Data mining for the corporate masses?

For several years, proponents have touted data mining as a powerful tool for finding patterns hidden in large databases. They promise many benefits, such as increased revenues for companies that use the technology to fine tune their marketing by digging out customers' buying patterns from mountains of sales data. Until recently, however, data mining has been a complex, expensive, somewhat limited tool adopted primarily by large companies. This pattern may be changing, though, because of new techniques and technologies. The paper considers several key data mining trends that have emerged and discusses standards for various aspects of data mining.