Analysis of Web Usage Patterns in Consideration of Various Contextual Factors

It is important to analyze user's Web usage logs for developing personalized Web services. However, there are several inherent difficulties in analyzing usage logs because the kinds of available logs are very limited and the logs show uncertain patterns due to the influences of various contextual factors. Therefore, speculating that it is necessary to find what contextual factors exert influences on the usage logs prior to designing personalized services, we conducted several experiments in-series not only in situations of performing designed tasks during short time periods but also in users' natural Web environments during a period of several days. From the results of our experiments, we found that interest levels, credibility levels, page types, task types, and languages are influential contextual factors in a natural Web environment. Moreover, some historical and experiential patterns that could not be observed in short time analysis were discovered in the results of long time analysis. These findings will be useful for other researchers, practitioners, and especially for developers of adaptive personalization services.

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