1. A system for collecting and processing data over a communications network, comprising: a plurality of plugins, each configured to retrieve unstructured data from a data source over said communications network and to convert said unstructured data to structured data; and a data mining marshaller (DMM) module for associating each said plugin to said data source, associating a plurality of data items to be monitored on behalf of a plurality of users to said data source, managing said each plugin to periodically retrieve said unstructured data from said data source based on said plurality of data items to be monitored on behalf of said plurality of users; and storing said structured data received from said each plugin in a database.