Web scraping is the automated process of extracting data from websites. Bots, also known as web scrapers or web crawlers, use various techniques to scrape the internet for information. Here’s a simplified explanation of the process:
- Request: The bot sends a request to a specific website’s server, mimicking a web browser.
- Response: The server responds with the requested web page, usually in HTML format.
- Parsing: The bot parses the HTML response to identify and extract the desired data, using techniques like XPath or regular expressions.
- Data extraction: The bot locates specific elements, such as text, images, or links, and extracts the relevant information.
- Storage: The scraped data is typically stored in a structured format, such as a database or CSV file, for further analysis or use.
It’s worth noting that web scraping should be done ethically and in compliance with website terms of service and legal regulations.
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