AOL Search Data Web Interfaces

Well it didn't take long for the published AOL search data to get a web interface. In fact, there have been many appearing in the past 24 hrs. The following is a short list that is sure to be obsolete upon posting:

1. http://www.aolsearchdatabase.com/
2. http://aol.6brand.com/
3. http://aoldb.unwieldy.net/
4. http://dontdelete.com/
5. http://aol.yogurtrat.com/
6. http://data.aolsearchlogs.com/search/index.cgi
7. http://websearchdata.com/

After playing with the various interfaces, it seems like everyone is taking a first-order approach to the data: searching for a specific term, a specific userid or a combo of userid and term. With this people are playing the "find the scary AOL user" game by manual review, but I expect the next iteration to match terms across searches by the same ID (not an already known, named ID -- just the same ID). That's where noteworthy patterns will become apparent.

As shared by many in TechCrunch comments, there is definitely some bad karma coming from outing specific AOL users -- particularly by name. This unexpected data dump really tests one's restraint and the balance between geeky snooping and respecting privacy.