The Web retailer example we used in this chapter is illustrative of any business
with a significant Web presence. Besides building the clickstream data mart,
the central challenge is to integrate the clickstream data effectively into the rest
of the business. In this chapter the key concepts included:
The challenge of identifying the Web visitor’s origin.
In some cases we can
look backward through the referral information in the Web log, but in
many other cases this information is not supplied.
The challenge of identifying a complete session.
HTTP sessions are stateless.
The use of cookies is the best mechanism for defining a session, bearing in
mind that we cannot explain all the time intervals between page requests.
The challenge of identifying the Web visitor.
Even with a cookie, we cannot
be sure who the individual is at the other end.