ECJ clarifies Database Directive scope in screen scraping case

EC on the legal protection of databases (Database Directive) in a case concerning the extraction of data from a third party’s website by means of automated systems or software for commercial purposes (so called 'screen scraping').

Flight data extracted

The case, Ryanair Ltd vs. PR Aviation BV, C-30/14, is of interest to a range of companies such as price comparison websites. It stemmed from  Dutch company PR Aviation operation of a website where consumers can search through flight data of low-cost airlines  (including Ryanair), compare prices and, on payment of a commission, book a flight. The relevant flight data is extracted from third-parties’ websites by means of ‘screen scraping’ practices.

Ryanair claimed that PR Aviation’s activity:

• amounted to infringement of copyright (relating to the structure and architecture of the database) and of the so-called sui generis database right (i.e. the right granted to the ‘maker’ of the database where certain investments have been made to obtain, verify, or present the contents of a database) under the Netherlands law implementing the Database Directive;

• constituted breach of contract. In this respect, Ryanair claimed that a contract existed with PR Aviation for the use of its website. Access to the latter requires acceptance, by clicking a box, of the airline’s general terms and conditions which, amongst others, prohibit unauthorized ‘screen scraping’ practices for commercial purposes.

Ryanair asked Dutch courts to prohibit the infringement and order damages. In recent years the company has been engaged in several legal cases against web scrapers across Europe.

The Local Court, Utrecht, and the Court of Appeals of Amsterdam dismissed Ryanair’s claims on different grounds. The Court of Appeals, in particular, cited PR Aviation’s screen scraping of Ryanair’s website as amounting to a “normal use” of said website within the meaning of the lawful user exceptions under Sections 6 and 8 of the Database Directive, which cannot be derogated by contract (Section 15).

Ryanair appealed

Ryanair appealed the decision before the Netherlands Supreme Court (Hoge Raad der Nederlanden), which decided to refer the following question to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling: “Does the application of [Directive 96/9] also extend to online databases which are not protected by copyright on the basis of Chapter II of said directive or by a sui generis right on the basis of Chapter III, in the sense that the freedom to use such databases through the (whether or not analogous) application of Article[s] 6(1) and 8, in conjunction with Article 15 [of Directive 96/9] may not be limited contractually?.”

The ECJ’s ruling

The ECJ (without the need of the opinion of the advocate general) ruled that the Database Directive is not applicable to databases which are not protected either by copyright or by the sui generis database right. Therefore, exceptions to restricted acts set forth by Sections 6 and 8 of the Directive do not prevent the database owner from establishing contractual limitations on its use by third parties. In other words, restrictions to the freedom to contract set forth by the Database Directive do not apply in cases of unprotected databases. Whether Ryanair’s website may be entitled to copyright or sui generis database right protection needs to be determined by the competent national court.

The ECJ’s decision is not particularly striking from a legal standpoint. Yet, it could have a significant impact on the business model of price comparison websites, aggregators, and similar businesses. Owners of databases that could not rely on intellectual property protection may contractually prevent extraction and use (“scraping”) of content from their online databases. Thus, unprotected databases could receive greater protection than the one granted by IP law.

Antitrust implications

However, the lawfulness of contractual restrictions prohibiting access and reuse of data through screen scraping practices should be assessed under an antitrust perspective. In this respect, in 2013 the Court of Milan ruled that Ryanair’s refusal to grant access to its database to the online travel agency Viaggiare S.r.l. amounted to an abuse of dominant position in the downstream market of information and intermediation on flights (decision of June 4, 2013 Viaggiare S.r.l. vs Ryanair Ltd). Indeed, a balance should be struck between the need to compensate the efforts and investments made by the creator of the database with the interest of third parties to be granted with access to information (especially in those cases where the latter are not entitled to copyright protection).

Additionally, web scraping triggers other issues which have not been considered by the ECJ’s ruling. These include, but are not limited to trademark law (i.e., whether the use of a company’s names/logos by the web scraper without consent may amount to trademark infringement), data protection (e.g., in case the scraping involves personal data), or unfair competition.

Source: http://www.globallegalpost.com/blogs/global-view/ecj-clarifies-database-directive-scope-in-screen-scraping-case-128701/

Data Scraping - What Are Hand-Scraped Hardwood Floors and What Are the Benefits?

If you love the look of hardwood flooring with lots of character, then you may want to check out hand-scraped hardwood flooring. Hand-scraped wood provides a warm vintage look, providing the floor instant character. These types of scraped hardwoods are suitable for living rooms, dining rooms, hallways and bedrooms. But what exactly is hand-scraped hardwood flooring?

Well, it is literally what you think it is. Hand-scraped hardwood flooring is created by hand using specialized wood working tools to make each board unique and giving an overall "old worn" appearance.

At Innovation Builders we offer solid wood floors finished on site with an actual hand-scraping technique followed by stain and sealer. Solid wood floors are installed by an expert team of technicians who work each board with skilled craftsman-like attention to detail. Following the scraping procedure the floor is stained by hand with a customer selected stain color, and then protected with multiple coats of sealing and finishing polyurethane. This finishing process of staining, sealing and coating the wood floors contributes to providing the look and durability of an old reclaimed wood floor, but with today's tough, urethane finishes.

There are many, many benefits to hand-scraped wood flooring. Overall, these floors are extremely durable and hard wearing, providing years of trouble-free use. These wood floors remain looking newer for longer because the texture that the process provides hides the typical dents, dings and scratches that other floors can't hide so easily. That's great news for households with kids, dogs, and cats.

These types of wood flooring have another unique advantage as well. When you do scratch these floors during their lifetime, the scratches are easily repaired. As long as the scratch isn't too deep you can make them practically disappear without ever having to hire a professional. It's simple to hide the scratch by using a color-matched stain marker or repair kit that is readily available through local flooring distributors. These features make hand-scraped hardwood flooring a lot more durable and hassle-free to maintain than other types of wood flooring.

The expert processes utilized in the creation of these floors provides a custom look of worn wood with deep color and subtle highlights. When the light hits the wood at different times during the day, it provides an understated but powerful effect of depth and beauty. They instantly offer your rooms a rustic look full of character, allowing your home to become a warm and inviting environment. The rustic look of this wood provides a texture, style and rustic appeal that cannot be matched by any other type of flooring.

Hand-Scraped Hardwood Flooring is a floor that says welcome and adds a touch of elegance to any home. If you are looking to buy a new home and you haven't had the opportunity to see or feel hand scraped hardwoods, stop in any of the model homes at Innovation Builders in Keller, North Richland Hills or Grand Prairie, Texas and check it out!

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Are-Hand-Scraped-Hardwood-Floors-and-What-Are-the-Benefits?&id=6026646

Web scraping in under 60 seconds: the magic of import.io

Import.io is a very powerful and easy-to-use tool for data extraction that has the aim of getting data from any website in a structured way. It is meant for non-programmers that need data (and for programmers who don’t want to overcomplicate their lives).

I almost forgot!! Apart from everything, it is also a free tool (o_O)

The purpose of this post is to teach you how to scrape a website and make a dataset and/or API in under 60 seconds. Are you ready?

It’s very simple. You just have to go to http://magic.import.io; post the URL of the site you want to scrape, and push the “GET DATA” button. Yes! It is that simple! No plugins, downloads, previous knowledge or registration are necessary. You can do this from any browser; it even works on tablets and smartphones.

For example: if we want to have a table with the information on all items related to Chewbacca on MercadoLibre (a Latin American version of eBay), we just need to go to that site and make a search – then copy and paste the link (http://listado.mercadolibre.com.mx/chewbacca) on Import.io, and push the “GET DATA” button.

You’ll notice that now you have all the information on a table, and all you need to do is remove the columns you don’t need. To do this, just place the mouse pointer on top of the column you want to delete, and an “X” will appear.

Good news for those of us who are a bit more technically-oriented! There is a button that says “GET API” and this one is good to, well, generate an API that will update the data on each request. For this you need to create an account (which is also free of cost).

As you saw, we can scrape any website in under 60 seconds, even if it includes tons of results pages. This truly is magic, no? For more complex things that require logins, entering subwebs, automatized searches, et cetera, there is downloadable import.io software… But I’ll explain that in a different post.

Source: http://schoolofdata.org/2014/12/09/web-scraping-in-under-60-seconds-the-magic-of-import-io/

Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages - A Whole New Vocabulary for Small Businesss

Buyers want both online and local information about where to buy Most small businesses are local in nature, serving people who live nearby. Their customers found them through traditional methods like the Yellow Pages or newspaper ads. So far, the Internet hasn't figured prominently in their marketing efforts. That's about to change, as Local Search methods become more widespread.

Even for buyers expecting to spend their money close to home, more and more of them go to the Internet to locate desired products and services. They rely on search engines to find suitable vendors in the fastest, easiest way. Local Search combines the search query word or phrase with specific geographic terms, like city or zip code. That way, search results only include enterprises in that local area.

