Purpose: This study is an attempt to develop an automatic identification method for Arabic web queries and divide them into several query types using data mining. In addition, it seeks to evaluate the impact of the academic environment on using the internet. Design/methodology/approach: The web log files were collected from one of the higher institute's servers over a one-month period. A special program was designed and implemented to extract web search queries from these files and also to automatically classify Arabic queries into three query types (i.e. Navigational, Transactional, and Informational queries) based on predefined specifications for each type. Findings: The results indicate that students are slowly and gradually using the internet for more relevant academic purposes. Tests showed that it is possible to automatically classify Arabic queries based on query terms, with 80.6 per cent to 80.2 per cent accuracy for the two phases of the test respectively. In their future strategies, Jordanian universities should apply methods to encourage university students to use the internet for academic purposes. Web search engines in general and Arabic search engines in particular may benefit from the proposed classification method in order to improve the effectiveness and relevancy of their results in accordance with users' needs. Originality/value: Studying internet web logs has been the subject of many papers. However, the particular domain, and the specific focuses on this research are what can distinguish it from the others. (Contains 9 figures and 22 tables.)