The process of Web Scraping

Web Scraping can be easily understood by looking at the five steps mentioned below:

1. Crawling

the first thing that any web scraper does is to crawl its way through the internet. Once the URL of the web page to be searched for is mentioned, the software starts browsing. Crawling is not selective in nature. In this step, the software only goes through similar URL’s.

2. Scraping

Unlike crawling, scraping is a selective process. It picks out the information necessary from the websites. In this step, a copy is made of the selected data.

3. Extracting

The software assembles the acquired data in a structured manner. This makes the work of the next steps easier.

4. Formatting

The data at this stage is definitely structured but not comprehensive. Formatting arranges the data in such a way that it can be understood. This can then be presented in a file format that is simple.

5. Exporting

Exporting data allows it to be accessed from one end to the other. Exporting is done using API’s.