# What is Web Scraper?

It is a software tool that automatically collects data from websites and turns it into an organized list.

## Overview
A web scraper is an assistant that visits a website on your behalf and copies the information there, such as product prices or news headlines, and saves it to a file. It performs data collection in seconds, which would take hours manually.

*Analogy: Instead of going to a library and manually jotting down a specific word in all the books, it's like a super-fast reader that scans pages in seconds and gives you a list.*

## How it works
You enter the address of a specific website and specify what data the tool should retrieve. The tool retrieves data by reading the codes in the background of the site.

## Where it is used
It is used in market research, price comparison and academic data collection studies.

## Commonly confused with
Web scraping can sometimes be confused with a simple copy-paste operation, but this method is completely automatic.

## Frequently asked questions
**Can data be retrieved from every site?**
Technically yes, but some sites may prevent this with security measures.

**Is it legal?**
This is generally an acceptable method as long as it complies with the site's terms of use and local laws.


## Related terms
- [Web Scraping](/en/dictionary/web-scraping/)
- [Data Pipeline](/en/dictionary/data-pipeline/)
- [Document Parsing](/en/dictionary/document-parsing/)

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Source: TreScout Dictionary · https://trescout.com/en/dictionary/web-scraper/