Estimated reading time: 8 minutes.
Not a long time ago, I came across Browse AI, the “one-click” web scraping and monitoring tool.
Since I suffer from FOMO malaise, I try to read almost everything that comes to me about AI, no-code, technology, product, and unfortunately Ukrainian war more recently.
News and newsletters flood my email inbox every day.
Meanwhile, I am a solo-entrepreneur struggling to give birth to my digital project with all the known implications. In particular, I don’t have hours enough for “all that has to be done”
In consequence, I have to prioritize my reading list, what I look into and analyze in more detail and what I discard at a glance.
So, no wonders if I miss the Product Hunt of the day called to become the next unicorn!
Hence, it seems like destiny that a tool like Browse AI caught my eye. Or it was just because I am data-driven biased. Whatever, it rang a bell, and decided to give it a try.
The history
Browse AI is a tool to make the most of your time. The founder, Ardy Naghshineh, was tired of collecting web information project after project, like many of us, and decided to build a tool to save you hours.
No code tool
It is an application for the general public. Almost anyone with a PC and an Internet connection can use it. No coding background is needed!
Next-generation
A robot tracks your movements around the web, literally, and learns the data you need. The future is now.
A machine looking at you may sound creepy, the founders claim special care to data security and encryption. Especially when you access a website where sign-in personal information is required.
Sidenote: I would like to investigate further more about this. I live in Europe and regulators are especially picky when it comes to personal data treatment.
Easy to start
It is a freemium service. You can start for free and upgrade at any time.
All the details are available on the product website.
The first steps
- Sign up and log in to the service
- Install the Brose AI extension in the Chrome navigator
- Enable the incognito mode navigation
- Select the task: extract structure data or monitor site changes. And if you are a newbie, watch the quick demo video
- Introduce the website URL to scrape and click “Record New Task”
- The robot (let’s call him Browsy) will appear at the top right side of your screen although there is an option to move wherever you want. It is funny how Browsy while you move through the web.
- Go to the web list you want to gather information from, click the Open recorder menu in the robot, capture the list, and follow the instructions:
- Select the text, the URL, or images of your interest and click ‘Enter’.
- Name the items (only English available)
- If everything is ok, name the capture list and click “Capture list”
- Click Browsy again and “Finish recording” to end the web scraping task customization.
- The Browse AI dashboard will pop up to review, save and start working with the task.
The use
You have different options:
- Export to a .csv file.
- Synchronize with Google sheets.
- Generate a monitoring task.
- Create an API for other tools access.
- Integrate into an automatization task flow. Currently, only Zapier is available but Make (former Integromat) is planned for 2022 Q2.
Final remarks
I have tested Browse AI with different blogs, companies lists, and marketplaces. I didn’t try the main social networks links since they are available only from the “Starter option” onwards and I have subscribed to the free mode.
In short, most of the URLs have worked except for Airbnb. Fortunately, the support team is welcoming and answers quickly. Therefore, I stop here because I want to contact them.
In short
Browse AI is a “one-click” web data extractor and monitoring tool.
A robot tracks your movements on the website and records the selected data in a structured table for further use.
However, it is taking its first steps and an interesting roadmap is ahead, such as the integration with other best-in-class automation tools (Airtable and Make), better performance while recording tasks, or other languages availability.
Good luck with your journey!
