Kimono Is A Smarter Web Scraper That Lets You “API-ify” The Web, No Code Required

A new Y Combinator-backed startup called Kimono wants to make it easier to access data from the unstructured web with a point-and-click tool that can extract information from webpages that don’t have an API available. And for non-developers, Kimono plans to eventually allow anyone track data without needing to understand APIs at all.

This sort of smarter “web scraper” idea has been tried before, and has always struggled to find more than a niche audience. Previous attempts with similar services like Dapper or Needlebase, for example, folded. Yahoo Pipes still chugs along, but it’s fair to say that the service has long since been a priority for its parent company.

But Kimono’s founders believe that the issue at hand is largely timing.

“Companies more and more are realizing there’s a lot of value in opening up some of their data sets via APIs to allow developers to build these ecosystems of interesting apps and visualizations that people will share and drive up awareness of the company,” says Kimono co-founder Pratap Ranade. (He also delves into this subject deeper in a Forbes piece here). But often, companies don’t know how to begin in terms of what data to open up, or how. Kimono could inform them.

Plus, adds Ranade, Kimono is materially different from earlier efforts like Dapper or Needlebase, because it’s outputting to APIs and is starting off by focusing on the developer user base, with an expansion to non-technical users planned for the future. (Meanwhile, older competitors were often the other way around).

The company itself is only a month old, and was built by former Columbia grad school companions Ranade and Ryan Rowe. Both left grad school to work elsewhere, with Rowe off to Frog Design and Ranade at McKinsey. But over the nearly half-dozen or so years they continued their careers paths separately, the two stayed in touch and worked on various small projects together.

One of those was Airpapa.com, a website that told you which movies were showing on your flights. This ended up giving them the idea for Kimono, as it turned out. To get the data they needed for the site, they had to scrape data from several publicly available websites.

“The whole process of cleaning that [data] up, extracting it on a schedule…it was kind of a painful process,” explains Rowe. “We spent most of our time doing that, and very little time building the website itself,” he says. At the same time, while Rowe was at Frog, he realized that the company had a lot of non-technical designers who needed access to data to make interesting design decisions, but who weren’t equipped to go out and get the data for themselves.

With Kimono, the end goal is to simplify data extraction so that anyone can manage it. After signing up, you install a bookmarklet in your browser, which, when clicked, puts the website into a special state that allows you to point to the items you want to track. For example, if you were trying to track movie times, you might click on the movie titles and showtimes. Then Kimono’s learning algorithm will build a data model involving the items you’ve selected.

That data can be tracked in real time and extracted in a variety of ways, including to Excel as a .CSV file, to RSS in the form of email alerts, or for developers as a RESTful API that returns JSON. Kimono also offers “Kimonoblocks,” which lets you drop the data as an embed on a webpage, and it offers a simple mobile app builder, which lets you turn the data into a mobile web application.

For developer users, the company is currently working on an API editor, which would allow you to combine multiple APIs into one.

So far, the team says, they’ve been “very pleasantly surprised” by the number of sign-ups, which have reached ten thousand*. And even though only a month old, they’ve seen active users in the thousands.

Initially, they’ve found traction with hardware hackers who have done fun things like making an airhorn blow every time someone funds their Kickstarter campaign, for instance, as well as with those who have used Kimono for visualization purposes, or monitoring the exchange rates of various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and dogecoin. Others still are monitoring data that’s later spit back out as a Twitter bot.

Kimono APIs are now making over 100,000 calls every week, and usage is growing by over 50 percent per week. The company also put out an unofficial “Sochi Olympics API” to showcase what the platform can do.

The current business model is freemium based, with pricing that kicks in for higher-frequency usage at scale.

The Mountain View-based company is a team of just the two founders for now, and has initial investment from YC, YC VC and SV Angel.

Source:http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/18/kimono-is-a-smarter-web-scraper-that-lets-you-api-ify-the-web-no-code-required/

Getting Content for Your Site Free and Easy

Any avid website owner knows how critical it is to have a website that contains large amounts of genuine 'content'. These days a website pretty much lives or dies by the amount of content it has on it. A simple and brutal truth of today's Internet is that a site without increasing amounts of frequently updated content is not deemed important enough to merit frequent spidering by the Search Engines.

Successful search engine optimization experts tout that in today's online environment a website is successful because of several sequential steps occurring naturally online. That is...

- increased website content creates more search engine indexing opportunities, which results in more opportunities for organic search engine traffic;

- more search engine traffic leads to more online popularity and subsequently, increased viral online linking;

- this increased linking to a website results in more perceived relevancy by the search engines and, again, higher organic search engine listings; and,

- finally, these higher listings lead to more traffic, and the cycle continues.

