PDF Scraping: Making Modern File Formats More Accessible

PDF Scraping: Making Modern File Formats More Accessible

Data scraping is the process of automatically sorting through information contained on the internet inside html, PDF

or other documents and collecting relevant information to into databases and spreadsheets for later retrieval. On

most websites, the text is easily and accessibly written in the source code but an increasing number of businesses are

using Adobe PDF format (Portable Document Format: A format which can be viewed by the free Adobe Acrobat

software on almost any operating system. See below for a link.). The advantage of PDF format is that the document

looks exactly the same no matter which computer you view it from making it ideal for business forms, specification

sheets, etc.; the disadvantage is that the text is converted into an image from which you often cannot easily copy and

paste. PDF Scraping is the process of data scraping information contained in PDF files. To PDF scrape a PDF document,

you must employ a more diverse set of tools.

There are two main types of PDF files: those built from a text file and those built from an image (likely scanned in).

Adobe's own software is capable of PDF scraping from text-based PDF files but special tools are needed for PDF

scraping text from image-based PDF files. The primary tool for PDF scraping is the OCR program. OCR, or Optical

Character Recognition, programs scan a document for small pictures that they can separate into letters. These

pictures are then compared to actual letters and if matches are found, the letters are copied into a file. OCR programs

can perform PDF scraping of image-based PDF files quite accurately but they are not perfect.

Once the OCR program or Adobe program has finished PDF scraping a document, you can search through the data to

find the parts you are most interested in. This information can then be stored into your favorite database or

spreadsheet program. Some PDF scraping programs can sort the data into databases and/or spreadsheets

automatically making your job that much easier.

Quite often you will not find a PDF scraping program that will obtain exactly the data you want without customization.

Surprisingly a search on Google only turned up one business, (the amusingly named ScrapeGoat.com that will create a

customized PDF scraping utility for your project. A handful of off the shelf utilities claim to be customizable, but seem

to require a bit of programming knowledge and time commitment to use effectively. Obtaining the data yourself with

one of these tools may be possible but will likely prove quite tedious and time consuming. It may be advisable to

contract a company that specializes in PDF scraping to do it for you quickly and professionally.

Let's explore some real world examples of the uses of PDF scraping technology. A group at Cornell University wanted

to improve a database of technical documents in PDF format by taking the old PDF file where the links and references

were just images of text and changing the links and references into working clickable links thus making the database

easy to navigate and cross-reference. They employed a PDF scraping utility to deconstruct the PDF files and figure out

where the links were. They then could create a simple script to re-create the PDF files with working links replacing

the old text image.

A computer hardware vendor wanted to display specifications data for his hardware on his website. He hired a

company to perform PDF scraping of the hardware documentation on the manufacturers' website and save the PDF

scraped data into a database he could use to update his webpage automatically.

PDF Scraping is just collecting information that is available on the public internet. PDF Scraping does not violate

copyright laws.

PDF Scraping is a great new technology that can significantly reduce your workload if it involves retrieving

information from PDF files. Applications exist that can help you with smaller, easier PDF Scraping projects but

companies exist that will create custom applications for larger or more intricate PDF Scraping jobs.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?PDF-Scraping:-Making-Modern-File-Formats-More-Accessible&id=193321

How to scrape search results from search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo

How to scrape search results from search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo

Search giants like Google, Yahoo and Bing made their empire on scraping others content. However, they don’t want you to scrape them. How ironic, isn’t it?

Search engine performance is a very important metric all digital marketers want to measure and improve. I’m sure you will be using some great SEO tools to check how your keywords perform. All great SEO tool comes with a search keyword ranking feature. The tools will tell you how your keywords are performing in google, yahoo bing etc.

 How will you get data from search engines If you want to build a keyword ranking app?

 These search engines have API’s but the daily query limit is very low and not useful for the commercial purpose. The only solution is to scrape search results. Search engine giants obviously know this :). Once they know that you are scraping, they will  block your IP, Period!

 How do Search engines detect bots?

 Here are the common methods of detection of bots.

* IP address: Search engines can detect if there are too many requests coming from a single IP. If a high amount of traffic is detected, they will throw a captcha.

 * Search patterns: Search engines match traffic patterns to an existing set of patterns and if there is huge variation, they will classify this as a bot.

 If you don’t have access to sophisticated technology, it is impossible to scrape search engines like google, Bing or Yahoo.

 How to avoid detection

There are some things you can do to  avoid detection.

    Scrape slowly and don’t try to squeeze everything at once.
    Switch user agents between queries
    Scrape randomly and don’t follow the same pattern
    Use intelligent IP rotations
    Clear Cookies after each IP change or disable them completely

Thanks for reading this blog post.

Source: http://blog.datahut.co/how-to-scrape-search-results-from-search-engines-like-google-bing-and-yahoo/

Why Outsourcing Data Mining Services?

Why Outsourcing Data Mining Services?

Are huge volumes of raw data waiting to be converted into information that you can use? Your organization's hunt for valuable information ends with valuable data mining, which can help to bring more accuracy and clarity in decision making process.

Nowadays world is information hungry and with Internet offering flexible communication, there is remarkable flow of data. It is significant to make the data available in a readily workable format where it can be of great help to your business. Then filtered data is of considerable use to the organization and efficient this services to increase profits, smooth work flow and ameliorating overall risks.

Data mining is a process that engages sorting through vast amounts of data and seeking out the pertinent information. Most of the instance data mining is conducted by professional, business organizations and financial analysts, although there are many growing fields that are finding the benefits of using in their business.

Data mining is helpful in every decision to make it quick and feasible. The information obtained by it is used for several applications for decision-making relating to direct marketing, e-commerce, customer relationship management, healthcare, scientific tests, telecommunications, financial services and utilities.

Data mining services include:

•     Congregation data from websites into excel database
•     Searching & collecting contact information from websites
•     Using software to extract data from websites
•     Extracting and summarizing stories from news sources
•     Gathering information about competitors business

In this globalization era, handling your important data is becoming a headache for many business verticals. Then outsourcing is profitable option for your business. Since all projects are customized to suit the exact needs of the customer, huge savings in terms of time, money and infrastructure can be realized.

Advantages of Outsourcing Data Mining Services:

•     Skilled and qualified technical staff who are proficient in English
•     Improved technology scalability
•     Advanced infrastructure resources
•     Quick turnaround time
•     Cost-effective prices
•     Secure Network systems to ensure data safety
•     Increased market coverage

Outsourcing will help you to focus on your core business operations and thus improve overall productivity. So data mining outsourcing is become wise choice for business. Outsourcing of this services helps businesses to manage their data effectively, which in turn enable them to achieve higher profits.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Outsourcing-Data-Mining-Services?&id=3066061