Web Data Mining

Data mining is the process of using certain algorithms, software and tools to retrieve, collect, analyze and report information (known as predictive analysis) from a huge pool of data. Data mining is extremely useful these days where information is abundantly available. The information obtained by data mining is used for several applications for decision-making relating to direct marketing, e-commerce, customer relationship management, healthcare, oil and gas industry, scientific tests, genetics, telecommunications, financial services and utilities.

Web data mining is the process of automated extraction of data from the World Wide Web. The internet has extensive data about everything that can be used effectively for making intelligent decisions. However, retrieving as well as sifting through such huge databases is an arduous task. Hence, there are certain data mining tools that help to make this easier. The tools can pick out relevant data and interpret it as per requirements.

There are many kinds of Web data mining: standard mining, data verification and custom mining. Web data mining products can perform a very wide range of functions, including: search engine optimization and website promotion, multiple transformations and modular marketing indicators for CRM, web log reporting, tracking visitor patterns of websites, calculating visitor conversion ratios, reporting online customer behavior, analyzing click-throughs, providing real time log analysis of campaign tracking, click paths, geographic pinpointing, keywords by search engine, web visitor analysis reports, content analysis, extract web events like campaign results, web traffic, etc.

There are several commercially available Web data mining and web usage mining software applications available. Some of them are: AlterWind Log Analyzer Professional, Amadea Web Mining, ANGOSS KnowledgeWebMiner, Azure Web Log analyzer, Blue Martini Customer Interaction System\'s Micro Marketing module, ClickTracks, ConversionTrack from Antssoft, Datanautics, (formerly Accrue), eNuggets, (real-time middleware), LiveStats from DeepMetrix, Megaputer WebAnalyst, MicroStrategy Web Traffic Analysis Module, NetGenesis Web Analytics, NetTracker family, Nihuo Web Log Analyzer, prudsys ECOMMINER, SAS Webhound, SPSS Web Mining for Clementine, WebLog Expert 2.0 for Windows, WebTrends, a suite for Data Mining of web traffic information, XAffinity(TM), XML Miner, 123LogAnalyzer. There are also free versions of web Data Mining software such as: AlterWind Log Analyzer Lite, Analog (from Dr. Stephen Turner), Visitator and WUM (Web Utilization Miner).