Deep-Web Data Scraping

"Deep Web" resources may be classified into one or more of the following categories

• Dynamic content that is returned in response to a clicking a submit button or a hyerlink. This may additionally require one to fill up input elements such as text fields or selecting values from selection boxes. Often, domain knowledge is needed to scrape these websites.
• Private websites that require user registration and login (password-protected resources).
• Scripted content pages that are only accessible through links produced by JavaScript as well as content dynamically downloaded from Web servers via AJAX solutions.

To discover content on the Web, search engines use web crawlers (algorithmic crawlers) that follow hyperlinks. This technique is ideal for discovering resources on the Surface-Web but is often ineffective at finding Deep-Web resources. For example, these crawlers do not attempt to find dynamic pages that are the result of database queries due to the infinite number of queries that are possible.

One way to explore the deep web is by using human crawlers instead of algorithmic crawlers. In this paradigm, referred to as Web harvesting / Web scraping , Data extraction, a technique wherein human developed customized data extraction solution (often specific to a website) crawls the targeted website. This human-based computation technique to discover the Deep Web has been used by the StumbleUpon service since February 2002.

We at ITSYS Solutions specialize in developing anonymous and non-intrusive web scraping tools that are able to scrape dynamically generated data from the private web as well as scripted content. To find out more about our web scraping solutions, and how your business can benefit through our service, contact our experts.