So how does a website owner deal with this fact of doing business online? Simple. By providing an ever-increasing amount of content on their website.

But if you own several websites you understand how great a challenge it can be to be able to provide constantly updated, valid and useful content, usually in substantially large quantities via hundreds or thousands of webpages, for your website's visitors and information seekers.

So the way to solve this dilemma for most webmasters is to use content written by others. But the most common route to getting this type of information is to have to pay for a ghostwriter to write the content. This can get expensive so, again, one's website's content volume suffers.

Some webmasters use RSS feeds to scrape content from other websites, but to build static webpages from the scraped content can get into legal issues so this tactic can be rather risky.

And for those webmasters brave enough to write the needed content themselves usually face a difficult mountain to climb. That is, these days it's very tough to actually find the time or have the knowledge to do this. One can only write so many pages on the same topic before experiencing writer's 'burnout'.

So what would be the answer to this apparent dilemma of needing lots of website content but not having lasting viable routes to obtaining the needed content? Simple.

Grab content from free article directories. An article directory is specially designed for website owners and publishers to legally and freely take copyrighted articles, written by online authors willing to share their writings, and post on their website as content.

And one can find hundreds of article directories available on the Internet today and most have only one condition of use: there are terms of usage that website owners agree to follow before using the articles from the article directory. But outside of that there are no other restrictions, and no 'memberships' required.

So, in view of the issues surrounding creating content for one's website, as described above, and the absolutely necessity for a website to have voluminous and fresh content to stay ranked highly in the Search Engines, one can easily see how the free articles found at an article directory can be just the answer a website owner needs to give their websites a needed boost with the Search Engines.

No more having to pay for content. And no more struggling with writing the content yourself. Use whatever information you find at the article directory that you deem relevant and post it on your website, or blog, or forum.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Getting-Content-for-Your-Site-Free-and-Easy&id=99304

How to Seamlessly Include Keywords in Your Web Content

If you're a newbie to internet marketing, you might be wondering, "What the heck is keyword optimization?" It sounds more complex than it is. Basically, keyword optimization is making sure your content contains enough instances of your keywords, which are words or phrases commonly used in search engines to find what you offer. For example, if you're selling real estate in Florida, your keywords may be "florida real estate," "jacksonville florida real estate," "orlando homes for sale," "palm beach houses for sale," etc.

You can find keywords by using keyword research tools and analyzers. This is software that tells you each of the combinations used with a particular keyword, along with how many times the original keyword and its combinations have been used. You can either use paid keyword analyzers, or you can use the popular Google keyword research tool, which is offered for free in the Google AdWords toolset.

How do you use a keyword analyzer tool? They're all the same: You enter in the desired keyword and are given a list of results. Paid keyword analyzers return more specific results, while free ones return more basic information. If you find that your keyword receives a lot of visitors--from 20,000 to 30,000 visitors a month for exact matching terms as a minimum--these are the keywords you may want to consider as part of your keyword optimization strategy.

As you review the keywords, think about how you can break them out into logical, related groups. If your site is fairly new, start with the less competitive terms and build out using longer phrases to get some traffic and conversions.

When you've selected your keywords, you're ready to write your content. Here's where the keyword optimization takes shape. What you need to do is repeat your keyword several times throughout your content. Generally, you want your keyword to appear 2 to 5 percent of the time. For example, if you're writing an article of 500 words, you'll want your keyword to appear at least 10 times but no more than 30.

You might be wondering, "What if the nature of my website can't use keywords that often?" This could be the case for websites with a community theme or those promoting more creative content. You'll have to include separate sections that contain optimized content that still relates to your site. For example, if you're running a site related to "fan fiction," you could create articles that talk about how to create fan fiction (with "fan fiction" being the optimized keyword). Try to get content ideas first by asking your community and reviewing logs and analytics, and build keyword lists into your posts from there. You could also include articles that while not relating to fan fiction could still be of interest to your audience. Example keywords could be writing novels, writing movie scripts and self-publishing.

By including optimized content on a website that would otherwise not contain such content, you get the advantage of self-expression while making sure your site gets seen by search engine bots.

As you write your content, make sure it sounds natural and is enjoyable for visitors. Although the goal is to include your desired keyword 2 to 5 percent of the time, if you use it in a context that's inappropriate, you turn away visitors.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231333

Utilizing A Virtual Paralegal In Litigation

The use of Virtual Paralegals in Litigation has risen exponentially over the past 10 + years. Clients are becoming more sophisticated in the use of Paralegals and now routinely ask, when reviewing bills, if a charge for work done by an Attorney could not have been done by a Paralegal at a lower billing rate.

Most large firms have highly experienced Paralegals who manage cases under the supervision and guidance of the partner in charge. These Virtual Paralegals are responsible for overseeing and creating the structure and protocols for the case from document organization and productions, to witness files, and trial preparation and assistance.

