In 2020, if you wish to see your business skyrocket all the competitors list, chances are this can only be possible when you have the right data in hand and the impactful tool which can help to retrieve that data. What if you were told that languages for web scraping can make your life easier while conducting retrieval of impactful data?
Ruben Sigala, former EVP, and chief marketing officer, Caesars Entertainment stated on this topic, “What we found challenging, and what I find in my discussions with a lot of my counterparts that is still a challenge, is finding the set of tools that enable organizations to efficiently generate value through the process. I hear about individual wins in certain applications, but having a more sort of cohesive ecosystem in which this is fully integrated is something that I think we are all struggling with, in part because it’s still very early days. Although we’ve been talking about it seems quite a bit over the past few years, the technology is still changing; the sources are still evolving.”
With data, a business can conduct the 3 following actions more efficiently, lead capture, lead nurturing and lead conversion. But with the online platform getting harmful and dangerous, how can a brand like yours benefit from the only source of benefit which data offers you?
Keeping this in mind, many brands online have limited content accessing, downloading and even viewing. The restriction has gotten tougher by allowing only certain users to access them such as company employees, users in a particular location and much more.
To tackle such a problem here is when the modern world introduces an easy and effective solution popularly referred to as ‘ Web scraping’. To put it in simpler terms, web scraping is a solution that can help you get data that will help enhance your workflow better and you don’t even require the help if you are aware of the best web scraping languages being used to conduct this process.
Well, you are in for a treat, this article will help cover:
1 . What is web scraping?
- What are the top 5 web scraping languages used in web scraping?
3. How to conduct efficient web scraping activities without any risks or errors?
Let’s dive straight in.
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WHAT IS ‘WEB SCRAPING’?
Web scraping is a process where data is being extracted from any website or any other source of information, saved in your system, in a format you would like to view it in. The formats are numerous such as CSV. file, XML, JSON and much more. Any data from any place can be extracted without any efforts.
All you need to do is choose which website you wish to scrape, the process will begin and you will receive all the quality information in one place. This is great because it is not a time-consuming process. Understanding the importance of web scraping, today many web scraping brands in the market offer an automated option of this process. This means that you can now collect regular data without having to always keep an eye on the process being taken place. Once the data is being received, all you need to do is monitor the information and start working on enhancing and improvising your current workflows.
Understanding how important web scraping can be for you, the web scraping language can help to conduct this process much better. But before you can jump into the context to identify which web scraping languages are better for this process, always ensure that when you select such languages the following pointers are considered:
1 . The flexibility to work better for instance to scrape even a longer set of information or a smaller one without any hassles
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The scalability of the web scraping languages should be higher
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Coding such languages should be easy to understand and practice
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Conducting crawling techniques should be error-free and enhanced
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Can feed databases much better
TOP 5 WEB SCRAPING LANGUAGES FOR WEB SCRAPING
1. PYTHON
Python is one of the most common coding languages. With reference to web scraping languages, this is popularly used for such a process. For any web scraping activities, Python is considered to be the finest in ensuring that this process is conducted without any errors.
FACTORS:
1 . Beneficial tool for web scraping because it includes two impactful frameworks which matters while conducting this process, Scrapy, and Beautiful Soup.
- The use of ‘Beautiful Soup’ application in python is intended for quick and efficient data extraction practices.
- It contains advanced web scraping libraries which makes Python a better hit when compared to the remaining web scraping languages.
- It contains a variety of the finest data visualization libraries for users like you to function better with.
2. NODE.JS
Node.js is most suited for data crawling activities that practice dynamic coding activities. It also supports distributed crawling practices. Node.js uses Javascript to conduct non-blocking applications which can help enhance multiple simultaneous events that would be taking place.
FACTORS:
- Beneficial for streaming activities
- Can conduct API’s as well as socket-based activities
- Has a built-in library
- Can conduct basic web scraping data extraction activities
- Has a basic stable communication
3. RUBY
Ruby is considered to be one of the open-source programming languages. It has a user-friendly syntax which is easy to understand and can be practiced and applied without any hassles. The greatest feature of Ruby is that it consists of multiple languages such as Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, Lip along with another new language. Ruby is well aware of how it needs to balance functional programming with the assistance of imperative programming.
FACTORS:
- It is a simple web scraping languages
- It is more on the productive process
- No signs of code repetition take place
- You require less writing for such a language
- This language is supported by a community of users
- Supports multithreading
4. C & C++
C and C++ are a great execution solution but it can be costly when it comes to conducting web scraping. Prowebscraper recommends, ‘’it is not advisable to use these languages to set up a crawler unless it’s a specialized organization that you have in mind, focusing only on extracting data.’’
FACTORS:
- Simple to understand
- Can write own HTML parsing library according to your requirements
- Can conduct such a web scraping language better with dynamic coding
- It can help to parallelize any scraper you use without any effort
5. PHP
PHP may not be able to be the ideal choice when it comes to the creation of a crawler program. In order to extract information such as graphics, images, videos, and other visual forms, using a CURL library is better.
The best thing about the curl library is that it can help to transfer files with the help of protocol lists which has HTTP and FTP in it. Having this can help you in the creation of web spiders which could be utilized to download any kind of information from the online platform.
FACTORS:
1 . Uses 39 MB of RAMusage
- Uses 3% of CPU usage
- It runs 723 pages per 10 minutes
The above top 5 web scraping languages are a great solution when it comes to using the online platform to extract data. However, conducting such a process can cause high chances of risk and suspicious activities, which is why you also require stronger security coverage.
HOW TO CONDUCT EFFICIENT WEB SCRAPING ACTIVITIES WITHOUT ANY RISKS OR ERRORS?
A proxy server is one of the greatest solutions to incur when it comes to conducting a secure and efficient web scraping activities. A proxy server acts as the middle stage between a user and the website it wants to access.
For instance, say if you want to access a piece of information and want to scrape that data, you will first send a request to the website owner seeking permission to access it. But before that request can reach the owner of the website, it reaches the proxy server. The proxy server will then change your IP address and send the request to the website owner.
Once the website owner approves you can view the data and then start scraping. The proxy server eliminates the main issue to get tracked which is the IP address. Conducting web scraping isn’t going to be a one time process, understanding your requirements conducting frequent web scraping is essential and so to ensure that such regular actions don’t get blocked.
About the author
Rachael Chapman
A Complete Gamer and a Tech Geek. Brings out all her thoughts and Love in Writing Techie Blogs.
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