Data Collection Techniques for a Successful Thesis

Irrespective of the grade of the topic and the subject of research you have chosen, basic requirement and process of all remains same i.e. "research". Re-search in itself means searching on a searched content and this involves some proven fact along with some practical figures reflecting the authenticity and reliability of the study. These facts and figures which are required to prove the fundamentals of study are known as "data's".

These data's are collected according to the demand of research topic and its study undertaken. Also their collection techniques vary along with the topic in detail for example if the topic is like "Changing era of HR policies", the demanded data would be subjective and its technique thus depends on the same. Whereas if the topic is like "Causes of performance appraisal", then the demanded data would be objective and in the terms of figures which shows different parameters, reasons and factors affecting performance appraisal of different number of employees. So, let's have a broader look on the different data collection techniques which gives a reliable ground to your research -

• Primary Technique - Here, the data is collected by the first hand source directly are known as primary data's. Self-analysis is a sub classification of primary data collection - As understood; here you get self-response for a set of questions or a study. For example - personal in-depth interviews and questionnaires are self-analyzed data collection techniques, but its limitation lies in the fact that self-response can be sometimes biased or even confused. On the other, hand the advantage is in the court of most updated data as it is directly collected from the source.

• Secondary Technique - In this technique the data is collected from the pre-collected resources they are called as secondary data's. Data's are collected from articles, bulletins, annual reports, journals, published papers, government and non-government documents and case studies. Limitation of these is that they may not be the updated one or may be manipulated as it is not collected by the researcher itself.

Secondary data is easy to collect as they are pre-collected and are preferred when there is lack of time whereas primary data's are tough to amass. Thus, if researcher wants to bring up to date, reliable and factual data's they should prefer primary source of collection. But, these data collection techniques vary according to problem generated in the thesis. Hence, go through the demands of your thesis first before indulging yourself into data collection.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Data-Collection-Techniques-for-a-Successful-Thesis&id=9178754

How We Optimized Our Web Crawling Pipeline for Faster and Efficient Data Extraction

How We Optimized Our Web Crawling Pipeline for Faster and Efficient Data Extraction

Big data is now an essential component of business intelligence, competitor monitoring and customer experience enhancement practices in most organizations. Internal data available in organizations is limited by its scope, which makes companies turn towards the web to meet their data requirements. The web being a vast ocean of data, the possibilities it opens to the business world are endless. However, extracting this data in a way that will make sense for business applications remains a challenging process.

The need for efficient web data extraction

Web crawling and data extraction is something that can be carried out through more than one route. In fact, there are so many different technologies, tools and methodologies you can use when it comes to web scraping. However, not all of these deliver the same results. While using browser automation tools to control a web browser is one of the easier ways of scraping, it’s significantly slower since rendering takes  a considerable amount of time.

There are DIY tools and libraries that can be readily incorporated into the web scraping pipeline. Apart from this, there is always the option of building most of it from scratch to ensure maximum efficiency and flexibility. Since this offers far more customization options which is vital for a dynamic process like web scraping, we have a custom built infrastructure to crawl and scrape the web.

How we cater to the rising and complex requirements

Every web scraping requirement that we receive each day is one of a kind. The websites that we scrape on a constant basis are different in terms of the backend technology, coding practices and navigation structure. Despite all the complexities involved, eliminating the pain points associated with web scraping and delivering ready-to-use data to the clients is our priority.

Some applications of web data demand the data to be scraped in low latency. This means, the data should be extracted as and when it’s updated in the target website with minimal delay. Price comparison, for example requires data in low latency. The optimal method of crawler setup is chosen depending on the application of the data. We ensure that the data delivered actually helps your application, in all of its entirety.

How we tuned our pipeline for highly efficient web scraping

We constantly tweak and tune our web scraping infrastructure to push the limits and improve its performance including the turnaround time and data quality. Here are some of the performance enhancing improvements that we recently made.

1. Optimized DB query for improved time complexity of the whole system

All the crawl stats metadata is stored in a database and together, this piles up to become a considerable amount of data to manage. Our crawlers have to make queries to this database to fetch the details that would direct them to the next scrape task to be done. This usually takes a few seconds as the meta data is fetched from the database. We recently optimized this database query which essentially reduced the fetch time to merely a fraction of seconds from about 4 seconds. This has made the crawling process significantly faster and smoother than before.