Many smaller firms and sole practitioners are not in a position to have on staff a career Paralegal with this level of experience. However, the need for this level of assistance is still there for small firms and sole practitioners. This is where a highly experienced Virtual Paralegal can enhance the attorneys practice and add value and cost efficiency for the client.

Utilizing the Virtual Litigation Paralegal

The following are a just a few of the ways a highly experienced Virtual Litigation Paralegal can enhance your practice and give you the edge in a case that the more heavily staffed law firms command.

Motion Practice

Accuracy of legal citation and correct formatting is very important in every filing before the court. The Virtual Paralegal can cite, check and proofread all motions, oppositions, and replies. They can also provide legal research and supporting documents for factual assertions while the attorney drafts the brief and reviews legal research in support of the motion. Our Virtual Paralegals are so experienced they can compose the motions for the attorney saving them even more time. All the attorney would have to do is review the motion, sign, and file.

Research

Factual research for cases can sometimes be time consuming and very costly at attorney billable rates. However, it is the thoroughness in ascertaining the facts surrounding a case that will make or break the presentation before a jury. A Paralegal will provide cost effective and thorough factual research for the client under the guidance of the attorney. This is often the area where the more heavily staffed law firms gain the edge in a case. Using the Virtual Paralegal allows the small firm and/or sole practitioner to achieve the same level of thoroughness while saving the attorney;s time and the client's money.

Expert witness and witness background searches are another area where the Virtual Paralegal can be of great assistance.

Document Organization and Review

These days the cost of scanning documents is almost the same as copying. So when documents are being copied and numbered in response to a request for documents, rather than making that second safety copy set, have them scanned and put on CDs. The CDs can then be sent to the paralegal who can create a searchable database linked to the document images. Once the database is complete, witness files can be organized electronically, chronologies can be developed, and exhibits for motions and trial can be assembled and organized by the paralegal at a different location than the attorney.

These are only small options and areas a Virtual Paralegal can assist a law firm. Contact us today and go over the many different services offered at the most competitive rates in the industry! This is the way of the future. I believe in the next 10 years the majority of Paralegals will be working virtually and there will be very few in-office positions left.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Utilizing-A-Virtual-Paralegal-In-Litigation&id=6470306

Collecting Data With Web Scrapers

There is a large amount of data available only through websites. However, as many people have found out, trying to copy data into a usable database or spreadsheet directly out of a website can be a tiring process. Data entry from internet sources can quickly become cost prohibitive as the required hours add up. Clearly, an automated method for collating information from HTML-based sites can offer huge management cost savings.

Web scrapers are programs that are able to aggregate information from the internet. They are capable of navigating the web, assessing the contents of a site, and then pulling data points and placing them into a structured, working database or spreadsheet. Many companies and services will use programs to web scrape, such as comparing prices, performing online research, or tracking changes to online content.

Let's take a look at how web scrapers can aid data collection and management for a variety of purposes.

Improving On Manual Entry Methods

Using a computer's copy and paste function or simply typing text from a site is extremely inefficient and costly. Web scrapers are able to navigate through a series of websites, make decisions on what is important data, and then copy the info into a structured database, spreadsheet, or other program. Software packages include the ability to record macros by having a user perform a routine once and then have the computer remember and automate those actions. Every user can effectively act as their own programmer to expand the capabilities to process websites. These applications can also interface with databases in order to automatically manage information as it is pulled from a website.

Aggregating Information

There are a number of instances where material stored in websites can be manipulated and stored. For example, a clothing company that is looking to bring their line of apparel to retailers can go online for the contact information of retailers in their area and then present that information to sales personnel to generate leads. Many businesses can perform market research on prices and product availability by analyzing online catalogues.

Data Management

Managing figures and numbers is best done through spreadsheets and databases; however, information on a website formatted with HTML is not readily accessible for such purposes. While websites are excellent for displaying facts and figures, they fall short when they need to be analyzed, sorted, or otherwise manipulated. Ultimately, web scrapers are able to take the output that is intended for display to a person and change it to numbers that can be used by a computer. Furthermore, by automating this process with software applications and macros, entry costs are severely reduced.

This type of data management is also effective at merging different information sources. If a company were to purchase research or statistical information, it could be scraped in order to format the information into a database. This is also highly effective at taking a legacy system's contents and incorporating them into today's systems.

Overall, a web scraper is a cost effective user tool for data manipulation and management.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Collecting-Data-With-Web-Scrapers&id=4223877

How Social Bookmarking Affects SEO

Search engine optimization is a tricky area of business that all organizations with any kind of online remit need to spend time getting to understand. Social bookmarking is an area of SEO that causes a huge amount of confusion and head scratching. Social bookmarking websites such as Delicious and Reddit can in fact be very powerful platforms that contribute positively to an SEO campaign. Here are 5 reasons why social bookmarking needs to form a part of your SEO strategy.

