Web Clipper use cases

[Tom_Heys]

I like this new block, but I’m not sure I really understand how it’s best used. My observations/questions are:

1. It seems like the CSS Selector feature is only usable for pages that have the same format (a la the Twitter profile clipper in this forum). Is that accurate?
2. It seems like the web clips are manual one-time events, meaning that you would have to go the website again to update your table with any new data? Is that correct?

Thanks!
Tom

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

1. I think so…
2. It ‘just’ get the content to the base, not creates a connection to update in real time.

[Bill_French]

Tom_Heys:

It seems like the web clips are manual one-time events

Yes, that pretty much sums it up.

Web clipping tools have been around for a long time and while this is a really nice addition to the Airtable stable, it has a number of constraints. The human factor is critical in this tool because the art of web clipping is not something that is easily automated. It’s why business intelligence tools such as Radian charge so much to extract data from the web using advance AI algorithms.

But if you use web clipping for what it’s good at - ad-hoc transformations of web-based content into useful data - then you’ll be thrilled.

Opinion from here down…

The announcement of this new tool bothers me a little because there is a backlog of key requirements (as opposed to simply nice-to-have “features”) that remain unaddressed in this forum. I like the enthusiasm demonstrated by the web clipper tool, but I often wonder - why focus on the web clipper when there are so many opportunities to raise the bar and eliminate some of the show stoppers?

Just sayin’ …

[Jean-Philippe_E]

Hello,
I was using the (great) “not official” extension to save bookmarks of article/news to build an RSS for a weekly MailChimp newsletter

The WebClipper is cool because I don’t have to update fields but there is some of anoying limitations:

1. On Windows/Desktop/Chrome the tags are blurry
2. I can’t build “on the fly” new tags
3. I can’t set default values
4. I can’t capture the abstract of the Article (or may be using a CSS selector ?)

I think I’ll give it a try for LinkedIn as a CRM but not sure if it can work on a list or results

[Jorge_Araluce]

Hi JP … Did you manage to use the web clipper as a CRM with the Linkedin.com page ?

[Fabio_Fonseca]

Hey Jean! Were you able to capture the date of the article? And what about the abstract, any news on how to get them into airtable?

[Jean-Philippe_E]

Well no, I still use the unnoficial extension :frowning:
And the Clipper do not allow to create tags on the fly (same limitation in the unnofical) :frowning:

[Oscar_Mastrober]

Hi @Jean-Philippe_Encaus and @Jorge_Araluce . In case you haven’t crossed path with this post, , I suggest to check it out.

It helped me to add LinkedIn users to my AirTable Recruiting Candidates’ base.
Best
Oscar

[Chintan_Savali1]

Hi, @Oscar_Mastroberti Does markdown content get added correctly? I am using it for collecting linkedin jobs, but the description is not getting added correctly.

[Jenna_Moakley]

You would have to use markdown formatting to make it work and you’ll also have to enable the long field advanced options to use rich formatting as well.