Wikipedia defines screen scraping as a "...computerized parsing of the HTML text in web pages. In all cases, the screen scraper has to be programmed to not only process the text data of interest, but also to recognize and discard unwanted data, images, and display formatting."

The first thing that came to mind during our class discussion of screen scraping was -- what does the web master get in return for someone using his or her data in an unauthorized way?  The harsh answer is nothing.  Screen scraping allows the "scraper" to pull whatever information he or she wants from any particular web site and use that information however he or she pleases.  Furthermore, it allows the scraper to use the information in a way which it was never intended to be used.

That's not so bad, right?  The author posted that information on the internet so it should be fair game to all.  Well, most web sites have more in mind than providing information to all its users.  Sure the main goal of most web sites is to provide the "best", "correct", or "most up-to-date" information available, but the truth is, they're all in it for the money.  All those banner ads, annoying sound ads, click here to meet whoever ads are huge revenue earners for web sites that get a fair amount of traffic.

I own a fair share of web site and have advertising on most of them.  It's in my best interest for the users of my site to visit my advertisers or better yet buy something from them under my referral id.  If someone is screen scraping my information and posting it to a different web site, they're ultimately stealing all my information I either gathered myself or paid someone to gather for me.  The user of that new site could be making money off his or her own ads and I could be losing out on what could of been ad revenue.

To make matters worse, a huge part of driving large amounts of traffic to a web site is premium placement on Google.  One of the only ways to achieve this, is to have "original" content.  For all web sites that copy information from other sites, the almighty Google knows this, and places those web sites in a "supplemental index".  If a web site is placed in that index, there's a good chance that site won't recieve any traffic through search engines.

Ultimately, even though many things on the internet may seem "unfair", I think it just makes everything fair game.  If someone wants to screen scrape my site, I have to design it in a way which they are unable.  It's all in the back and forth battle of making money online.  Game on.

As a week has already passed since our first class, I figured it was time to write my first blog post.  On choosing a relevant topic to write on, I decided blogging would fit well because, judging from the responses given in class, most people have never kept their own web log.

I've been blogging for over four years and now have an extensive list of blogs I regularly read for everything ranging from news stories to pop culture to various hobbies such as golfing or playing guitar.  I currently have a few blogs that I update on occasion, but haven't found time to update them recently.  My favorite blog is definitely my site VidFad.com which deals with anything movie related.  I'm a movie geek.  I work at a movie theater. Nuf said.

The best way to read a large list of blogs in a short amount of time is, as professor Haines discussed in class, is to use an RSS reader.  RSS, otherwise known as Really Simple Syndication, is a tool which allows a reader to read the blog's content without actually visiting the blog.  All the blog reader has to do is subscribe to the RSS feed though a site such as bloglines.com and then begin reading his or her favorite blogs.

When subscribing to a blog, it allows the reader to read the content on topics he or she is actually interested in rather than sifting through article after article on a site such as the New York Times.

Blogs, in my opinion, are the best source for finding information on pretty much any topic.  According to Wikipedia.com, as of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.  In other words, there's plenty of information out there waiting to be found.

Ultimately, when writing a blog, it's yours.  Change the theme.  Post some pictures.  Make it unique.  However, always write about topics that interest you.  People can tell when you're uninterested in a certain topic, and that's the best way to lose readers.