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LATHICAI Glossary

Data & Databases

Web scraping

Automatically collecting information from web pages for analysis or other uses.

Example

A program collects product descriptions from a permitted set of web pages.

Why people use it

It collects information from websites without requiring someone to copy each item by hand.

What you'll hear

“Can we collect these public listings automatically?”

What this means for you

Check where the collected material came from and whether you may use it.

Can you control it?

Sometimes

Sometimes. Your choices depend on the tool and your access. The settings available to an everyday user may differ from those available to the people running it.

Common questions

Is web scraping itself machine learning?
No. It is a collection technique that may supply data to AI.
Can a website change break the collection?
Yes. A new layout or access rule can stop the collector finding the information it expects.
Does collection check whether the information is true?
No. It can collect errors just as easily as accurate material.

Related terms

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