1.      Fast Site Indexing

Search engine optimization is very often a waiting game. But what about the times when you just don’t have weeks to spare? One way of getting Google to index your site with lightning speed is to engage with social bookmarking platforms. Google and other search engines are crawling these platforms almost constantly. When Google finds links to your content across multiple social bookmarking sites, it will index that content with far greater speed than if the social bookmarks did not exist.

2.      Send Social Signals

The very nature of social bookmarking dictates that social signals are sent out across the expanse of the internet, letting Google know that the content you have produced is worth sharing and bookmarking. As a result, Google is informed that your content is useful for a group of people and your SEO will be improved as a result.

3.      Do-Follow Links

In the game of search engine optimization, a huge amount of focus is put on do-follow links. Do-follow links essentially pass on some SEO power from the linking website, whereas a no-follow link does not. Many people hold the opinion that social bookmarking sites are useless because the backlinks are no-follow links. But this is not always the case. Social bookmarking sites that can provide your business with valuable do-follow links include Digg, Diigo, and Scoop It.

4.      Targeted Traffic

Most business websites operate within a specific niche. When you operate within a niche, having masses of traffic from the four corners of the globe is not necessarily that useful. What is more useful is receiving targeted traffic from the specific demographic that you have a vested interest in. This is where engagement with social bookmarking can help. People who visit your website as a result of social bookmarking will actually be interested in what you have to say. This means that you are likely to gain loyal readers, you will improve your page views, and Google will look favorably upon your new found popularity within a niche.

5.      Boost Your Page Rank

The cumulative effect of the benefits listed above is that you will ultimately have an improved Page Rank. When Google is considering how to rank web pages and websites it takes into account incoming links from sites with impressive domain authorities, social signals spread out across various platforms, and engagement with a particular audience. By refocusing some of your SEO efforts on to social bookmarking you will find that your sites have improved rankings within Google, and that they also climb to the top of search results with greater speed.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/seo/social-bookmarking-affects-seo-0779411#!wIlHd

ScrapeDefender Launches Cloud-Based Anti-Scraping Solution To Protect Web Sites From Content Theft

ScrapeDefender launched today a new cloud-based anti-scraping monitoring solution that identifies and blocks suspicious activity to protect websites against content theft from mass scraping. The product provides triple protection levels against web scraping in the areas of vulnerability scanning, monitoring and security.

ScrapeDefender estimates that losses from web scraping content theft are close to $5 billion annually. According to a recent industry study, malicious non-human-based bot traffic now represents 30% of all website visits. Scrapers routinely target online marketplaces including financial, travel, media, real estate, and consumer-product arenas, stealing valuable information such as pricing and listing data.

ScrapeDefender stops website scraping by identifying and alerting site owners about suspicious activity in near real time. The monitoring system uses intrusion detection-based algorithms and patented technology to analyze network activity for both human and bot-like activity. It was designed from the ground up to work passively with web servers so that the underlying business is not impeded in any way. ScrapeDefender does not require any DNS changes or new hardware.

"Web scraping is growing at an alarming rate and if left unchecked, it is just a matter of time until all sites with useful content will be targeted by competitors harvesting data," said Robert Kane, CEO of ScrapeDefender. "We provide the only solution that scans, monitors and protects websites against suspicious scraping activity, in a way that isn't intrusive."

Irv Chasen, a board member at Bondview, the largest free provider of municipal bond data, said, "Our business is built on providing accurate municipal bond pricing data and related information to professional and retail investors. If competitors are scraping our information and then using it to gain an advantage, it creates a challenging business problem for us. With ScrapeDefender we can easily monitor and stop any suspicious scraping. Their support team made it easy for us to stay proactive and protect our website content."

ScrapeDefender is available as a 24 X 7 managed service or can be customer controlled. Customers are assigned a ScrapeDefender support staff member to help monitor network activity and alerts are automatically sent when suspicious activity is identified. Today's announcement extends ScrapeDefender's scanner, which was introduced in 2011 and remains the only anti-scraping assessment tool on the market that singles out web scraping vulnerabilities.

The ScrapeDefender Suite is available now at www.scrapedefender.com, starting at $79 per month for one domain.

About ScrapeDefender

ScrapeDefender was created by a team of computer security and web content experts with 20 years of experience working at leading organizations such as RSA Security, Goldman Sachs and Getty Images. Our web anti-scraping experts can secure your website to ensure that unauthorized content usage is identified and blocked.

Source: http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability/scrapedefender-launches-cloud-based-anti/240165737