In a similar vein, several neural network tools have been customized. Customer Insight Co., for instance, has built an interface to link its Analytix marketing software with HNC Software's neural network-based Database Mining Workstation, creating a marketing DM hybrid. The need for DM tools is growing as fast as data stores swell. The day is probably not too far off when intelligent agent technology will be harnessed for the mining of vast public on-line sources, traversing the Internet, searching for information, and presenting it to the human user. Meanwhile, the gold rush is on.
Data mining finds useful nuggets of information in existing data sources.
Sara Reese Hedberg is a freelance writer who lives in Issaquah, Washington. She has written extensively about emerging computer technologies.