Practical Web Data Extraction: Are We There Yet? - A Short Survey

The number of web documents as well as the inherent data and information is growing at a rapid pace. The interest in extracting and utilizing this data is rising likewise. The prospects that are unlocked by Web Data Extraction to its users are as broad as the extensiveness of topics and fields on the Web. The major obstacle is to utilize the available data, contents and processes. Several, mostly older survey papers have already shown developments and approaches to solve Web Data Extraction tasks, but there is a need for a more up-to-date review, showing the latest developments. Additionally when looking from the user perspective, there is still a gap between research results and practical applicability. Available solutions, including research results, commercial products and open source solutions lack certain capabilities or suffer from severe usability issues. This paper therefore gives a short review of the state of the art in Web Data Extraction and relates this to the practical application of these technologies.