Web mining is an exciting discipline in the domain of data mining as well as in classification/clustering. Identifying the usage patterns of users is very important in utilizing the vast information available in the World Wide Web. Web usage mining entails identifying usage pattern and has many practical applications. It focuses on techniques that have the potential to predict user behavior while the user interacts with the Web. This paper is to provide a general view on web usage mining and its importance for designers and those interested in e-commerce and website personalization.