Most companies now make use of website crawlers for data extraction, as the solution offers some unrivalled advantages

Web site crawlers may be used for various purposes, the most popular one traditionally being by search engines such as Google and Yahoo in order to index pages. One very popular development of the crawler technology is its use to facilitate web data extraction by many businesses in order to collect useful data from the Internet.

Manually searching the web for the needed information requires tremendous time and effort, which sometimes turn out to be too costly, inconsistent, and unreliable. For large-scale businesses which require large volumes of accurate data, or for small ones for which cost-efficiency is essential, manual data extraction is not an option; therefore, they choose to use a web crawler to fully automate Internet searches and conduct them in a more efficient, methodical, and effective manner.

Website crawlers, often also called ‘site scrapers’ have gained enormous popularity. Some providers of web data extraction software have developed a variety of specialized software solutions to meet the specific demands that businesses might have.

Ficstar Software is a popular web crawler provider based in Toronto, with clients from virtually any business sector. To be able to fit their needs, Ficstar has developed a Custom-Designed Web Grabber. The company’s core solution can be customized for each client by modifying the software to meet the specific requirements for their target web sites. Thus, customers are provided with the exact solution they need to meet their unique needs.

Since Ficstar software’s core programming is already complete, the customization required for target web sites – including locating the target URLs, identifying the appropriate fields to be extracted, and debugging the software to allow the content to be saved to the appropriate format – can be completed within just a few days.

Another solution which enjoys widespread popularity is the Contacts Grabber. Many businesses need accurate, complete, up-to-date contact information from the Web in order to build membership or informational sites, or executing sales and marketing activities. The Contacts Grabber is a powerful, intuitive tool that enables customers to quickly and easily collect results from online business directories, member listings, and other web pages which contain contact information. The solution allows customers to easily identify target audience members and collect their contact information, to gather contact details for use in promotional campaigns, or to build online directories or residential listing sites.

Besides being much more efficient and reliable than manual web data extraction, website crawler solutions are also very affordable. For the Custom-Designed Web Crawler, each project is priced based on the complexity of the data on the targeted web site, and the extent of the software customization required to extract that data. Costs are designed to meet any budget, and are by all means lower than traditional expenses related to manual data extraction.