In a ballsy move, AOL has released search data that — while absent the user’s login — contains a uniquely identifying id number. You can tell a lot about a person based on what their search habits:

The searches of AOL user No. 672368, for example, morphed over several weeks from “you’re pregnant he doesn’t want the baby” to “foods to eat when pregnant” to “abortion clinics charlotte nc” to “can christians be forgiven for abortion.”

Read about the different classes of internet users at Slate.

This entry was posted on 2006-8-12 at 21:34 and is filed under Computing, Human Nature, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.