Evaluation of web scraping methods : Different automation approaches regarding web scraping using desktop tools

Abstract: A lot of information can be found and extracted from the semantic web in different forms through web scraping, with many techniques emerging throughout time. This thesis is written with the objective to evaluate different web scraping methods in order to develop an automated, performance reliable, easy implemented and solid extraction process. A number of parameters are set to better evaluate and compare consisting techniques. A matrix of desktop tools are examined and two were chosen for evaluation. The evaluation also includes the learning of setting up the scraping process with so called agents. A number of links gets scraped by using the presented techniques with and without executing JavaScript from the web sources. Prototypes with the chosen techniques are presented with Content Grabber as a final solution. The result is a better understanding around the subject along with a cost-effective extraction process consisting of different techniques and methods, where a good understanding around the web sources structure facilitates the data collection. To sum it all up, the result is discussed and presented with regard to chosen parameters.