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What is Data Mining?
Home » Enterprise Software » Data Mining » What is Data Mining?In simplest terms, data mining is the searching through large quantities of data, looking for recurring patterns. Those patterns can be a name, date, numeric code, or random set of numbers, letters, or symbols. Computers are able to quickly bypass data that does not match the search criteria while making records of any matches that are found.
The medical community uses a form of data mining when performing research. Legal firms use another form when searching for cases or case law which includes a certain word, name, or phrase. Internet search engines perform a similar function. However, the largest use of data mining is used to gather and extract purchasing information about groups of people, and individuals in particular.
In advertising terms, data mining is used to help focus and target advertising to particular groups and individuals. If you’ve ever registered for a web site or online newsletter that asked you choose several from among a group of possible advertisers, that’s data mining in the most direct sense. But when you shop for, and purchase anything at all, from groceries to electronics, your purchase is logged and you will begin receiving advertisements by email for similar items. Data mining is perhaps the best argument for a good spamware program.
There are also forms of data mining that have a positive outcome. When a physician is able to diagnose an illness more quickly and accurately because of a database of symptoms and possible clues, data mining helped make that possible. When a research assistant notices a recurring set of events through the use of data mining for patterns in lab mice, data mining helped make that discovery possible as well.
For many of us, the amount of personal information that is available about us leaves us feeling as though we live in a glass house with no way to draw the blinds.
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