ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we continue with the discussion of the supporting technologies for Web mining. In particular, we discuss data mining, one of the key supporting technologies for Web mining. The increasing number of databases on the Web must be mined to extract useful information. Data mining is the process of posing various queries and extracting useful information, patterns, and trends (oftentimes previously unknown) from large quantities of data possibly stored in databases. Essentially, for many organizations, the goals of data mining include improving marketing capabilities, detecting abnormal patterns, and predicting the future based on past experiences and current trends. There is clearly a need for this technology. There are large amounts of current and historical data being stored. Therefore, as databases become larger, it becomes increasingly difficult to support decision making. In addition, the data could be from multiple sources and multiple domains. There is a clear need to analyze the data to support planning and other functions of an enterprise.
