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When (Not) to Use WebGrabber
As explained previously, WebGrabber is a special type of Web file copier; it is designed to copy only a specified collection of web files that share a common topic.
Do not use WebGrabber:
- For downloading a very large file: Webgrabber does not provide any additional functions for that purpose, use a download manager software. If you lose the Internet connection, you have to re-import it again as you would for your regular Web browser. WebGrabber is optimized for copying many files of medium to small size (1 Mb or less each) not for a very large file.
- For downloading the whole Web site (or a sub-directory of the site), there are better applications. They are known as Web site mirroring or web site copier software. Examples: the HTTrack Web site Copier:
- For copying one or two web pages, use your Internet browser, it is faster.
- For any illegal purpose
Do use WebGrabber:
- For downloading a sub-set of web pages and files, that are interesting to you, from a web site with their hyperlinks working between them.
- For downloading a collection of interrelated web pages coming from various web sites, sharing a common topic and referencing each other through their hyperlinks.
- For downloading a collection of interrelated web pages from a web site that are dynamic-created and/or coming from databases.
Personally, I use WebGrabber to collect information about specific products (ex. Application software) so that I can view the information locally (for faster viewing) and do comparison between the advertised products. Before downloading a software and installing it, I want to know about its license (ex. Does it have restrictions that I cannot cope with), the corporate policies (ex. Privacy policies, support, etc), information about the company (ex. Its history, its mandate, its location, its managers/developers) and I want to get review articles and user opinions. I want to know about the application requirements, its function set (ex. Does it fulfill my needs, or my company needs), its documentation, its cost and availability, etc. From analysis of such collected information, I decide which product to download, or buy or try. I can present this collection and my analysis to my boss to justify the purchase of a specific application. No other web site copier software can do that easily.
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