Web Crawling

Web Crawling is a process used by search engines and data analysts to systematically browse the internet and collect information from websites. It’s like sending out a team of digital robots to read every page of every book in a gigantic online library, then writing down what each book is about and where it’s located. These ‘robots’ are actually software programs known as web crawlers or spiders.

For business intelligence, web crawling is crucial. It gathers the raw material—data—that analysts need to understand market trends, monitor competitors, or even improve their own website’s performance. By analyzing the collected data, companies can make well-informed decisions. For instance, they might find out that customers are raving about a certain product feature on forums, which could lead to marketing that feature more heavily.

While web crawling can collect vast amounts of data, the trick is to do it without overwhelming websites or taking data without permission. Ethical web crawlers respect the rules set by websites on what can be crawled and how often. This ensures that the process is efficient, useful, and maintains good internet citizenship.