Instead of information about a small enterprise being lost among millions of pages of search results, it shows up in a small pool of local providers. That's good for them, as well as the person looking for what they provide.

Small operations can easily be located by a whole new group of buyers Consumers don't simply go to the Yellow Pages when ready to buy - as they once did. Studies show that an astonishing 36% of online searches are conducted to find local businesses. About a quarter of all Internet users already conduct local searches. They'd do even more of it, if the desired small business data were more complete.

Local enterprises need to prepare for the impact of changing customer habits. An easy first step is to include your business in Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), along with the printed Yellow Page directory. That puts your enterprise on the radar screen.

You'll find reliable advice from experts in Yellow Pages and Local Search so you can get more mileage from your promotional dollars. Start by getting comfortable with search concepts, and improve your odds of being found when people search online for what you offer. You don't even need your own Web site to benefit from Internet Yellow Pages and Local Search.

Learn the Relevant Terms

Search Engine - method for locating the information available on the Internet; a program that searches Web pages for requested keywords, then returns a list of documents where the query terms were found Google and Yahoo, the major general search engines, have both shifted gears to make Local Search a priority when delivering relevant results.

Spider (also called "crawler" or "bot") - goes to every page on every Web site and reads the information so it can be available to searchers; to "crawl" a site it collects and indexes information from it

Specialized Search Engines - narrow focus of information crawled and indexed, like medical, business, or shopping sites

Keywords - word or phrases used by search engines to locate relevant Web pages; words chosen to improve a site's search engine placement and ranking

Search Query - search request, which the search engine compares to the spidered entries, then returns results to the searcher

Search Results - compiled list of Web pages that a search engine delivers in response to a query; the number of items returned is usually overwhelming (in the millions), so searchers only bother to view results on the first pages

Relevant Results - the test of a good search is whether the results obtained relate to what the person wanted to find, without a lot of irrelevant links

Local Search - combining a geographic term in a search query to locate suitable providers in a specific area

Pay per Click (PPC) - method of building traffic whereby site owners bid on search terms (keywords) that link to their site

Geographic Terms - specific information about the local area that can be included in a local search: zip code, town, county, geographic region, state

Top Ranking - sites shown on the first page(s) of search results

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - fine-tuning keywords and page content so the Web site rates high in search engine results

Tags and Titles (on Web Pages) - provide site keywords and information to search engine spiders for indexing a site

Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) - directory of business phone numbers and locations in a geographic area, organized by category; searchable data base accessed on the Internet. Learn how your business can make the most of Local Search 

Make your business easy for searchers to find

The public is embracing the convenience of searching on the Internet to find information about local businesses.

However, their searches for desired information are compromised because so many local enterprises don't show up in the databases as yet. Those that do have an edge in their local market. Climb aboard! Make sure searchers can find you. For little or no money, you can expose your enterprise to the whole world.

Whether or not your business has a Web site, you need to provide the information people are looking for in the places that they look for it. Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages open new avenues to buyers ready to spend. Best of all, they support and compliment your traditional methods of finding new business. So you cover all your bases. (c) 2007, Lynella Grant

Dr. Lynella Grant Author, Yellow Page Smarts - Smarter and more effective ways to attract more YP customers in the Directory and on the internet

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Local-Search-and-Internet-Yellow-Pages---A-Whole-New-Vocabulary-for-Small-Businesss&id=1894

Media, the Internet, Yellow Pages, and Your Business

If you are reading this article, chances are you could use a little extra money. With the advent of the internet and the migration of advertising dollars from print to electronic (and this time, it's the real thing, I swear! Not one of those 1999 tech busts!...Seriously!) If you own a small business today, you look at many advertising mediums. The majority of these mediums lump themselves into 2 categories, creative or direct.

Creative has always been the crapshoot for the small business owner. A sales rep walks into your business, espousing the greater good of television or radio advertising, quickly moves past the ratings, viewers etc and into the sexiness of hearing your name at 6:57am Monday, Thursday and Saturday if you are watching station X or listening to station Y. If this product didn't work, a Super Bowl commercial price tag wouldn't make headlines every December (for how much Geico paid) or late February (to hear which is most memorable). The key with creative is frequency. If you have realistic budget for frequency, you can make the phone ring with a creative campaign. If you have that budget you probably aren't reading this article. Realistically speaking, you don't have a ton of money to risk on creative advertising effectiveness, haven't backed it up with a call to action, and you need, pound for pound, the least amount of advertising money possible, with the most phone calls...

Enter direct advertising. Classified sections in newspapers, they make your phone ring, if you're selling something people want. (For the record, advertising in the sports section of your local paper is creative advertising (people don't go to page 5 of the sports to regularly check out the latest prices on used cars.) Classified advertising is in the process of going from the newspaper industry's cash cow to taking it on the chin from EBay (ever heard of it?) and even more attractive small town slugger, Craigslist (you go Craig!). If you're business pumps out used cars by the pound, chances are you, or your salesmen are using these two websites to start realizing savings from Rupert Murdoch and his yacht-owning cronies. Even the best of EBay or Craigslist, however, doesn't put much of a dent in your P&L statement if you are service based like a contractor, or general retail, like a bookstore.

Enter the yellow pages...Pound for pound, no other medium makes the phone ring at your business like the good old fashioned yellow pages. Throw down your money, and answer the phone. You already know that. So do all the TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers in the country. The best protected advertising budget in any small business is the yellow page budget. Yellow pages are the scourge of the other guys. How many radio sales reps will walk into your store after you started your advertising campaign and say, "Tom, your $1,000 invested with my station this week got you 48 phone calls?" (If you find a station like that please send me the phone number, and I retract everything I said earlier) When someone wants a plumber, a pool boy, a new pool, or a divorce attorney for getting the new pool without his wife's approval, they pick up the weathered old yellow pages, leaf through a few adverts, and call someone that sells what they need.

So, am I telling you to advertise in the yellow pages?,,, Not so fast Skippy...First, let's look at the cost of the yellow pages,...You want the phone to ring in Miami, and you're a plumber? Better be ready to pony up some serious cash...say $3-4k per month. In Miami, the average cost of a service call could be around $65. If you don't have a crew, that ad needs to generate 61 calls to break even, not including the employee cost, travel costs etc. Not so bad? How many calls did you need to generate those 61 service calls? Did you go see everyone that called you? I would guess, for a contractor, you might get lucky and have a 50% close rate...122 calls...to break even. Don't forget to pay yourself...200 calls. Depressed? Better be glad you don't sell shoes. The same ad would generate a much lower close rate, and you need to sell an dump truck of shoes every month!

What's my point? Enter the ELECTRONIC yellow pages...No print bill, real time changes, and guess where all those print yellow pages are putting their money these days? BellSouth and SBC just paid $100M (you know, $100,000,000) for a new domain name, and combined their "competing" forces to make a better entry in the fray, thinking that you might remember yellowpages.com better than smartpages.com or realpages.com. (Makes you wonder where Google fits into the old branding and name recognition game.) Verizon seemed to get the concept a little better with superpages.com by aligning with Mr. Gates over at MSN right around the time Al Gore was inventing the internet. Getting back to the point, the internet yellow pages are going to do to print yellow pages what EBay and Craigslist have done to the newspaper companies. No paper, no ink, usage climbing (for electronic yellow pages, usage is climbing to as high as 70% of online searching, and buying) and real-time, do-it-yourself advertising. Advents such as community ranking, mini-sites, toolbars, pay per click, pay per call, and just about every way possible to pay for performance, track performance, and see what other buyers of your goods or services thought of your business. Due to the ever changing, "who's in first place" of the internet, there has yet to be determined if there is a Lance Armstrong in this race. Our own company USdirectory.com, via its partnerships, and investment into technology, is looking to become a late entry, blue-ribbon bearer. At this point, it's too early to clearly point out which one, or all, or none, of these companies will do to yellow pages what Google did to global search. That being said, even Google doesn't reflect enough tenure to ensure its own top position.

Who wins?? You do, the business owner. Technology is about to reduce your advertising budget the way Southwest and JetBlue changed the airline industry. Your customer base, as they migrate to the internet as vehicle of choice, will reach you at lower price points, and in greater volume, then ever before. Your mission, should you choose to accept, in investing in the right mix, at the right point, and try to cater not only to your existing radius of business, but around the planet with new and specialized niches...but that's another story.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Media,-the-Internet,-Yellow-Pages,-and-Your-Business&id=56566

Combine Your Yellow Page Ad and Web Site for Maximum Profits

A Yellow Page Ad isn't Enough Any More

An unquestioned "must" for any small business has been to run an ad in the Yellow Page Directory. Since most customers were local, that was enough to establish itself as "open for business." The annual Yellow Page ad represents the largest promotional expense for many enterprises. Yet, Yellow Page directory use is declining, while expanding segments of the public don't rely on them at all. Yellow Page advertising costs keep going up, and the complicated pricing structure is difficult to figure out. Worse yet, having a Yellow Page ad doesn't deliver like it used to.

