Information retrieval and machine learning: Supporting technologies for web mining research and practice

With the enormous increase in recent years in the volume of information available on-line, and the consequent need for better techniques to access this information, there has been a strong resurgence of interest in Web Mining research. This paper expounds how research in Machine Learning (ML) and Information Retrieval (IR) will help develop applications that can drive the next generation of Web search with the key to support relevant search results by effectively and efficiently digging out user- centric information. This study attempts to probe the role of these two web mining supporting technologies (ML & IR). It reviews the web mining systems from the perspective of the Information Retrieval and illustrates how machine learning is likely to make substantial gains in web mining research and practice by developing standards and improving effectiveness.