We propose a definition of generalized semi-inner products (g.s.i.p.). By relating them to duality mappings from a normed vector space to its dual space, a characterization for all g.s.i.p. satisfying this definition is obtained. We then study the Riesz representation of continuous linear functionals via g.s.i.p. As applications, we establish a representer theorem and characterization equation for the minimizer of a regularized learning from finite or infinite samples in Banach spaces of functions.