2. Purely distributed approach with servers running on various geographies

Instead of using a single server to scrape millions of records, we deploy the crawler across multiple servers located in different geographies. Since multiple machines are performing the extraction, the load on each server will be significantly lower which in turn helps speed up the extraction process. Another advantage is that certain sites that can only be accessed from a particular geography can be scraped while using the distributed approach. Since there is a significant boost in the speed while going with the distributed server approach, our clients can enjoy a faster turnaround time.

3. Bulk indexing for faster deduplication

Duplicate records is never a trait associated with a good data set. This is why we have a data processing system that identifies and eliminates duplicate records from the data before delivering it to the clients. A NoSQL database is dedicated to this deduplication task. We recently updated this system to perform bulk indexing of the records which will give a substantial boost to the data processing time which again ultimately reduces the overall time taken between crawling and data delivery.

Bottom line

As web data has become an inevitable resource for businesses operating across various industries, the demand for efficient and streamlined web scraping has gone up. We strive hard to make this possible by experimenting, fine tuning and learning from every project that we embark upon. This helps us maintain a consistent supply of clean, structured data that’s ready to use to our clients in record time.

Source:https://www.promptcloud.com/blog/how-we-optimized-web-scraping-setup-for-efficiency

Things to Factor in while Choosing a Data Extraction Solution

Things to Factor in while Choosing a Data Extraction Solution

Customization options

You should consider how flexible the solution is when it comes to changing the data points or schema as and when required. This is to make sure that the solution you choose is future-proof in case your requirements vary depending on the focus of your business. If you go with a rigid solution, you might feel stuck when it doesn’t serve your purpose anymore. Choosing a data extraction solution that’s flexible enough should be given priority in this fast-changing market.

Cost

If you are on a tight budget, you might want to evaluate what option really does the trick for you at a reasonable cost. While some costlier solutions are definitely better in terms of service and flexibility, they might not be suitable for you from a cost perspective. While going with an in-house setup or a DIY tool might look less costly from a distance, these can incur unexpected costs associated with maintenance. Cost can be associated with IT overheads, infrastructure, paid software and subscription to the data provider. If you are going with an in-house solution, there can be additional costs associated with hiring and retaining a dedicated team.

Data delivery speed

Depending on the solution you choose, the speed of data delivery might vary hugely. If your business or industry demands faster access to data for the survival, you must choose a managed service that can meet your speed expectations. Price intelligence, for example is a use case where speed of delivery is of utmost importance.

Dedicated solution

Are you depending on a service provider whose sole focus is data extraction? There are companies that venture into anything and everything to try their luck. For example, if your data provider is also into web designing, you are better off staying away from them.

Reliability

When going with a data extraction solution to serve your business intelligence needs, it’s critical to evaluate the reliability of the solution you are going with. Since low quality data and lack of consistency can take a toll on your data project, it’s important to make sure you choose a reliable data extraction solution. It’s also good to evaluate if it can serve your long-term data requirements.

Scalability

If your data requirements are likely to increase over time, you should find a solution that’s made to handle large scale requirements. A DaaS provider is the best option when you want a solution that’s salable depending on your increasing data needs.

When evaluating options for data extraction, it’s best keep these points in mind and choose one that will cover your requirements end-to-end. Since web data is crucial to the success and growth of businesses in this era, compromising on the quality can be fatal to your organisation which again stresses on the importance of choosing carefully.

Source:https://www.promptcloud.com/blog/choosing-a-data-extraction-service-provider

3 Advantages of Web Scraping for Your Enterprise

In today’s Internet-dominated world possessing the relevant information for your business is the key to success and prosperity. Harvested in a structural and organized manner, the information will help facilitate business processes in many ways, including, but not limited to, market research, competition analysis, network building, brand promotion and reputation tracking. More targeted information means a more successful business and with the widespread competition in place, the strive for better performances is crucial.

The results of data harvesting prove to be an invaluable assistance in the age when you have the need to be informed and if you want to stand your chance in the highly competitive modern markets. This is the reason why web data harvesting has long become an inevitable component of a successful enterprise and it is a highly useful tool in both kick-starting and maintaining a functioning business by providing relevant and accurate data when needed.

However good your product or service is, the simple truth is that no-one will buy it if they don't want it or believe that they don't need it. Moreover, you won't persuade anyone that they want or need to buy what you're offering unless you clearly understand what it is that your customers really want. This way, it is crucial to have an understanding of your customers’ preferences. Always remember - they are the kings of the market and they determine the demand. Having this in mind, you can use web data scraping to get the vital information and be able to make the crucial, game-changing decisions to make your enterprise the next big thing.

Enough about how awesome web scraping is in theory! Now, let’s zoom in on 3 specific and tangible advantages that it can provide for your business, helping You benefit from them.