People can find most of the information they want without ever opening a directory. Your business needs its Yellow Page strategy to be in tune with the times and your market. Like most business owners, you must squeeze maximum value from every promotional dollar spent. That requires you to move beyond treating a Yellow Page ad like it's a separate, stand-alone way to promote your business. It's not.

Your Yellow Page advertising needs to work in tandem with all the rest of the efforts you pursue. The Internet Expands Your Arena Every business needs to put itself in front of the people looking for what it does - and that's not just through the Yellow Pages any longer.

An increasing percentage of customers, who spend their money close to home, are Internet savvy. There's a major overlap between Yellow Page directory users and Internet users. That fact supports integrating your local and Internet promotional methods so they attract more new customers. Yellow Page users are likely to be Internet users as well. And a business that ignores online activities entirely may have a tough time getting access to or credibility with those customers. It is possible to make online and traditional (off-line) methods to attract customers work in tandem - improving the effectiveness of each alone.

So it's no longer an either-or, all-or-none choice whether to promote the business online or off. People who subscribe to online services consult the Yellow Pages 23% more often than non-subscribers.

Frequent Yellow Page Users are:

- 18% more likely than average to be Internet subscribers

- 32% more likely to be among the heaviest Internet users

- 18% more likely to make purchases on the Internet

- 27% more likely to spend more than $1,000 on Internet purchases

Source: Simmons

Customer Behavior is Changing

More and more, people are going to the Internet to find, learn about, or select products and services. Even local ones. That doesn't mean that they will buy online, however. People still prefer to spend their money locally when they can. But, even the smallest business can do a better job of being found by those who prefer to use both the Internet and the Yellow Page directory to make their buying decisions. And, it can be done very inexpensively, too. Even a 100% local business can pull in more business by getting its low-tech and high-tech advertising to mesh.

What Else has Changed?

- Buyers are less trusting and more willing to shop around

- Customers have more options and ways to find what they want

- Availability of Internet Yellow Pages

- Aging population uses the Yellow Pages differently than young people

- Development of unique niches and specialties

- More choices for a "better deal"

- More directories competing in a geographic area

- More immigrants, or those from other cultures, unaccustomed to Yellow Page use

- Area code proliferation fragments cities

- Larger cities have multiple directories, rather than one large one

- Development of specialized directories - like ethnic, non-English, women, minority, business to business

Become Visible Online - With or Without Your Own Web Site

If your business already has a Web site, treat it as a way to expand the reach of your Yellow Page ad and traditional marketing activities. Jettison the expectation that it should make sales - few do so. But an information-packed Web site can support your traditional marketing methods very well.

Even without your own Web site, your small business can establish an online identity that helps buyers to find you.

- Get listed in a variety of Internet Yellow Page (IYP) directories

- Send emails to your "regulars" with special offers and useful information

- Position yourself for Local Search - a method whereby customers use search engines to locate local businesses by town, state, region, zip code, etc.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Combine-Your-Yellow-Page-Ad-and-Web-Site-for-Maximum-Profits&id=1816

White and Yellow Pages Reverse Lookup Info

Anything from simple to complicated information can be traced by searching on via reverse look up directories. Whether its information regarding people, city or a state, friends or anything, one can get it online. With the help of online databases you can find their long lost childhood friends too! The information can be accessed at databases of 411 white pages, 411 yellow pages, city yellow page, America yellow pages and many more.

There are certain reverse searches that gives information required like delinquencies, names, old address, date of birth, social security, telephones, cell phone numbers, listed telephone numbers, unlisted telephone numbers, 800-900 numbers. Databases like 411 white pages, 411 yellow pages and others provide such information.

Reverse search by cell phones can give information about adoption records, arrest records, attorney records, background checks, bankruptcy records, birth records, child support lookup, court records, correctional files, credit reports, criminal files, criminal indictments, death records and much more.

Information available on reverse lookup includes adoption records, ancestry archives arrest records, attorney records, background checks, bankruptcy records, birth records, boat ownership, child support lookup, contractor records, court records correctional files, court records, courthouses, credit reports, criminal files, criminal indictments, deadbeat locators, death records, dentist record search and much more.

Some reverse lookup directories require service membership which starts with a nominal amount and online registration on the website. Once a person becomes a member he can locate vast information available on these databases.

I write articles on Marketing & Advertising, Yellow & White Pages, etc.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?White-and-Yellow-Pages-Reverse-Lookup-Info&id=163090

What are the ethics of web scraping?

Someone recently asked: "Is web scraping an ethical concept?" I believe that web scraping is absolutely an ethical concept. Web scraping (or screen scraping) is a mechanism to have a computer read a website. There is absolutely no technical difference between an automated computer viewing a website and a human-driven computer viewing a website. Furthermore, if done correctly, scraping can provide many benefits to all involved.

There are a bunch of great uses for web scraping. First, services like Instapaper, which allow saving content for reading on the go, use screen scraping to save a copy of the website to your phone. Second, services like Mint.com, an app which tells you where and how you are spending your money, uses screen scraping to access your bank's website (all with your permission). This is useful because banks do not provide many ways for programmers to access your financial data, even if you want them to. By getting access to your data, programmers can provide really interesting visualizations and insight into your spending habits, which can help you save money.

That said, web scraping can veer into unethical territory. This can take the form of reading websites much quicker than a human could, which can cause difficulty for the servers to handle it. This can cause degraded performance in the website. Malicious hackers use this tactic in what’s known as a "Denial of Service" attack.

Another aspect of unethical web scraping comes in what you do with that data. Some people will scrape the contents of a website and post it as their own, in effect stealing this content. This is a big no-no for the same reasons that taking someone else's book and putting your name on it is a bad idea. Intellectual property, copyright and trademark laws still apply on the internet and your legal recourse is much the same. People engaging in web scraping should make every effort to comply with the stated terms of service for a website. Even when in compliance with those terms, you should take special care in ensuring your activity doesn't affect other users of a website.

One of the downsides to screen scraping is it can be a brittle process. Minor changes to the backing website can often leave a scraper completely broken. Herein lies the mechanism for prevention: making changes to the structure of the code of your website can wreak havoc on a screen scraper's ability to extract information. Periodically making changes that are invisible to the user but affect the content of the code being returned is the most effective mechanism to thwart screen scrapers. That said, this is only a set-back. Authors of screen scrapers can always update them and, as there is no technical difference between a computer-backed browser and a human-backed browser, there's no way to 100% prevent access.

Going forward, I expect screen scraping to increase. One of the main reasons for screen scraping is that the underlying website doesn't have a way for programmers to get access to the data they want. As the number of programmers (and the need for programmers) increases over time, so too will the need for data sources. It is unreasonable to expect every company to dedicate the resources to build a programmer-friendly access point. Screen scraping puts the onus of data extraction on the programmer, not the company with the data, which can work out well for all involved.

Source: https://quickleft.com/blog/is-web-scraping-ethical/

Safeguarding the Future Through Data Mining

Web scraping can be a powerful tool not only in business and research. In fact, it has the capacity to protect the future by its predicting power. You may find this declaration incredible; but data mining is indeed a tangible way of predicting future events and thus protecting life in the future.

With the thousands of years of existence on earth, humans are able to gather as much information and experience to have a glimpse of what is to come. With the cycles of changes in the environment and in the whole universe aside from the human behavior, so much can be learned and applied.

At least three major things can be determined by careful and diligent data mining. These are: future threats; future trends; and future tactics.

Future threats

According to reports, the US intelligence agencies have been using web extraction as a way of studying the present and past terrorism acts and personages to predict future terrorist events. This has been actively done since the year 2010.

Data is gathered about a known terrorist such as: his activities; his contacts; his routines; the places he frequents; and other related information. These data are analyzed and classified. Any suspicious activities as well as unusual contact are monitored closely. Through these stored data and monitoring processes, any untoward activities can be precluded and preempted. You may say that terrorists can be using data mining too; and that is obviously possible. In this way, web scraping can also be used as a weapon for destruction. There is then a need for the government agencies to be very careful in protecting their data so that the enemies cannot retrieve them.

In the overall picture, you can just imagine how many lives, trauma, and damage can be prevented if future terrorist activities are prevented.

Moreover, climate change is another phenomenon that has already been predicted and is beginning to occur nowadays. Scientists have been studying the effects of global warming and environmental degradation through online data too. So much information drives and warning have been published by scholarly papers and by the experts but many of these have remained unheeded. Now that erratic weather conditions are happening, people can only regret and feel guilty that they are part of the cause of the problem.

However, it is not really too late to do some actions. People can avoid places where abnormal conditions are expected to happen; they can do some measures to protect themselves; and they can be informed ahead of time before anything catastrophic could happen.

