Joe Hayes {dot} Org

AOL rrecently eleased search data gathered from 650,000 of their customers, causing an uproar about privacy concerns and dazzling webmasters. The 20 million search queries, listed with an anonymous number correlating to which user made the search, if and what result they clicked on, and what rank that result was on the page, were made available yesterday and then taken down a few hours later. Too late though, as dozens of mirrors have popped up hosting downloads of this huge 500ish MB file.

This gives search engine marketers (SEM’s) information they can use for pay per click (PPC) marketing, as well as hackers something to salivate over also. Hackers? Yea, apparently with some clever use of the data folks have been able to uncover sensitive personal information – since people often search for their own names, their own credit card and social security numbers, and any number of personal and embarrassing things, all connected by their “anonymous” user number.

Big brother is happy as well, I’m sure, since the Federal government was unsuccessfull getting search queries out of Google (which by the way, AOL search is powered by Google).

Oftentimes the search results are much more unsettling than just the potential for identity theft, including someone who repeatedly searched about ways to kill his wife, amongst other things. Many questions are raised about privacy and whether or not someone who searches for “how to kill your wife” should be tracked by the police.

In my opinion, this is another nail in the coffin for AOL. Ever since dial-up went the way of the dinosoars, they’ve been struggling to maintain their market share. Shaking up consumer confidence like this is not likely help much either.