web scraping

American  

[web skray-ping] / ˈwɛb ˌskreɪ pɪŋ /

noun

Digital Technology.

1. the extraction and copying of data from a website into a structured format using a computer program: Our search engine uses web scraping to index sites.

   Hackers pose a threat with techniques like web scraping.

   Our search engine uses web scraping to index sites.

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Other Word Forms

• web scraper
  noun

Etymology

Origin of web scraping

First recorded in 2000–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

web scraping

Search engines and AI rely on web scraping and frequency of mentions, and the sheer volume of his fake posts caused AI to mistakenly identify him as an NFL wide receiver.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

Brundage joined Discord and Telegram channels devoted to web scraping and residential proxy services.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

Training data comes from X, formerly Twitter, with 600 million users generating real-time content that no competitor can replicate through web scraping.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 15, 2026

Using machine learning and web scraping tools to consume information—already par for the course for some funds operating in the daytime—could become even more important.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025

So I thought I would do some web scraping of my own, found RocketReach chief executive Scott Kim on LinkedIn and sent him a message.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2021