Scraper

Scraper, a free browser extension for Google Chrome, mines data from Web pages and exports directly to a Google Doc spreadsheet.

Its creator considers it a work in progress, meaning users might find some bugs. 

To use the scraper, users highlight a part of the webpage they'd like to scrape, right-click and choose "Scrape similar..." from the menu options. The information is exported to Google Docs as a spreadsheet. 

The extension comes with the caveat that it is intended for intermediate to advanced users who are comfortable with XPath, although jQuery is also supported to an extent.

 
Product:

Scraper

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Company:

bit155

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Version Tested:

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Release Date:

March 18, 2011

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Cost:

Free

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Open Sourced:

Yes

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Demo Available:

No

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Obsolete:

No

 

Our Reviews

Verdict:

Scrapes single pages well; can't handle detail, multiple pages

Scraper's use limited to single, well-formatted Web pages

Although Scraper perfectly grabs information from a single Web page and produces a spreadsheet ready for export, the free Chrome extension isn't helpful for reporters looking to scrape more complicated databases that would require any sort of automation.

READ OUR FULL REVIEW »
 

Test Results

Verdict:

Scraped first page beautifully; can only handle one page at a time

Scraper easily exports data - only one page at a time

Test: Scrape database in table format
Documents: South Dakota lobbyist database

While it quickly gathered data from the first page of the South Dakota lobbyists website, Scraper's single-page limitation meant it could not automatically scrape the other pages of lobbyist information.

READ OUR FULL TEST RESULT »

Verdict:

Can't scrape without extensive manual work; can't grab details

Scraper unable to tackle database with complex structure

Test: Scrape database requiring browser cookies
Documents: British Columbia physician and surgeons database

Scraper required a lot of hand-holding to capture even a single page of data from this directory of physicians in British Columbia. But even with manual help, its navigation limitations make it a bad choice for the task.

READ OUR FULL TEST RESULT »

Verdict:

Can't handle multiple pages, detail pages

Scraper fails to capture information from layered database

Test: Scrape database with form-based search
Documents: British Columbia teacher database

Scraper was able to capture some data from result pages after we manually entered a name search in this teacher database, but it doesn't have the ability to navigate through multiple pages, making it unsuitable for this task.

READ OUR FULL TEST RESULT »

Verdict:

No HTML tables, no scraping

Scraper not useful for sites without table formatting

Test: Scrape database of PDF files
Documents: Your Seat at the Table

Because there are technically no tables on the Obama-Biden transition Web site, Scraper was useless for capturing the linked memos we wanted to save.

READ OUR FULL TEST RESULT »

Testing

Testing