1. Provision of huge amounts of data

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that there is an overflowing demand for new data for businesses across the globe. This happens because the competition increases day by day. Thus, the more information you have about your products, competitors, market etc. the better are your chances of expanding and persisting in the competitive business environment. This is a challenge but your enterprise is in luck because web scraping is specifically designed to collect the data which can be later used to analyse the market and make the necessary adjustments. But if you think that collecting data is as simple as it sounds and there is no sophistication involved in the process, think again: simply collecting data is not enough. The manner in which data extraction processes flow is also very important; as mere data collection itself is useless. The data needs to be organized and provided in a useable format to be accessible to wide masses. Good data management is key to efficiency. It’s instrumental to choose the right format, because its functions and capacities will determine the speed and productivity of your efforts, especially when you deal with large chunks of data. This is where excellent data scraping tools and services come in handy. They are widely available nowadays and are able to satisfy your company’s needs in a professional and timely manner.

2.  Market research and demand analyses

Trends and innovations allow you to see the general picture of your industry: how it’s faring today, what’s been trendy recently and which ones faded quickly. This way, you can avoid repeating mistakes of unsuccessful businesses, as well as, foresee how well yours will do, and possibly predict new trends.

Data extraction by web crawling will also provide you with up-to-date information about similar products or services in the market. Catalogues, web stores, results of promotional campaigns – all that data can be harvested. You need to know your competitors, if you want to be able to challenge their positions on the market and win over customers from them.

Furthermore, knowledge about various major and minor issues of your industry will help you in assessing the future demand of your product or service. More importantly, with the help of web scraping your company will remain alert for changes, adjustments and analyses of all aspects of your product or service.

3.  Business evaluation for intelligence

We cannot stress enough the importance of regularly analysing and evaluating your business. It is absolutely crucial for every business to have up-to-date information on how well they are doing and where they are amongst others in the market. For instance, if a competitor decides to lower the prices in order to grow their customer base you need to be prepared whether you can remain in the industry despite lowering prices. This can only be done with the help of data scraping services and tools.

Moreover, extracted data on reviews and recommendations from specific websites or social media portals will introduce you to the general opinion of the public. You can also use this technique to identify potential new customers and sway their opinions in your favor by creating targeted ads and campaigns.

To sum it up, it is undeniable that web scraping is a proven practice when it comes to maintaining a strong and competitive enterprise. Combining relevant information on your industry, competitors, partners and customers with thought-out business strategies and promotional campaigns, as well as, market research and business analyses will prove to be a solid way of establishing yourself in the market. Whether you own a startup or a successful company, keeping a finger on the pulse of the ever-evolving market will never hurt you. In fact, it might very well be the single most important advantage that will differentiate you from your competitors.

Source Url :- https://www.datahen.com/blog/3-advantages-of-web-scraping-for-your-enterprise

4 Tools That Makes Web Data Extraction Easy

There is a huge amount of data available on the World Wide Web. Organizations and individuals find this information useful and often have to make use of it for various purposes. Traditionally, web data is retrieved by browsing and keyword searching. These methods are purely intuitive, the searches can return vast amount of unnecessary data, and it can take quite a bit of time before the searchers find what they are looking for. This data is sometimes hard to manipulate and work on as it is done in traditional databases.

But web pages written in mark-up languages like HTML and XHTML contain a wealth of knowledge. They also provide the structures that make data manipulation and analysis so easy. To extract this data some easily usable applications have been built. Though people who know nothing about coding can use some of these applications, it is always advisable to take the help of data extraction experts for help with such work, to obtain best results.

4  Tools to Improve your Web Data Extraction Efforts:

Uipath:

One of the popular web scraping applications is offered by the software automation and application integration company, Uipath. They offer free trials and also live demos for new users and potential customers. They offer website scraping from HTML, XML, AJAX, Java applets, Flash, Silverlight and PDF. Their application has powerful data transformation features and enables deduplication with SQL and LINQ queries.
Once the data has been extracted, it can be exported to various outputs like Microsoft Excel, CSV, .NET DataTable and so on. Automations can be done with web login, navigation, and even filling of forms.
This application is good for non-coders and can even be used to manipulate the interface of another application so that data transfer can take place between the two of them.
The price tag might be a tad high for individual users, but is worth it if you want a fast, accurate and simple application.

