Usefulness of Web Scraping Services

For any business or organization, surveys and market research play important roles in the strategic decision-making process. Data extraction and web scraping techniques are important tools that find relevant data and information for your personal or business use. Many companies employ people to copy-paste data manually from the web pages. This process is very reliable but very costly as it results to time wastage and effort. This is so because the data collected is less compared to the resources spent and time taken to gather such data.

Nowadays, various data mining companies have developed effective web scraping techniques that can crawl over thousands of websites and their pages to harvest particular information. The information extracted is then stored into a CSV file, database, XML file, or any other source with the required format. After the data has been collected and stored, data mining process can be used to extract the hidden patterns and trends contained in the data. By understanding the correlations and patterns in the data; policies can be formulated and thereby aiding the decision-making process. The information can also be stored for future reference.

The following are some of the common examples of data extraction process:

• Scrap through a government portal in order to extract the names of the citizens who are reliable for a given survey.
• Scraping competitor websites for feature data and product pricing
• Using web scraping to download videos and images for stock photography site or for website design

Automated Data Collection
It is important to note that web scraping process allows a company to monitor the website data changes over a given time frame. It also collects the data on a routine basis regularly. Automated data collection techniques are quite important as they help companies to discover customer trends and market trends. By determining market trends, it is possible to understand the customer behavior and predict the likelihood of how the data will change.

The following are some of the examples of the automated data collection:

• Monitoring price information for the particular stocks on hourly basis
• Collecting mortgage rates from the various financial institutions on the daily basis
• Checking on weather reports on regular basis as required

By using web scraping services it is possible to extract any data that is related to your business. The data can then be downloaded into a spreadsheet or a database for it to be analyzed and compared. Storing the data in a database or in a required format makes it easier for interpretation and understanding of the correlations and for identification of the hidden patterns.

Through web scraping it is possible to get quicker and accurate results and thus saving many resources in terms of money and time. With data extraction services, it is possible to fetch information about pricing, mailing, database, profile data, and competitors data on a consistent basis. With the emergence of professional data mining companies outsourcing your services will greatly reduce your costs and at the same time you are assured of high quality services.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7181014

Website Design For Your Local Landing Page

Great Web Design For Local Landing Pages For Websites

A Local Landing Page is the page where your website visitors land i.e. arrive after they click on a link. The local landing page can be your home page or any other page on your website specially designed to welcome your visitors. Local landing pages can provide customized sales pitches for visitors. By designing great landing pages you can seek to engage visitors more effectively and increase your conversion rates.

Local landing pages are a better way to welcome visitors that simply making them arrive on the home page. This is because when you know where the visitors are coming from, you can address their specific needs and offer customized solutions for the same. By giving visitors exactly what they need, you can captivate their attention and acquire a following of loyal audiences.

Local landing pages are especially useful when you know where your visitors are coming from and you want to take particular actions like register themselves, sign-up or purchase something. If you are paying for the traffic through banner ads, sponsored links or PPC, then it gets especially important that you design specific landing pages.

Here are some tips to design effective local landing pages that will engage visitors and provide higher ROI.

Focus on One Key Message
The content of the local landing page should work to promote something specific. Don't get lost and try to showcase everything you have. Rather, focus on one key message and make your content precise and concise. It should focus on one appealing message that is sure to attract visitor attention.

Make it Visually Appealing
Only content seldom makes a sale. Make sure your support your content with relevant images that illustrate the quality of your products or even services. Images can highly impact the decisions of the users. Moreover, they make the page more vibrant and add beauty to what would otherwise have been long scrapes of information.

Ensure Rich User Experience
More then anything else, make sure that your visitors have a smooth and flawless user experience on the page. The navigation pathway should be clean and intuitive and the call-to-action should be clear and succinct.

Use Catchy Headlines
If your headline is able to catch the attention of visitors, only then they will read further. When visitors arrive on your landing pages, make sure they see clear and direct headlines. The headlines should be direct and simple statements that tell visitors what needs to be accomplished.

Use Abundant Whitespace
The beauty of the web page elements only come through if they can be viewed clearly. And for a clean view, there needs to be abundant white space on the page. Don't forget that Internet users scan through web pages. Clean use of space makes it possible for visitors to scan and understand the key messages of the web pages.

Deliver Value Propositions
The key to successful web communication is to answer visitor queries even before they ask you. Answer all the 'what', 'why', 'how' that visitors may ask with value propositions. Instead of long scrapes of plain text, use bullet points to present answers in a concise and easily comprehensible manner. Instantly inform them about the benefits of your products and services.

Make the Message Compelling and Convincing
If your website design is done correctly, your local landing page should be your best salesperson. It should persuade the visitors to make a purchase or hire your services. The message of your page should convince the visitors and compel them to take the desired action.

Direct Horizon is the fastest growing Local Business Internet Marketing & Website Design firm in the country. With Direct Horizon we make Local Website Design & Local Internet Marketing fast and effective.


Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Website-Design-For-Your-Local-Landing-Page&id=5890276

Web Data Scraping Services - Scraping, Extraction data at Low Price

Online Web Research Services is a leading BPO company provides web data scraping, website data scraping, web data extraction, data collection from web, web data mining and screen scraping etc. We are in industry for 17 years and worked for thousand plus offshore clients across the world including US, UK, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Brazil, Switzerland etc.

We provide full web data scraping services including data research & data extraction. We can scrap any kind of data like news, real estate data, product pricing data, financial data, auction data, insurance data, medical data etc.

Get quality web data scraping, extraction at the best rate in industry. Email us for free quote on info@onlinewebresearchservices.com

Benefits, we offer:
• World Class Quality and Accuracy.
• High Data Security & Confidentiality.
• Priority Services - Quick Delivery.
• Lowest Possible Industry Rate.

We have special team of data scrapers and researchers that provide exact data from web and provide extracted data in multiple format such as MS excel, CSV, XML, MS Word, or other databases format etc.

Web Data Scraping Services Outsourcing Include:
• Data scraping from yellow pages, white pages, super pages
• Data scraping from yelp, yell, scoot, kijiji, ebay, whois, linkedin, facebook
• Data scraping from finda, freeindex, truelocal, googlemap, google local business
• Data scraping of law firm, accounting firm, financial advisors, doctors, media contacts
• Data scraping of hotel, restaurants, pubs, bars, ebay, amazon, exhibitors, twitter, realtors


Source: http://www.information-online.com/node/507642

Google Admits It Scraped The Database Of A Kenyan Startup, Says It Was Huge Mistake

Google was caught in a scandal yesterday when it came out that it was scraping the database of Kenyan startup Mocality to improperly get information on local Kenyan businesses.

Google would go to the contact pages of small businesses listed on Mocality's site and then it would call those businesses and tell them it was working with Mocality, when in reality it was not. (Our full write up is here.)

After the news came out, Google provided this statement from Nelson Mattos, VP for Product and Engineering, Europe and the Emerging Markets:

"We were mortified to learn that a team of people working on a Google project improperly used Mocality’s data and misrepresented our relationship with Mocality to encourage customers to create new websites. We’ve already unreservedly apologized to Mocality. We’re still investigating exactly how this happened, and as soon as we have all the facts, we’ll be taking the appropriate action with the people involved."

Google decline to say anything else on the record to us, but someone close to the company explained the situation further.

Google hires independent companies around the world on short contracts to do cold calls of small businesses to help get them online. It provides scripts for these companies on what they can say. Our source says Google never approved any script that would mention Mocality.

So, Google believes it was a small team or a rogue operator that was going off script and telling lies about Mocality to Kenyan businesses.

Our source says Google has apologized directly to the CEO of Mocality, and is doing its best to figure out what happened and will devise a plan to make sure it never happens again.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-mocality-small-team-2012-1

Importance of Web Data Scraping Services

Every business needs information to be successful. The information required may vary from the market performance to the competitors' data. It can also involve various trends and any other news concerning a particular niche. This article explores what kind of data or information our web scraping service will provide. This article further explores why a company should outsource the web scraping process to professionals.

Web scraping has been defined as extraction of information from certain websites. This information can be gathered by humans themselves for the betterment of their business. A lot of information can be gathered from websites, analyzed and its application made. Getting information from thousands of websites is time consuming for company. This procedure may be both tedious and expensive for a company.

1. Price details. You can get information about price changes in a given industry. With such information you can develop your own price matrix. You can also use this information to determine where you can purchase your products from at competitive prices.
2. Consumer information. You can get enough information about consumers of given products. You can also know there various locations and contacts. You can also get their reviews about a certain products and how you can improve them.
3. Contacts. Web scraping gets even the hidden data of various companies. You can get information and contacts about managers, suppliers and marketers of your given niche.
4. Reselling services. By use of web scraping you can be able to what are the “hot services” that you can resell easily and in a profitable manner.
5. Building telemarketing databases. By using web scraping it is possible to build telemarketing databases including yellow and white pages.

It is important to understand that web scraping is necessary and information obtained from web scraping can be used for thousands of uses. Probably this defines why web scraping is mandatory for any business whether online or offline.

Professional experience. Web scraping is a tough process and one that can consume resources of your company. Our company has over five years working experience on the web scraping field. For all these years we have provided profitable opportunities for internet marketers.

High quality. We implement high technology with our qualified staff to get you the results you need according to your set standards.

Competitive cost. We offer high quality web scraping services at competitive prices. This is not possible with other web scraping service companies out there.

Save resources and time. By outsourcing your web scraping service to us you are assured of saving time and resources. You resources can then be diverted to the core function of your business.

Customer support. We guarantee our customers full customer support by answering their queries in a kind manner and offering any assistance and advice they may need. Our customer service works for 24x7 time basis.

