Mining client-side activity for personalization

"Garbage in. garbage out" is a well-known phrase in computer analysis, and one that comes to mind when mining Web data to draw conclusions about Web users. The challenge is that data analysts wish to infer patterns of client-side behavior from server-side data. However, because only a fraction of the user's actions ever reach the Web server, analysts must rely on incomplete data. In this paper, we propose a client-side monitoring system that is unobtrusive and supports flexible data collection. Moreover, the proposed framework encompasses client-side applications beyond the Web browser. Expanding monitoring beyond the browser to incorporate standard office productivity tools enables analysts to derive a much richer and more accurate picture of user behavior on the Web.