Import.io:

 Import.io offers to “instantly turn web pages into data”. They advertise their service saying that the customer does not need plugin, training or setup. Users can create custom APIs and crawl entire websites by using their desktop application. The best part is that no coding knowledge is required. Users can scrap data from an unlimited number of web pages. For the service, each page is a source that holds great potential to source application programming interface.
The extracted data is stored on Import.io’s cloud servers. It can then be downloaded in different formats that include CSV, Google sheets, Microsoft Excel and many more. The generated API enables users to integrate live web data with their own applications, third party analytics and visualization software without much difficulty. Though users do not need much technical skills to operate this service, the extraction reports arrives a good 24 hours after the request has been submitted.

Kimono:

The task of building an API to power applications, models and visualizations using live data and without the benefit of any code is done in seconds by Kimono. The service has a smart extractor. It recognizes patterns in web content. This enables the user to get the data that he or she wants, quickly and visually. The extracted APIs are hosted on a cloud. They are then run as per the schedule that is convenient for the user. While there is no problem with either the speed or the accuracy of Kimono, there is a lack of availability of page navigation, and the system requires some training before it begins to function at full capability.

Screen Scraper:

Like the other above-mentioned services, Screen Scraper works well with HTML and Javascript, extracts data precisely and provides the data in Excel and CSV fomat. However, it requires the user to have some coding skills. Only then can it be used to its optimum functionality. Even though the user will have to shell out a bit of money to use Screen Scraper, the service can handle almost any data extraction task with ease.

Source Url:-https://www.invensis.net/blog/data-processing/4-tools-makes-web-data-extraction-easy/

Things to Consider when Evaluating Options for Web Data Extraction

Things to Consider when Evaluating Options for Web Data Extraction

Web data extraction possess tremendous applications in the business world. There are businesses that function solely based on data, others use it for business intelligence, competitor analysis and market research among other countless use cases. While everything is good with data, extracting massive data from the web is still a major roadblock for many companies, more so because they are not going through the optimal route. We decided to give you a detailed overview of different ways by which you can extract data from the web. This could help you make the final call while evaluating different options for web data extraction.

Different routes you can take to web data

Although different solutions exist for web data extraction, you should opt for the one that’s most suited for your requirement. These are the various options you can go with:

1. Build it in-house

2. DIY web scraping tool

3. Vertical-specific solution

4. Data-as-a-Service

1.   Build it in-house

If your company is technically rich, meaning you have a good technical team that can build and maintain a web scraping setup, it makes sense to build a crawler setup in-house. This option is more suitable for medium sized businesses with simpler requirements when it comes to data. However, building an in-house setup is not the biggest challenge- maintaining it is. Since web crawlers are really fragile and are vulnerable to the changes on target websites, you will have to dedicate time and labour into the maintenance of the in-house crawling setup.

Building your own in-house setup will not be easy if the number of websites you need to scrape are high or the websites aren’t using simple and traditional coding practices. If the target websites use complicated dynamic code, building your in-house setup becomes a bigger hurdle. This can hog your resources especially if extracting data from the web is not a competency of your business. Scaling up with your in-house crawling setup could also be a challenge as this would require high end resources, an extensive tech stack and a dedicated internal team. If your data needs are limited and the target websites simple, you can go ahead with an in-house crawling setup to cover your data needs.

Pros:

- Total ownership and control over the process
- Ideal for simpler requirements

2.   DIY scraping tools

If you don’t want to maintain a technical team that can build an in-house crawling setup and infrastructure, don’t worry. DIY scraping tools are exactly what you need. These tools usually require no technical knowledge as such and can be used by anyone who is good with the basics. They usually come with a visual interface where you can configure and deploy your web crawlers. The downside however, is that they are very limited in their capabilities and scale of operation. They are an ideal choice if you are just starting out with no budgets for data acquisition. DIY web scraping tools are usually priced very low and some are even free to use.

Maintenance would still be a challenge that you have to face with the DIY tools. As web crawlers are susceptible to becoming useless with minor changes in the target sites, you still have to maintain and adapt the tool from time to time. The good part is that it doesn’t require technically sound labour to handle them. Since the solution is readymade, you will also save the costs associated with building your own infrastructure for scraping.

With DIY tools, you will also be sacrificing on the data quality as these tools are not known for providing data in a ready to consume format. You will either have to employ an automated tool to check the data quality or do it manually. With these downsides apart, DIY tools can cater to simple and small scale data requirements. 

Pros:

- Full control over the process
- Prebuilt solution
- You can avail support for the tools
- Easier to configure and use

3.   Vertical-specific solution

You might be able find a data provider catering to only a specific industry vertical. If you could find one that has data for the industry that you are targeting, consider yourself lucky. Vertical specific data providers can give you data that is comprehensive in nature which improves the overall quality of the project. These solutions typically give you datasets that are already extracted and is ready to use.

