WARCProcessor: An Integrative Tool for Building and Management of Web Spam Corpora

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Information Science
• Cybersecurity

Background:

• Web spam research requires large, well-curated datasets for effective experimentation.
• Existing methods for corpus creation are often manual, time-consuming, and prone to errors.
• There is a need for automated tools to streamline the generation of scientific datasets for web spam analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement WARCProcessor, a novel multiplatform tool for building scientific datasets.
• To facilitate experimentation in web spam research by providing an efficient corpus generation method.
• To reduce repetitive and error-prone tasks associated with web spam corpus maintenance.

Main Methods:

• Developed WARCProcessor as a multiplatform integrative tool.
• Integrated support for up to six common data sources for web spam research.
• Implemented features for automatic and concurrent website downloading with configurable crawling depth and redirect handling.
• Enabled output storage in standard WARC format with complementary metadata files.
• Provided both an interactive GUI and a command-line interface.

Main Results:

• WARCProcessor successfully automates the creation of scientific datasets for web spam research.
• The tool supports multiple data sources and standard WARC format output.
• Users can configure crawling parameters, including depth and redirect behavior.
• The application reduces manual effort and enhances the efficiency of corpus generation and maintenance.

Conclusions:

• WARCProcessor is an effective solution for building scientific datasets in web spam research.
• The tool's multiplatform nature and automation capabilities enhance experimental reproducibility and efficiency.
• WARCProcessor facilitates the development of more robust web spam detection and mitigation strategies.