A Classification of Techniques for Web Usage Analysis

Techniques which assist in recognizing various access patterns and interests of the Web users are normally referred to as an application of Web usage mining. The application provides useful insights to address crucial points such as user interests into a particular page, server load balancing, Web site reorganization, clustering of similar browsing patterns, classification of user profiles, content caching or data distribution and replication. In this study, we provide an updated focused survey of major aspects and problems related to the task of modeling the user behavior. We also point out some recent advancement in areas related to automatic Web navigation and implicit capturing of user interests in regard to a particular page. Main future directions are also outlined in the conclusion.