Future trends

In relation to the predictions of possible threats, data extraction can also predict future trends. This is most helpful in businesses because they can be helped to produce items and employ strategies that will suit the expected patrons and clients.  Since history tends to repeat itself, data gathered in the past and present if studied judiciously and compared intelligently can bring in positive results.

Oftentimes, the companies that study their books as well as of those who have gone before them can gain more knowledge and expertise that will surely put them ahead of their contemporaries.

Future tactics

Naturally, along with knowing the possible events and trends in the future, strategies and ways to combat threats and cope with trends can also be predicted through web scraping.

Safeguarding the future is no longer a dream or wish. As early as today, experts can create equipment, structures, strategies, and even weapons to prevent any untoward incidents and collateral damage.

Studying the strengths and weaknesses of the past and present plans, procedures, and tools can lead to better technologies and techniques. The future can be a better and safer place if people can learn from the mistakes of the past and go from good to better.

The statement: “The best is yet to come,” will finally be realized if proper management of data and information collected and analyzed through web scraping will be conducted.

Bright future

Looking at the horizon, one can always expect the sun to shine and bring in a bright day. This same positive expectation for the future is indeed possible. Thanks to data mining; life can be handled more securely and precisely.

It does not mean that humans have become gods. It only proves that a person’s talents and skills, when used properly can make his/her future brighter and more successful. On the other hand, carelessness and lack of sensibilities to other people and the environment can surely bring in future doom.

Everything is laid bare and you are given the chance to handle the present with enough wisdom and capabilities. Although the world is too big to be understood and there is still a huge field of knowledge to be conquered, life can surely go on positively.

Source:http://www.loginworks.com/blogs/web-scraping-blogs/257-safeguarding-the-future-through-data-mining/

About Web Scraping and Web Data Mining

Web scraping as suggested by the name simply refers to method of obtaining data or information from an array of websites. This has greatly revolutionized how companies obtain data and put this obtained data into significant use.This has greatly helped many firms and individuals in different spheres transact in the most effective ways. With the internet offering a very large base for obtaining information, various companies have resorted to use web scraping as method of getting information. Relevance of needed data is of great importance since it is the determining factor of what and how data has to be scraped. A good number of data mining companies have come up to help individuals and organizations get the information as per their requirements. These companies also provide software which when installed in a computer may be of great importance to the business.

Depending on the organizations background it may opt to choose between mining the data for themselves or actually employing the services of a data mining company. These organizations have data mining experts who actually are better suited to handle data professionally. As it sounds it is not every ones job since it is computer languages that are used therefore it is only those with relevant knowledge that are well suited to handle this jobs.

Although short cuts are considered dangerous, in this case hiring the services of this experts may bring with it better results with minimized costs than doing the job internally What brings about the idea of a company going for a particular data mining company? For obvious reasons it may because of some eye catching advertisement somewhere. Mostly businesses do extensive research when it comes to making this choice and depending on the gravity sensitivity and format of sort data. These companies provide the needed data in the most comprehensive and in the needed format hence wastage of time as a resource is unheard in these businesses.

web scraping and data mining Research done by these companies ought to be converted to meaningful results. This is done by carrying out meaning full analysis and deducing relevant conclusions from this data. This operation greatly improves the efficiency of these organizations. Analysis done on this is carried by asking relevant questions regarding some aspects regarding the operations of the business. Questions that are frequently asked may take a certain form like, how viable could this be in the short run? In the quest of these answers it is then that meaningful analysis is done.

Data mining companies have given the business word a major boost in the accusation of data from the internet which may now be considered as the largest information resource. It also through this data mining that results from surveys across various parts of the world is acquired. This eliminates the need for this company carrying out these researches for themselves .Of particular importance is the aspect of language barriers making an individual company seeks the services of a reputable data mining firm. Therefore from all the above considerations it can be deduced that, if only a business is to achieve its objectives only proper web scraping techniques from reputable firms should be employed.

Web data mining refers to ways and methods which are used in seeking information from a wide array of websites. Companies and individuals employ this in their daily operations since in the current word lack of information can be a major setback. This is simply because it is through data mining that enterprises will be able to market their businesses, get information regarding upcoming promotions and sometimes make relevant discoveries. This explains why companies are investing lots of resources all aimed in the search of relevant information. After this organizations have gathered this information implementation of obtained information is vital. Therefore data mining should be coupled with relevant implementation to count it as a success. Analysis of information is quite important .Since bulky information obtained may not be necessarily required in that form. This is done using software that is capable of giving a good analysis of the data.

Analysis is done in different ways depending on requirements like one may require a summary or categorized data. Previously when data mining was not greatly used software developments were minimal .Recently there are great improvements in this field since many organizations are embracing it particularly those in third world countries. This has greatly improved turnovers of a good number of companies. Previously many firms used to collect data manually. This of course proved to be a very slow method and a tiring one. Many firms had to increase their staff to cope with this bulk in workload. Considering this age where capitalism is thriving they risked being faced out since it is the case where only the strongest survive and the weaker ones pave way. Time was a factor in realizing an increase in number of organization using this technologically advanced approach. Usage of this collected information is actually used to foster better growth of the company.

Based on previous findings from various analysis techniques are employed by the firms employees irrespective of their ranks. For examples managers may employ web data mining to make good and realistic decisions that are consistent or better than those which other companies are using. Information may also aid in improvement of business infrastructure since in the modern word infrastructure development is on the rise. Better infrastructure acquired on time will actually give the business a big thrust ahead of their competitors. With the relevant data mining software’s companies are able to do meaningful research and developments. For instance companies are able to address issues regarding their customers preferences, their individual wants .

A company may easily know who their customers are, what they are their likes and also their economic abilities. This can be used when the company decides to give offers, discounts and many other customer enticing actions. For example a soft drink company will have to place its promotions during winter since it is then that their customers are unlikely to buy their services. With this great increase in number of resources on the websites no individual can afford to ignore data mining.

Source: http://www.loginworks.com/blogs/web-scraping-blogs/247-web-scraping-and-web-data-mining/

Online Retail - Mining for Gold

Online retailers live in an ever-changing environment, and the ability to stay competitive is the difference between doing well and doing nothing. In today's fast paced internet market place, if you aren't using web scraping, you are missing a key component to growing your business.

Data Mining

Data mining your competition's prices and services and making sure your prices and services are similar, or even lower, is what makes the difference. Why should your customer choose you if they can get the same product somewhere else for less? What data you collect and how often you update it is also another key ingredient to success.

Extract Website Data

Web scraping allows you to gather information from your competition and use it improve your position in the market. When you extract website data from your competitor's website, it allows you to conduct business from a position that doesn't involve guess work. The internet is an environment that is constantly being updated and changed. It is vital that you have the ability to have up-to-date information on what others in your market are doing. If you can't do this, you really can't compete.

Application of Information

When you know what your competitors are doing all the time, you can keep your business a little more competitive than they are. When you have information such as monthly and even weekly price variations in the market and what products and services are being offered, you can apply that information to your own pricing matrix and ensure a competitive edge in your market.

An Army of One

Web scraping gives you the ability to see what is going on in the market at all times. You can monitor just about anything you choose with a web scraping service. Many online retailers are very small operations and they don't have the resources to constantly monitor each competitor's website - so engaging a web scraping service is like having your own marketing and research team working for you night and day to keep tabs on them. You choose what it is you want to know, and your research team goes to work. Simple.

Staying Ahead of Trends

Having the ability to recognize trends is the key to any business, especially on the internet were information is so fluid. The business that can identify a trend quickly and take advantage of it will always stay one step ahead. That's why big corporations have teams dedicated to researching market trends and predictions. If you can see where something is going, you can always get ahead of it. That's what web scraping can help you do - identify those trends in your market so you can get in ahead of the pack.

A Helping Hand
Sometimes running your own online retail business can be a daunting and lonely ordeal. Even those that have a great deal of experience with the internet can feel lost at times. A web scraping service is a tool you can use to help yourself in such times. Web scraping is automated and precise, and it gives you the ability to have vital information delivered to you in a manner you can understand and use. It's one less thing to worry about - and the information you get from data mining is what every business owner actually should worry about - what the competition is doing? With a web scraping service, you can concern yourself with other things - like making more profits.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Online-Retail---Mining-for-Gold&id=6531024

Should I Advertise With the Yellowpages or YP Online?

This is a company that's been around for over 100 years, so they seem like a solid company to do business with, right?

Well ultimately I'll leave the decision up to you because they can be good for certain businesses and do absolutely nothing for others. I'll lay out the pros and cons and let you decide at the end.

The Yellowpages, big yellow, grandma's booster seat... and now YP online. Advertising your business used to be as simple as buying the biggest ad in the book, then came the internet, multiple competitors in the phone book arena, coupon books, door to door sales people, community boards... the list goes on.

So where do you spend your money and how much should you spend?

That's a different topic that we'll be writing on in the future, but for now let's stick to the Yellowpages and YP online.

A YELLOWPAGES REP CALLED ME, NOW WHAT?

