Digital Distinctions – The Difference Between Web Crawling and Web Scraping

There is a seemingly unlimited amount of data available on the internet and we know, from the popularity of the buzzword “Big Data”, that people and businesses are utilizing that information in a multitude of ways.

With such a large amount of information out there, some might wonder how you can ever find the information relevant to you and make sense of it. This task might seem insurmountable, but it can actually be done quite easily through the use of data scraping services and understanding the processes involved is easier than you might think.

Web crawling and web scraping are techniques used to search for, index and extract data from the internet. There is a tendency to use the terms web crawling and web scraping interchangeably, and while they are closely related, there are differences between the two processes.

Web crawling

Web crawling is the processes of finding information on the internet, indexing everything on the page, following all the links on that website and indexing them as well, and then storing all of that information.

This is the process that search engines, such as Google or Bing, use to create a search index. They use a web crawler to crawl through websites and then catalogue that information so it will appear when you search for it.

The process used in web crawling is methodical and automated.

It generally happens at consistent intervals in order to ensure the information that has been indexed is up to date. Additionally, the information gathered is generic and the crawl is wide-reaching.

Web scraping

Web scraping is the processes of extracting information from the internet. Unlike web crawling, web scraping is generally looking for some type of specific information and directed at specific websites or pages.

For example, if you were building a website that compares airline fares, you would scrape the websites of airlines offering flights to a certain destination and collect data on how much those flights cost.

In most cases, web scraping results in a nice, tidy spreadsheet that you can then use to analyze as you see fit.

Basically, web crawling creates a copy of what’s there and web scraping extracts specific data for analysis, or to create something new. However, in order to conduct web scraping you would first have to do some sort of web crawling to find the information you need.

While there are many basic or do it yourself web scraping options out there, the best way to do it is to use an automated web scraping service.

Think about it.

First, you need to conduct a bit of web crawling.

There’s a lot to crawl through. Then you need to extract just the specific data that is relevant to what you’re trying to do. This involves writing specific code to get specific data. You also have to do this whole processes at regular intervals because the internet is not a textbook that only releases a updated edition every few years. The internet updates constantly.

The easiest way to approach all of this is to have an expert service provider to set it up for you. That way, all you have to do is read over a spreadsheet and compile a report.

In today’s technological world, it’s important to understand the unique tools on offer. Web crawling and web scraping have a variety of applications and we encounter them everyday, though most people have never even heard of them.