All terms
Data
Web Scraping
Web scraping is the automated extraction of data from websites, in which a program fetches web pages and parses their content to collect specific information into a structured format such as a spreadsheet, database, or JSON.
Also known asweb harvestingweb data extraction
In depth
What Web Scraping means.
Web scraping uses software - a scraper or crawler - to request web pages, read their HTML or rendered content, and pull out target values such as prices, listings, or contact details. A scraper typically combines an HTTP client or headless browser to load pages with a parsing layer that locates the wanted fields, then writes the result to a structured store. It automates what a person could otherwise copy by hand, at far greater scale.
Scraping is widely used for price monitoring, research, aggregation, and lead generation. Its defining weakness is fragility: because most sites do not expose their data through a stable contract, a scraper depends on page structure that can change without notice, breaking the extraction. Sites also deploy rate limiting, bot detection, and CAPTCHAs that scrapers must contend with.
Web scraping sits in a nuanced legal and ethical space. Scraping publicly available data is broadly practiced, but it can conflict with a site's terms of service, copyright, anti-circumvention rules, and - where personal data is involved - privacy laws such as GDPR. Responsible scraping respects robots directives, rate limits, and the distinction between public business information and private personal data.
How biz collect relates
Web Scraping in biz collect.
biz collect uses targeted crawling internally as one step of its pipeline: after a live Google Places search identifies businesses, it visits each business website to extract published emails and social profiles. The difference from general-purpose scraping is that you never write or maintain a scraper - you call a documented API and receive enriched, structured records with a stable schema.
This shifts the brittleness and operational burden of scraping off your team. biz collect limits its crawling to publicly available business contact details under a Swiss, GDPR/CCPA-aware posture, honors Global Privacy Control, and excludes private personal data, so you get the benefit of extraction without owning the fragility.
Go deeper
Where this concept shows up across biz collect:
Web Scraping
Frequently asked questions.
Is web scraping legal?
It depends on what is scraped, from where, and how it is used. Scraping public data is common, but it can conflict with a site's terms, copyright, or privacy laws such as GDPR when personal data is involved. Legality is fact-specific, not absolute.
Why do scrapers break so often?
Most websites do not offer a stable data contract, so a scraper relies on page structure that can change at any time. A layout change, a new anti-bot measure, or a moved element can break extraction without warning.
Still have questions? Talk to us.
Turn the concept into real data.
Sign up free with 200 signup credits, no credit card. POST a city plus keywords and get an enriched, structured list of businesses back as JSON.
No credit card required200 signup credits20 daily login credits