They're out there in the thousands, scavenging the community boards, competitor websites like Yellowbook online and Craigslist... if your phone number is out there and it's attached to a business you're likely to get a call (or multiple calls) from a YP rep. The best thing to do, even if you're not interested, is to use their resources to learn more about your competition and the marketplace as a whole. They have access to lots of information that normal folks don't and it doesn't cost you anything (monetarily at least) to get it from them.

If you want the goods, you have to play their game (at least little bit)

What this means is that they're not going to give you information if you tell them right away that you're not interested. So you'll have to play along, don't make any commitments and try to stay on the phone with them without making an appointment to see them if you can stand your ground long enough. Beware, they're going to be pushy because that's how they make their living (selling you something), and who can blame them; most of them are good people that are just backed by a not-so-good company (or so I would assume).

USEFUL INFORMATION THAT YOU CAN MILK FROM THEM

Want to know what some of your competition is doing? Ask them and they'll be able to tell you how many calls a lot of your competitors are getting from certain ads. That alone would be a great question to get out of the way early so that you can always combat their sales tactics with this (the call counts are usually low). When they tell you the call count you can also ask them what their program looks like. See if it contains print, internet, direct mail...

They do a lot more than just the book now-a-days, however you'll pay a premium to do business with them. Often times you can do things like direct mail from a local company for cheaper and with MUCH better fulfillment (since they often times outsource their work to other companies for things like web design (for great website design, see the bottom of the article), direct mail, SEO... pretty much everything but YP online and the phone book -as of this writing at least).

Want a free logo?

If you string them along long enough they'll make an ad copy for your advertisement (usually only works for the phone book or direct mail) and you can ask them to send you an e-copy (Their graphic designers aren't the best, but they're alright if you're looking to get something for free) of the ad and use that for your own advertising that you don't end up doing with them (I'm not too sure about how the copyright rules work with this, but if you're a small business you probably won't have an issue *note* We're not saying to do this because it MIGHT be illegal, however if you choose to do it, it's there for you).

SOME OF THE THINGS THEY TELL YOU, YOU CAN FIND FOR YOURSELF

If you're looking to see how some of your competition is doing (or what they're doing) as far as Google AdWords or other Pay Per Click advertising methods you can always check out SpyFu. This is a free way to see how much your competition is spending on a daily basis and what kind of traffic their getting for doing so.

Another way to spy on them is to simply check out their Facebook or Twitter pages to see if they're running any kind of sales to spark traffic.

The old school version of this is to just give them a call and act like a customer.

WHAT THEY'LL TELL YOU AND HOW TO INTERPRET IT

One thing that the Yellowpages has is a lot of information (they've been around forever). There are also companies out there that they hire to do research and make them look good (even though it's considered third party, unbiased information we're pretty sure that they leave out information that doesn't make them look so hot).

So what does this mean for you? You'll be hearing a lot of statistics (unless the rep can't remember them) about things that might not necessarily mean anything to you.

They'll tell you how many people in whatever area you service area searching monthly for the things that you do and it'll usually sound very impressive! But then when it comes down to how many calls are being placed (they have this information for each ad on YP online and some for the phone books) there aren't too many. They'll say that people on average look at 4 to 5 ads before making a call, and the higher you are to the top of the list the more likely you are to get a call... bla bla bla. Sure, that makes sense, if you're first on the list then you'll get the most attention; what they don't tell you is that the majority of the calls will be from solicitors and that the call tracking number they're giving you could have been (and most likely has) used by a different company and that you'll probably get calls for their stuff too and that accounts for some of the calls you should've gotten.

Have they mentioned a "free ad" or a "pay per call" ad to you? They're the same product and it sounds wonderful until you realize that less than 30% of the businesses that sign up renew it (meaning it doesn't work very well). Prepare to now have to pay for the solicitors that call you on that number as well as, as mentioned above, people calling for a business that used to have that phone number.

SO SHOULD YOU GET A YELLOWPAGES AD?

You're probably thinking that we hate the Yellowpages by now, and you'd be wrong (sorry if the first part of this came across that way). We don't hate anyone for trying to make a buck, but we don't like their fulfillment practices.

Think about this, the main guys running this company came from another company that nobody really hears about too much anymore (AOL; think of the 10 free hours you never used). Since many of their products are outsourced, and therefore more expensive, you're never really getting a good deal on anything except for things that are proprietary to them (phonebook and YP online).

Should you get a phonebook or YP online ad? This question can only be answered after answering a few other questions (sorry).

Ask yourself some of these questions before you decide to make the plunge.

    What's the age of your target demographic? Older people are more likely to use the phone book (in some instances)

    Is your business mostly based on the distance from the consumer? Consider restaurants and how you look for them. We LOVE to find new restaurants to go to no matter where we travel to, but when I do a search on my phone (YP or Yelp app) I always set it to a distance search. So regardless of their advertising efforts the business cannot become closer to my current location. Better reviews can skew our decision, however it doesn't really bother us too much as long as there aren't many negative reviews.

    Where is your target demographic looking for your services? This one's really obvious but we figured that we'd put it in there because sometimes people forget the importance of the basics. If you're a restaurant people most likely aren't looking for you in the phone book, at least in our personal experience. We are more likely to first search for coupons in the mail or online (for restaurants) and then if we aren't successful we go to the distance search that we mentioned before. Think about where and how people search for the things that you do. Don't know where to start, ask your friends and family how they searched for a business that resembles what you offer.

If you find that all signs are pointing to the Yellowpages phonebook or YP online then you should do that. Just remember that you're going to be signed to a contract (they're going to try and get you for a whole year but they can do a 3 month contract and usually won't tell you about it until you ask).

For some industries the Yellowpages and YP online is a great place to be.

KEY TIPS!

They have a program called MC2 (don't think Einstein, think last ditch effort) where they'll "guarantee" (but not actually guarantee) a certain amount of leads for your advertising campaign. What's great about this is that they can give you a "cost per lead" and this is a great way to really figure out if your advertising campaign will bring in money for you! If they don't bring you the amount of leads they're supposed to, they'll (they're supposed to at least) do some advertising for you at no extra cost.

Since they obviously don't want to spend money on their own part to cover for what their advertising campaign lacked, they'll usually give you a lower number on this so that they look like they're going to over deliver (can't say whether they usually do or not).

What we're getting at is, compare this number to the amount of calls that they say that you should get before you get into the MC2 information. The numbers will be dramatically different and you'll be able to tell whether or not it's actually worth it for you to move forward with the advertising.

Let's say that each lead costs you $100 and you're a widget seller that makes an average sale of $25 per widget sold. So you'd have to sell 4 widgets to every lead (not all of them are actually leads, solicitors are counted as leads as well) to break even, and at least 5 to make a profit. Would you go for this advertising campaign? We recommend that you run for the hills.

Now let's say that each lead costs you $15 and you close 3 out of 10 phone calls (including solicitors) and your average sale per customer is $100. Let's do the math:

10 phone calls will cost you $150

You make 3 sales out of those 10 phone calls (3x$100 = $300)

$300-$150= $150 left over after paying for the calls

If there's still profit after the $150 then you're doing alright because, if you work referrals like you should, it'll pay off with happy customers getting your name out there. If there isn't, the answer is simple.

*note, this article is in no way affiliated with YP Holdings LLC or any of its affiliates and is meant for entertainment purposes only

If you're looking for Simply Great Websites from a Wholesome company, check out The Cheap Website

Websites are $49/mth and a portion of the monthly dues are donated to help wounded veterans.

No Contracts, No Setup Fees, No Nonsense... Just Simply Great Websites

Thanks for reading

This is a company that's been around for over 100 years, so they seem like a solid company to do business with, right?

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Should-I-Advertise-With-the-Yellowpages-or-YP-Online?&id=8170953

Achieving Sustainability in Mining

There's so much that our planet gives us for our consumption. These things come in different shapes and sizes, and some of the most abundant of them are minerals. Minerals are essential for living in these modern times, and when it comes to extracting them, mining is still the primary method used.

One of the biggest issues that any industry faces is sustainability, and the mining sector is certainly no exception to it. Some of the things that serve to constrain sustainability in this industry are the ever-increasing demand minerals, the consumption of resources that are needed to extract and process metals, as well as the pollution caused by the process of extracting them.

Increasing Demand for Minerals

There's no question that there's growth in the extraction of construction minerals. As more and more countries become more industrialized, the demand for such minerals is almost directly proportional to the growth in the construction industry. In the 20th century, we saw a growth in the extraction of construction materials. Demand for ores and industrial minerals also increased.

Impacts

Aside from the obvious impact mining has on the environment, it can also have a negative social impact. In order to keep up with the demand for mined resources, there's also a subsequent increase in mining activities to meet such demand. During the course of conducting such activities, there can be times when certain things are overlooked, including the short, medium and even long-term effects of mining activities in the community where they are done. This is then where there arises a need to balance the economic benefits of mining versus its potential harmful effects on the environment.

