For these reasons, web scraping is a very common strategy for businesses seeking market intelligence, which keeps them ahead of the competition.
The Necessity for Anonymity
When working with data scrapers of cURL, it is not recommended to expose your IP address for numerous reasons. Both solutions send many HTTP requests to targeted web servers, which is uncommon for real-user browsing. Websites may end up blocking the network identity of the sender, preventing you from collecting data from that source.
However, because both connections can be routed through proxy servers, businesses use these web anonymity tools to target any website without restrictions. Proxy servers let you access platforms that are unavailable with your main IP address, either due to blacklisting or location-based restrictions.
Combining web scraping scripts and powerful cURL commands, with protection from proxy servers, covers all the bases of efficient data extraction. While these skills are essential for modern businesses, anyone can benefit from automated data extraction.