Research Topics:

Social Media Research

Content Type:

Glossary

Blog Scraping Definition

Blog Scraping is the automated computer process of scanning through a large number of blogs and their comments, searching for keywords/phrases and retrieving the text for for future coding and analysis. Also known as blog mining.

Blog scraping is an automated process that involves accessing and plucking online content such as text, images, links and other content from blog websites. The process uses web scraping tools, scripts or keyword/phrase searches to pinpoint data. Similar to blog mining, blog scraping provides access to a wealth of information from the blogosphere that can be used for countless, legitimate purposes. The process does raise ethical and legal concerns, however, when material is used without permission or in violation of the law.

Who relies on blog scraping?

Researchers, marketing professionals, content creators and data analysts are among those professionals utilizing blog scraping. For instance, researchers gather data for academic studies and marketing professionals can monitor competition and search for leads.

Why should I care about blog scraping?

On the surface, blog scraping provides a wealth of content for online users. But with those benefits come the downside of the process. Scraping can lead to copyright and plagiarism issues for the content producer, as well as the one scraping material. An understanding of blog scraping can give users the tools to determine the legality and credibility of content on a particular website.