Sustainability and Maximizing Mining Benefits

There are ways to maximize the benefits we can get from mining as we improve sustainability both on the environmental and social fronts. This was specifically addressed in the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. It identified three priority areas:

a. Support efforts to address the environmental, economic, health and social impacts and benefits of mining, minerals and metals throughout their life cycle;

b. Enhance the participation of stakeholders, including local and indigenous communities and women, to play an active role in minerals, metals and mining development throughout the life cycles of mining operations; and

c. Foster sustainable mining practices through the provision of financial, technical and capacity-building support to developing countries and countries with economies in transition for the mining and processing of minerals.

As long as efforts are made for mining to be environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable, we can enjoy the many benefits of mining without worrying about and suffering the potentially harmful effects mining can have on people and nature.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Achieving-Sustainability-in-Mining&id=8108499

New Technique to Boost US Uranium Mining - Satellite Plants

If you study the news releases, several companies have discussed the setting up of one or more satellite plants in conjunction with their In Situ Recovery (ISR) uranium mining operations. In order to help readers better understand what exactly a 'satellite plant' is, we interviewed Mark Pelizza of Uranium Resources about how this relatively new operational technique is presently being used at the company's Texas operations. This is part two our six-part series, describing the evolution of ISR uranium mining, building upon last year's basic series on this subject.

A larger uranium deposit, such as one at Cameco's Smith Ranch in Wyoming, requires a Central Processing Plant. The 'mother plant,' as it is called in the trade, can complete the entire processing cycle from uranium extraction through loading the resin, stripping the uranium from the resin with a solvent (elution), precipitating, drying and packaging.

With a satellite plant, also known as a Remote Ion Exchange (RIX), smaller and distant deposits can also be mined and then trucked to the mother plant. With an RIX operation, the front-end of the 'milling' cycle can be begun independent of the much larger mother plant. It is the same ion exchange column found at central processing facility. The mobility factor makes RIX an attractive proposition for many of the new-breed uranium producers. Rather than piping the water and uranium across a longer distance to the mother plant for the entire processing cycle, the modular nature of RIX allows for multiple columns at each well field doing the ion exchange on the spot.

This is not a new idea, but one which has instead been re-designed by Uranium Resources and is also used elsewhere. In the early 1970s, Conoco and Pioneer Nuclear Corporation formed the Conquista project in south Texas. Uranium was open-pit mined at between ten and fifteen mines within a thirty-five mile radius and in two counties. Trucks hauled ore to the 1750-ton/day processing mill near Falls City in Karnes County.

"The trademark of south Texas is a lot of small million-pound-style deposits," Mark Pelizza told us. "I think we are heading in the right direction to exploit those small deposits." Trucking resin beads loaded with uranium is different from trucking ore which has been conventionally mined. Small, scattered uranium deposits aren't only found in Texas. There are numerous smaller ISR-amenable properties in Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado and South Dakota.

"About half the uranium deposits in New Mexico can be mined with ISR," Pelizza said, "and the other half would require conventional mining." A number of companies we've interviewed have geographically diverse, but relatively nearby properties within their portfolio. Several companies with whom we discussed RIX have already made plans to incorporate this method into their mining operations.

The sole-use semi-trailer trucks hauling the yellowcake slurry are different from the typical dump trucks used in conventional mining. According to Pelizza, the truck carries a modified bulk cement trailer with three compartments. The three compartments, or cells, each have a function. One cell holds the uranium-loaded resin, one cell is empty and the third has unloaded resin.

As per Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations, no liquids are permitted during the transportation process. Each container run between the wellfield and the mother plant can bring between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds of uranium-in-resin, depending upon how large the container is designed. The 'loaded' cell holds between 300 and 500 pounds of resin with six to eight pounds of uranium per cubic foot of resin. Age of the resin is important, too. New resin can hold up to ten pounds of uranium per cubic foot and can decline to five pounds of uranium per cubic foot after several years.

As we found with a conventional Ion Exchange process, the RIX system is run as a closed loop pressurized process to prevent the release of radon gas into the atmosphere. The uranium is oxidized, mobilized and pumped out of the sandstone formation into a loaded pipeline and ends up in an ion exchange column at the mining site. Inside the columns, uranium is extracted through an ion exchange process - a chloride ion on a resin bead exchanges for a uranium ion. After the fluid has been stripped of uranium, it is sent back to the wellfield as barren solution, minus the bleed.

When the ion exchange column is fully loaded, the column is taken offline. The loaded resin is transferred from the column to a bulk cement trailer, which is a pressurized vessel comprised of carbon steel with a rubberized internal lining. The resin trailer is connected to the ion exchange column transfer piping with hoses. After it has been drained of any free water, the uranium-loaded resin can be transported as a solid, known as 'wet yellowcake' to the mother plant. There, the yellowcake slurry is stripped from the resin, precipitated and vacuum-dried with a commercial-grade food dryer.

Capital costs can be dramatically reduced with the satellite plants, or RIX units. "Well field installation can cost more than RIX," Pelizza noted. Often, installing a well field can start at approximately $10 million and run multiples higher, depending upon the spacing of the wells and the depth at which uranium is mined. Still, compared to conventional mining, the entire ISR well field mining and solvent circuit method of uranium processing is relatively inexpensive.

We checked with a number of near-term producers - those with uranium projects in Wyoming - and discovered at least three companies planned to utilize one or more satellite plants, or RIX, in their operations. A company's reason for utilizing this method is to minimize capital and operating expenses while mining multiple smaller deposits within the same area. Water is treated at the RIX to extract the uranium instead of piping it across greater distances to a full-sized plant. Pelizza said, "The potential for pipeline failure and spillage from a high-flow trunk line is eliminated."

Strathmore Minerals vice president of technical services John DeJoia said his company was moving forward with a new type of Remote Ion Exchange design, but would not provide details. UR-Energy chief executive Bill Boberg said his company would use an RIX for either Lost Soldier or Lost Creek in Wyoming, perhaps for both. Uranerz Energy chief executive Glenn Catchpole told us he planned to probably set up two RIX operations at the company's Wyoming properties and build a central processing facility.

"We are working on a standardized design of the remote ion exchange unit so it doesn't require any major licensing action," Pelizza said. "If you can speed up the licensing time, perhaps it would take one to two years rather than three to five years."

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?New-Technique-to-Boost-US-Uranium-Mining---Satellite-Plants&id=495199

Data Mining vs Screen-Scraping

Data mining isn't screen-scraping. I know that some people in the room may disagree with that statement, but they're actually two almost completely different concepts.

In a nutshell, you might state it this way: screen-scraping allows you to get information, where data mining allows you to analyze information. That's a pretty big simplification, so I'll elaborate a bit.

The term "screen-scraping" comes from the old mainframe terminal days where people worked on computers with green and black screens containing only text. Screen-scraping was used to extract characters from the screens so that they could be analyzed. Fast-forwarding to the web world of today, screen-scraping now most commonly refers to extracting information from web sites. That is, computer programs can "crawl" or "spider" through web sites, pulling out data. People often do this to build things like comparison shopping engines, archive web pages, or simply download text to a spreadsheet so that it can be filtered and analyzed.

Data mining, on the other hand, is defined by Wikipedia as the "practice of automatically searching large stores of data for patterns." In other words, you already have the data, and you're now analyzing it to learn useful things about it. Data mining often involves lots of complex algorithms based on statistical methods. It has nothing to do with how you got the data in the first place. In data mining you only care about analyzing what's already there.

The difficulty is that people who don't know the term "screen-scraping" will try Googling for anything that resembles it. We include a number of these terms on our web site to help such folks; for example, we created pages entitled Text Data Mining, Automated Data Collection, Web Site Data Extraction, and even Web Site Ripper (I suppose "scraping" is sort of like "ripping"). So it presents a bit of a problem-we don't necessarily want to perpetuate a misconception (i.e., screen-scraping = data mining), but we also have to use terminology that people will actually use.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Data-Mining-vs-Screen-Scraping&id=146813

There is No Need to Disrupt the Schedule to Keep the Kitchen Canopy and Extraction System Clean

After taking over a large and beautiful stately hotel its new owner quickly realised that the kitchen extract system would not be straightforward to maintain because the duct work for the extract system was somewhat ancient and therefore would be difficult to clean.

A prestige hotel needs to maintain a high level of hygiene as well as to minimise the risk of a kitchen fire.

So, if replacing the entire system is not an option what can the new owner do to find a solution that would meet exacting standards of cleanliness and ensure that the risk of a fire starting in the system is minimised while ensuring that the cleaning does disrupt the operation of the hotel and restaurant as a business?

Using an experienced specialist commercial cleaning service to asses the establishment, the types of food cooked, how and at what level of intensity is the first step.

It is difficult without this information to advice on how maintenance should be carried out.

The frequency of the cleaning cycle for a canopy and its components depends not only on the regularity and duration of cooking below but also on the type of cooking and the ingredients being used.