It is important to note that web scraping is used in capturing data that is unstructured from different websites in target and then converting it into structured data. This structured data is then stored and maintained for any future uses.

Source: http://www.articlesolve.com/articledetail.php?artid=384827&catid=81

Data Scraping Services

Sometime businesses and websites need to extract some data from websites in order to publish it on your own website. This will need you to get services from some data scraping company. Scrap is the raw form of data which can be used for any further purpose. People also use for analysis because some type of researches need the existing data to be used for drawing results and predict the future.

The process of extracting data from the display of any computer program is called the data scraping. This extraction can be in the form of unstructured or semi structured data which will be analyzed later to give it the structured form. The program used for this scraping purpose is known as the data scrapper. You may have to look hard to find the best data scraper for your help but the only expert with the best services and advanced procedures is data scraping services. We can extract data from websites and business directories to help our customers get results which they want. You can get every type of website data scrapping and web data scrapping.

We can extract the data from a lot of websites like yelp, scoot, ebay, bluebook, Facebook, yell, kijiji, whois and alexa, etc. we can extract all type of data for our customers from white pages, yellow pages, super pages, blue pages, click smart and city search. Data can be extracted from Google maps, finda, Google local business and many other pages on internet. Getting service from scraperservices.com will save you a lot of time which is very important for any business. This is a type of secondary data which is already present and you do not have o waste a lot of money and man power in searching from a new side. Time is very important for any business and it can make major decisions for a company.

Our main difference from other companies is that we will give you customized services. Email us your work details at info@scraperservices.com to get a sample of work. We can give you your data in the form of excel, XML, my SQL and text files.

Source: http://scraperservices.com/web-data-scraping/

What does the White Pages ruling mean for Australian government data?

There is a trend towards greater openness in the licensing of Australian government data. Queensland's government a few years ago put in place a framework (GILF) for Creative Commons licensing and Victoria's government recently committing to using Creative Commons as its default copyright licensing system.

Some steps have taken place at a federal level, with both the ABS and Geosciences (see their footer) moving in the same direction.

However the recent court case where Telstra sued the publishers of Local Directories over the republishing of Yellow and White pages information - and lost - marks a further step in the process.

In the case, Telstra Corporation Limited v Phone Directories Company Pty Ltd [2010] FCA 44 (8 February 2010), the judge found that Yellow and White Pages listings were not covered under copyright law as they were not original and that (requoting from the news.com.au article Telstra loses copyright case over Yellow Pages and White Pages,

    "None of the people said to be authors of the Works exercised 'independent intellectual effort' or 'sufficient effort of a literary nature' in creating the (directories)."

    "Further, if necessary, the creation of the Works did not involve some 'creative spark' or the exercise of the requisite 'skill and judgment'."

This case follows a related decision in the IceTV case in 2007, where Channel Nine claimed that its TV Guide was a literary work and IceTV could not create a copy of it through independent effort.

So what does this mean for similar forms of government information released under Crown Copyright such as transport timetables, budget accounts, lists of elected officials, statements of interests and other lists and statistics which did not require 'creative spark', 'independent intellectual effort' or 'sufficient effort of a literary nature'?

I am not a lawyer and don't trawl all the legal cases reported online on a regular basis, however to my knowledge no Australian state or federal government department has recently gone to court against individuals or corporations replicating and reusing statistical data of these types. So there is no actual ruling I am aware of to test whether this government data remains legally protectable under Crown Copyright.

In at lease one case, involving NSW RailCorp in early 2009, cease and desist letters were sent by RailCorp's lawyers (to three iPhone application developers). This didn't end up in court as the resulting publicity brought the situation to the attention of the then NSW Premier who ordered RailCorp to negotiate arrangements to share timetable data with less stringent copyright provisions.

I believe that a reasonable supposition at this time is that where publicly released government data does not meet the required tests in the copyright case, it would be difficult to prove why it should be protected under Crown Copyright.

This would make copyright over lists of names and figures very hard to justify.

I do appreciate that government departments have concerns over information being used in inaccurate or misleading ways, or that people may rely on out-of-date information through third party sources (a particular concern for transport networks). However Crown Copyright may not be the most appropriate tool to mitigate these risks anymore.

Maybe we need to look at other approaches, such as making it easier for third parties to use data in the way intended - such as providing data feeds at consistent URLs for reuse (which means third-party applications will be as accurate as the government figures), ensuring that data labels are human readable and clear (to reduce misinterpretations) and including date stamps in data so it is clear when it is current from and to.

In cases where data is used inappropriately, government still has recourse through Creative Commons type licensing and other aspects of Australia's legal system to restrain this usage while supporting appropriate use.

Further comments and legal views by lawyers and interested parties are heartily welcome!

Source:

Roze Tailer is experienced web scraping consultant and writes articles on web data scraping, website data scraping, web scraping services, data scraping services, website scraping, eBay product scraping, Forms Data Entry etc.