The downside is the lack of customisation options. Since the provider is focusing on a specific industry vertical, their solution is less flexible to be altered depending on your specific requirements. They won’t let you add or remove data points and the data is given as is. It will be hard to find a vertical-specific solution that has data exactly the way you want. Another important thing to consider is that your competitors have access to the same data from these vertical-specific data providers. The data you get is hence less exclusive, but this may or may not be a deal breaker depending upon your requirement.

Pros:

- Comprehensive data from the industry
- Faster access to data
- No need to handle the complicated aspects of extraction

4.   Data as a service (DaaS)

Getting the required data from a DaaS provider is by far the best way to extract data from the web. With a data provider, you are completely relieved from the responsibility of crawler setup, maintenance and quality inspection of the data being extracted. Since these are companies specialised in data extraction with a pre-built infrastructure and dedicated team to handle it, they can provide this service to you at a much lower cost than what you’d incur with an in-house crawling setup.

In the case of a DaaS solution, all you have to do is provide them with your requirements like the data points, source websites, frequency of crawl, data format and the delivery methods. DaaS providers have high end infrastructure, resources and expert team to extract data from the web efficiently.

They will also have far superior knowledge in extracting data efficiently and at scale. With DaaS, you also have the comfort of getting data that’s free from noise and is formatted properly for compatibility. Since the data goes through quality inspections at their end, you can focus only on  applying data to your business. This can greatly reduce the workload on your data team and improve the efficiency.

Customisation and flexibility are other great advantages that come with a DaaS solution. Since these solutions are meant for the large enterprises, their offering is completely customisable for your exact requirements. If your requirement is large scale and recurring, it’s always best to go with a DaaS solution.

Pros:

- Completely customisable for your requirement
- Takes complete ownership of the process
- Quality checks to ensure high quality data
- Can handle dynamic and complicated websites
- More time to focus on your core business

Source:https://www.promptcloud.com/blog/choosing-a-data-extraction-service-provider

Primary Information of Online Web Research- Web Mining & Data Extraction Services

Primary Information of Online Web Research- Web Mining & Data Extraction Services

World Wide Web and search engine development and data at our disposal and the ever-growing pile of information provided abundant. Now this information for research and analysis has become a popular and important.

Today, Web search services are increasingly complex. Business Intelligence and web dialogue to give the desired result that the various factors involved.

Researchers from web data web search (keyword of the application) or using the navigation engine specific Web resources can get. However, these methods are not effective. Keyword search returns a large portion of irrelevant data. Since each web page includes many outgoing links to navigate because it is difficult to extract the data too.

Web mining, Web content extraction, mining and Web usage mining Web structure is classified. Mineral content search and retrieval of information on the Web focuses on. Mine use of the extract and analyze user behavior. Structure mining contracts with the structure of hyperlinks.

Web mining services can be divided into three sub-tasks:

Information (RI) Recovery: The purpose of this sub-task to automatically find all relevant information and filter out irrelevant. The so Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other resources to find information such uses various search engines.

Generalization: The purpose of this subtask interested users to explore clustering and association rules, is that the use of data mining methods. Since dynamic Web data are incorrect, it is difficult for the traditional techniques of data mining are applied directly to the raw data.

Data (DV) Verification: The first working with data provided by attempts to discover knowledge. The researchers tested different models, they can imitate and eventually Web information valid for stability.

Software tools for data retrieval for structured data that is used in the Internet. There are so many Internet search engines to help you find a website for a particular issue would have been. Various sites in the data appears in different styles. The expert scraped help you compare the different sites and structures to store data up to date.

And the web crawler software tool is used to index web pages in the Internet, the Internet will move data from your hard drive. With this work, you can browse the Internet much faster to connect. And use the device off-peak hours is important if you try to download data from the Internet. It will take considerable time to download. However, the device with faster Internet rate. There you can download all data from the businessman is another tool called email extractor. The balance sheet, you can easily target the e-mail clients. Every time your product can deliver targeted advertisements to customers. The customer database to find the best equipment.

Web data extraction tool for comparing data from different sites and have to get data from HTML pages. Every day, many sites are hosted on the Internet. It is possible the same day do not look at all the sites.

However, there are more scratch rights are available on the Internet. And some Web sites provide reliable information on these tools. By paying a nominal amount to download these tools.

Source:http://www.sooperarticles.com/business-articles/outsourcing-articles/primary-information-online-web-research-web-mining-38-data-extraction-services-497487.html#ixzz4iGc3oemP