Where  the kitchen use is light canopies and extract systems may only need a 12-month cycle for maintenance and cleaning. However, in a busy hotel, kitchen activity is most likely to be heavy and the cleaning company may advise a three or four-month cycle.

Grease filters and canopies over the cookers should ideally be designed, sized and constructed to be robust enough for regular washing in a commercial dishwasher, which is the most thorough and efficient method of cleaning them yourself.

It's important to make sure when re-installing filters that they are fitted the right way around with any framework drain holes at the lowest, front edge. Of course, grease filters are covered with a coating of grease and can therefore be slippery and difficult to handle. Appropriate protyective gloves should be used when handling them.

The canopies and their component parts should be designed to be easy to clean, but if they are not, provided the cleaning intervals are fairly frequent, regular washing with soap or mild detergent and warm water, followed by a clean water rinse might be adequate. If too long a period is left between cleans, grease will become baked-on and require special attention.

No grease filtration is 100% efficient and therefore a certain amount of grease passes through the filters to be deposited on the internal surfaces of the filter housings and ductwork.

Left unattended, this layer of grease on the non-visible surfaces of the canopy creates both hygiene and fire risks.

Deciding on when cleaning should take place, and how often, is something an experienced specialist cleaning company can help with. The simplest guide is that if a surface or component looks dirty, then it needs cleaning.

Most important, however, is regular inspection of all surfaces and especially non-visible ones. The maintenance schedule for any kitchen installation should include inspections.

Copyright (c) 2010 Alison Withers

A regular maintenance and cleaning schedule is not impossible even in the kitchen of a hotel with an antiquated canopy and duct system with the help of a specialist commercial cleaning company to advise on how to do it without disrupting the work flow, as writer Ali Withers discovers.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?There-is-No-Need-to-Disrupt-the-Schedule-to-Keep-the-Kitchen-Canopy-and-Extraction-System-Clean&id=4877266

The Trouble With Bots, Spiders and Scrapers

With the Q4 State of the Internet - Security Report due out later this month, we continue to preview sections of it.

Earlier this week we told you about a DDoS attack from a group claiming to be Lizard Squad. Today we look at how
third-party content bots and scrapers are becoming more prevalent as developers seek to gather, store, sort and present
a wealth of information available from other websites.

These meta searches typically use APIs to access data, but many now use screen-scraping to collect information.

As the use of bots and scrapers continues to surge, there's an increased burden on webservers. While bot behavior is
mainly harmless, poorly-coded bots can hurt site performance and resemble DDoS attacks. Or, they may be part of a rival's competitive intelligence program.

Understanding the different categories of third-party content bots, how they affect a website, and how to mitigate their impact is an important part of building a secure web presence.

Specifically, Akamai has seen bots and scrapers used for such purposes as:

•    Setting up fraudulent sites
•    Reuse of consumer price indices
•    Analysis of corporate financial statements
•    Metasearch engines
•    Search engines
•    Data mashups
•    Analysis of stock portfolios
•    Competitive intelligence
•    Location tracking

During 2014 Akamai observed a substantial increase in the number of bots and scrapers hitting the travel, hotel and hospitality sectors. The growth in scrapers targeting these sectors is likely driven by the rise of rapidly developed mobile apps that use scrapers as the fastest and easiest way to collect information from disparate websites.

Scrapers target room rate pages for hotels, pricing and schedules for airlines. In many cases that Akamai investigated, scrapers and bots made several thousand requests per second, far in excess of what can be expected by a human using a web browser.

An interesting development in the use of headless browsers is the advent of companies that offer scraping as a service, such as PhantomJs Cloud. These sites make it easy for users to scrape content and have it delivered, lowering the bar to entry and making it easier for unskilled individuals to scrape content while hiding behind a service.

For each type of bot, there is a corresponding mitigation strategy.

The key to mitigating aggressive, undesirable bots is to reduce their efficiency. In most cases, highly aggressive bots are only helpful to their controllers if they can scrape a lot of content very quickly. By reducing the efficiency of the bot through rate controls, tar pits or spider traps, bot-herders can be driven elsewhere for the data they need.

Aggressive but desirable bots are a slightly different problem. These bots adversely impact operations, but they bring a benefit to the organization. Therefore, it is impractical to block them fully. Rate controls with a high threshold, or a user-prioritization application (UPA) product, are a good way to minimize the impact of a bot. This permits the bot access to the site until the number of requests reaches a set threshold, at which point the bot is blocked or sent to a waiting room. In the meantime, legitimate users are able to access the site normally.

Source: https://blogs.akamai.com/2015/01/performance-mitigation-bots-spiders-and-scrapers.html

Application of Web Data Mining in CRM

The process of improvising the customer relations and interactions and making them more amicable may be termed as Customer relationship management (CRM). Since web data mining is used in the utilization of the various modeling and data analysis methods in detecting given patterns and relationships in the data, it can be used as an effective tool in CRM. By the effectively using web data mining you are able to understand what your customers what.

It is important to note that web data mining can be used effectively in searching for the right and potential customers to be offered the right products at the right time. The result of this in any business is the increase in the revenue generated. This is made possible as you are able to respond to each customer in an effective and efficient way. The method further utilizes very few resources and can be therefore termed as an economical method.

In the next paragraphs we discuss the basic process of customer relationship management and its integration with web data mining service. The following are the basic process that should be used in understanding what your customers need, sending them the right offers and products, and reducing the resources used in managing your customers.

Defining the business objective. Web data mining can be used to define and inform your customers your business objective. By doing research you can be able to determine whether your business objective is communicated well to your customers and clients. Does your business objective take interest in the customers? Your business goal must be clearly outlined in your business CRM. By having a more precise and defined goal is the possible way of ensuring success in the customer relationship management.

Source: http://www.loginworks.com/blogs/web-scraping-blogs/application-web-data-mining-crm/

A Brief Look at the Mining Industry

A lot of what you'll see around you if you take just a brief moment to look is manmade. And how much of it is metal? Your mobile phone components, parts of the pen you're clutching on to, the bracelet you're wearing. The answer is loads. Metals, precious stones, coal, uranium, rock salt and other elements are all obtained from within our Earth. To get to these precious resources, man developed the mining industry.

Stone and metal mining have been around since pre-historic times. This has been revealed by early excavations and archaeology.

Nowadays, mining continues to be a complex and lengthy process that involves not only the resource extraction itself, but also extensive planning procedures.

Economic analysis of the profit potential, environmental assessments and reclamation of the land are of major importance before any industrial action can go ahead. This makes mining incredibly expensive so precision in estimates is vital. The industry thus employs some of the world's leading engineers and sharpest tools in the box.

Once the feasibility of the project has been assessed, the main investor and mining company decide whether to proceed or not.

If the decision is to go ahead, work can begin on setting up the mine and gaining access to the resources.

There are two types of mining: surface and sub-surface, the former of which is much more common. This means obtaining minerals and ores from within layers of sand, gravel, rock or other materials. Sub-surface mining requires shafts to be built for access to the minerals.

Due to the somewhat temporary nature of mining projects, the industry relies largely on temporary structures and equipment rental contracts.

Environmental Impact

A thorough environmental assessment is a requirement. Potential impacts of mining on the local terrain and wildlife include erosion, soil, groundwater and surface water contamination, sinkholes, and loss of biodiversity, and these need to be avoided.

International standards exist to try to eradicate or at least control the damage done to the environment.

Equipment

Mining requires not only a lot of technical knowledge and skills, but also heavy machinery. As companies are likely to be international, they won't have access to all the necessary tools and equipment on the spot. As a result a lot of this is outsourced from other companies that specialise in the provision of technical machinery.

For excavating the land, bulldozers, drills, explosives and trucks are needed. Special materials are required to secure the shafts and build ways of getting miners and resources in and out. Often, trams and lifts are built to transport people, machinery and ore.

Since many mines are located in areas without access to national power grids, generator hire is of vital importance.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Brief-Look-at-the-Mining-Industry&id=7146211

How You Can Reduce Blog Content Scraping and Possibly Prevent It

Considering if you take our approach of lots of internal linking, adding affiliate links, rss banners and such chances are that you will reduce content scraping to good measure. If you take Jeff Starr’s suggestion of redirecting content scrapers, that too will stop those scrapers. Aside from what we have shared above, there are a few other tricks that you can use.

Full vs. Summary RSS Feed

There has been a debate in the blogging community whether to have full RSS feed or summary RSS feed. We are not going to go into much details about that debate, however one of the PROS of having a Summary Only RSS feed is that you prevent content scraping. You can change the settings by going to your WordPress admin panel and going under Settings » Reading. Then change the setting For each article in a feed show: Summary.

Note: We have full feed because we care more about our RSS readers than the spammers.

