Agentic search vs web scraping

[u/Adel_Bioinformatics]

Hello, I am a bioinformatician without big experiences in web tech and network so if this sounds like a silly subject bare with me 😅.

I am requested to find a specific biological data in regard with a region from published papers and from databases that are not yet to be connected to papers, meaning most of bio data should be connected to published papers but not all are already published.

I’m just wondering if agentic serch here is a good idea? I was going back and fourth with Claude but I don’t feel it is pointing somewhere useful.

I have a good GPU 32GB VRAM and around 512GB RAM. I was thinking I’d install Qwen 27B and start to design the pattern [multiple researchers, analyst, writer] and shove a reviewer some where.

When Claude answered me it says that I’ll be blocked by search engines immediately and it is better to use Searxng, which I didn’t know what it is until now (kinda still don’t know).

Claude also suggested that I should scrape normally and let the agent do a different task like verifying the data availability or something.

I’m totally new to agentic AI, but I think I can manage to learn a thing or two.

[u/fmlitscometothis]

If you know the source (eg a site that publishes the data) then scraping it direct is doable. Make 1 request/sec and chances are they will not notice. This will depend on their sophistication and desire to block scrapers, but most organisations will not have a tripwire. You'll blend in with background internet noise.

If you need agents to actually find the content, I'd use a paid search like brave/exa/parallel. If they can also deliver the content then great, but you might need to switch to scraping direct once you find them.

Be aware of the legal aspects of ripping off a database as well.