Trackback SPAM

Trackbacks and Pingbacks definitely had great uses however, they are now constantly being abused. Often themes display trackbacks and pingbacks under or among the comments. This gives the spammer an incentive to scrape your site and send trackbacks. If you mistakenly approves it, then they get a backlink and mention from your site. Here is how you can disable Trackbacks on all future posts. Here is an article that will show you how to disable trackbacks and pings on existing WordPress posts as well.

Is Content Scraping Ever Good?

It can be. If you see that you are making money from the scraper’s site, then sure it can be. If you see a lot of traffic from a scraper’s site, then it can be. In most cases however, it is not. You should always try to get your content taken off. But you will realize as your blog gets larger, it is almost impossible to keep track of all content scrapers. We still send out DMCA complaints, however we know that there are tons of other sites that are stealing our content that we just cannot keep up with.

What are your thoughts? Do you use any other mechanics to prevent content scraping? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Source:http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-preventing-blog-content-scraping-in-wordpress/

The A B C D of Data Mining Services

If you are very new to the term 'data mining', let the meaning be explained to you. It is form of back office support services that are being offered by many call centers to analyze data from numerous resources and amalgamate them for some useful task. The business establishments in the present generation need to develop a strategy that helps them to cooperate with the market trends and allow them to perform well. The process of data mining is actually the retrieval process of essential and informative data that helps an organization to analyze the business perspectives and can further generate better interests in cutting cost, developing revenue and to acquire valuable data on business services/products.

It is a powerful analytical tool that permits the user to customize a wide range of data in different formats and categories as per their necessity. The data mining process is an integral part of a business plan for companies that need to undertake a diverse research on the customer building process. These analytical skills are generally performed by skilled industrial experts who assist the firms to accelerate their growth through the critical business activities. With a vast applicability in the present time, the back office support services with the data mining process is helping the businesses in understanding and predicting valuable information. Some of them include:

•    Profiles of customers
•    Customer buying behavior
•    Customer buying trends
•    Industry analysis

For a layman it is somewhat the process of processing some statistical data or methods. These processes are implemented with some specific tools that preform the following:

•    Automated model scoring
•    Business templates
•    Computing target columns
•    Database integration
•    Exporting models to other applications
•    Incorporating financial information

There are some benefits of Data Mining. Few of them are as follows:

•    To understand the requirements of the customers which can help in efficient planning.
•    Helps in minimizing risk and improve ROI.
•    Generate more business and target the relevant market.
•    Risk free outsourcing experience
•    Provide data access to business analysts
•    A better understanding of the demand supply graph
•    Improve profitability by detect unusual pattern in sales, claims, transactions
•    To cut down the expenses of Direct Marketing

Data mining is generally a part of the offshore back office services and outsourced to business establishments that require diverse data base on customers and their particular approach towards any service or product. For example banks, telecommunication companies, insurance companies, etc. require huge data base to promote their new policies. If you represent a similar company that needs appropriate data mining process then it is better that you outsource back office support services from a third party and fulfill your business goals with excellent results.

Katie Cardwell works as a senior sales and marketing analyst for a multinational call center company, based in United States of America. She takes care of all the business operations and analysis the back office support services that power an organization. Her extensive knowledge and expertise on Non -voice call center services such as Data Mining Services, Back office support services, etc, have helped many business players to stand with a straight spine and thus making a foothold in the data processing industry.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?The-A-B-C-D-of-Data-Mining-Services&id=6503339

Scraping Software Is Must For The Web Data Scraping – Why?

Twenty-four hours in the data web scraping to find the best way? Web scraping or harvesting, technically, one of several methods that you can remove material from a website via HTTP. Almost always marketed as a material for use in other contexts is converted to another format.

Web data scraping web crawler of the most common form, is used by sites like Google. Use a scraper to the most visited site, the content of a website that is an original, and all information is taken from existing sites to scrape. Many online programs, mostly private companies to the best way you to scrape away. Scraping data from individual applications for free or cheap, the company - quality scrapers can reach thousands of dollars.

Web data scraping issues with the common law invasion of privacy and breach of the conditions to be created by the user, otherwise serious legal action, in some cases be taken by the user.

Web data scraping to avoid searching for someone who wants to know a few ways. Some sites entries "in the robots.txt file scraper to obtain IP addresses and traffic monitoring and verification program can also block spam.

Business decision to rely heavily on data, regardless of their marketing plans and strategy, or maintaining your effective and should be used.

Not only expensive to do manually, but also much of your time. In addition, data collected as a result of human error for errors that can threaten and take several days for some employees.

Accurate and Structured

In addition, the data is automatically classified according to their field, and thus makes easy to fix.

There Is No Data Redundancy

In general; if several people work on different databases, it is likely that more than one person is the same result. At the end will result in redundant data. However, with a web scraping, in this case, because the device has the ability to easily find duplicates and not avoided. But now the question is how they are extracted?

There are several software methods for data extraction. Two of them are discussed in this article.

Web scraping is a technique by which information can be extracted from Web pages. Among the many methods of scraping, a popular web mining, usually carried out by the search engines. The process of scaling up the necessary information from a webpage and for ease of searching, including indexation.

Web applications, utilities, and office and server programs depending on the purpose of the request, can develop. URLs and web pages are encoded in the programs based on the data (like SMS or MMS) to win. Encryption can be in different languages such as Visual Basic

Other web-mining techniques for data analysis, objectives, there are three types of network mining, the use of mines and mining Web content Web structure. Like much in the process of mining companies (both public and private property), is used by international companies and government agencies. It is useful for organizations based on the economy, as a marketing, which the high volume of trade helps the customer exactly what he needs and is quick.

This allows potential customers to find and easy to maintain and redesign. She gave an overview of their own requirements based on the customer to cut production. The company also increased the profits, if the goal is to get the right value based on customer profiles can be entered to determine attract offers. In criminal activities and mining can be identified because of the excellent predictive power. Many elements of this new technology came as a blessing.

Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/outsourcing-articles/scraping-software-is-must-for-the-web-data-scraping-why-5305316.html

Data Scraping Services with Proxy Data Scraping

Have you ever heard of "data scraping? Data Scraping is the process of gathering relevant information in the public domain on the internet (private areas even if the conditions are met) and stored in databases or spreadsheets for later use in various applications. Scraping data technology is not new and a successful businessman his fortune by using data scraping technology.

Sometimes owners of sites that are not derived much pleasure from the automated harvesting of their data. Webmasters have learned to deny access to web scrapers their websites using tools or methods that some IP addresses to block the content of the site here. scrapers data is left to either target a different site, or the script to move the harvest of a computer using a different IP address each time and get as much information as possible to "all computers finally blocked the nozzle.

Fortunately, there is a modern solution to this problem. Proxy data scraping technology solves the problem by using a proxy IP addresses. When your data scraping program performs an extraction of a website, the site thinks that it comes from a different IP address. For site owner, proxies just like scratching a short period of increased traffic around the world. They have very limited resources and tedious to block such a scenario, but more importantly - for the most part, they simply do not know they are scraped.

Now you can ask. "Where can I proxy data scraping technology for my project" The "do-it-yourself solution is free, unfortunately, not easy at all Creation of a database scraping proxy network takes time and requires you to either a group of IP addresses and servers can be used in place yet, the computer guru you need to call to get everything configured. You may consider hiring proxy servers hosting providers to select, but this option is usually quite expensive, but probably better than the alternative: dangerous and unreliable servers (but free) public proxy.

There are literally thousands of free proxy servers located all over the world are fairly easy to use. The trick is to find them. Hundreds of sites, list servers, but by placing a functioning, open and supports standard protocols that you need to a lesson in perseverance, trial and error will be. However, if you manage to find a working public representatives, there are dangers inherent in their use. First, you do not know who owns the server or activities taking place elsewhere on the server. Send applications or sensitive data via an open proxy is a bad idea. It's easy enough for a proxy server to keep all information you send or send it back to you to catch. If you choose the method of replacing the public, make sure you never a transaction through which you or anyone else would jeopardize the case of unsavory types are made aware of the data to send.

A less risky scenario for data scraping proxy is to hire a proxy connection that runs through the rotation of a large number of private IP addresses. There are a number of these companies available that claim to remove all Web logs, which you harvest anonymously on the web with a minimal threat of retaliation. Companies such as enterprise solutions offer a large http://www.Anonymizer.com anonymous proxy, but often carry significant costs of installing enough for you to continue.

The other advantage is that companies that own such networks can often help design and implement a set of proxy data scraping custom program instead of trying to work with a generic bone scraping. After performing a simple Google search, I quickly found a company (www.ScrapeGoat.com) that an anonymous proxy server provides for data scraping purposes. Or, according to their website, if you want to make life even easier, scrap goat can retrieve data for you and a variety of different formats to deliver, often before you could finish up your plate from the scraping program.

Whatever path you choose for your data scraping proxy need not let a few simple tips to thwart access to all the wonderful information that is stored on the World Wide Web!

Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/data-scraping-services-with-proxy-data-scraping-4697825.html