Skip to main content

TechCrunch and the AOL Search Data

Paul Kedrosky pointed us to some sites that allow you to search through the AOL search data that was recently posted. One of his comments also suggested AOLSearchLogs.com. So, I thought, "What does the AOL user base think about TechCrunch?"

I am a big fan of the work that Mike Arrington and the TechCrunch team are doing. It is a must-read blog for my business (I do early-stage startup executive coaching and investing). TechCrunch clearly has the buzz in the high-tech and startup world of Silicon Valley. Does the rest of the nation care? Let's go to the data.

Searching through aolsearchlogs.com for "techcrunch", we get 2 search hits out of the 20 million partially anonymized search queries, which represented about 650,000 AOL users. The searches for techcrunch were done on May 1, 2006.

The 2 search hits came from a single user, number 5887757. Aha! Let's see what the sole AOL TechCrunch lover is also searching for in life. Is he/she a Mac user or a PC user? Does he/she write software or is a part of the Open Source movement? What if he/she is a Venture Capitalist? Hmm. (Perhaps I have too much time on my hands).

Of the 114 searches that user 5887757 has made, we see searches such as:

  • aesop

  • arudd

  • rudda

  • flamingo casino hotel las vegas

  • cheap las vegas trips

  • rochester mayo clinic.com

  • mayo.com

  • magnetic bracelet

  • wcco

  • kare11

  • mn care

  • magnetic wrist bracelet

  • galaxy golf

  • gm card

  • americanexpress

  • xmnavtraffic

  • zillow

  • minnesota toy poodle breeders

  • costco

  • san antonio real estate

  • dellweb.com

  • starbucks

  • usbank

  • weather san antonio

  • americanindianjewelry

  • paying my gm card bill

  • startribune

  • where are they jr. rider

  • organizing hard drive

  • clean hard drive


Cross-referencing that list with the articles posted on TechCrunch yields... Zillow! But, the Zillow search was done on April 16, 2006, well before the TechCrunch search of May 1, 2006. Likely not related.

Oh well, such is the life of a loyal TechCrunch reader out there in Middle America. Now we all know. Thanks AOL.

Tags: , , ,

Comments

  1. There's a website to analyze and duscuss particular AOL users: http://aol.zanoza.lv/

    "My neighbour is killing cats": http://aol.zanoza.lv/user/723190
    "ways to kill yourself": http://aol.zanoza.lv/user/9486162
    "wife killer": http://aol.zanoza.lv/user/17556639

    A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749: http://aol.zanoza.lv/user/4417749

    ReplyDelete
  2. Max,

    I don't agree with building an ad-sponsored website around exploiting information that should have been kept private. I allowed your comment because it shows what can happen when companies abuse our trust in their contract with us to keep our information private. Once this stuff is let out - it's out forever. The AOL debacle was an important lesson for us all. I only hope that Google and the others will take extreme notice.

    -Brian

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that exploring AOL data is OK in case one tries to gather statistical data, instead of personal data. This set of user queries is an unique chance to get deep understanding of what people try to find and how they do it.

    My blog http://blog.aolgeek.com will provide generalized reports of many types, like the list of unique word, misspelled words and the like.

    Do you think its unethical?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bill Coleman Joins 3tera Advisory Board

I think this move surprised a number of people, since Bill recently wrapped up Cassatt Corproation, getting the technology and people  acquired by Computer Associates . However, I was not surprised at all. The announcement, via  3tera Welcomes Bill Coleman : You may or may not have seen the recent press realease.  Bill Coleman, IT/Silicon Valley luminary, Founder and CEO of BEA Systems, has joined 3Tera’s Advisory Board. Yes, this alone is a great testimonial to what we have accomplished in our field.  Getting dignitaries such as Bill does not come easy.  But here’s the best part - this has a lot more than just marquee value and I doubt that Bill would have joined us if that was the case.  Bill, especially since his most recent stint as Founder and CEO of Cassatt Systems, is an extremely knowledgeable visionary in the area of utility and Cloud Computing; and, data center automation. So, Bill will be extremely valuable, reviewing and tweaking both our business plans and techno

Big In Japan Open Sources Their Ruby On Rails Tools

The kind folks over at Big In Japan have graciously decided to Open Source the code they used to build their demo web sites . It's all Ruby on Rails code, and it's being released with a GPL license. The code trees being made available include: elfURL ~ URL Shortner FeedVault ~ OPML file storage FrankenFeed ~ RSS feed merger InstantFeed ~ RSS feeds via email QwikPing ~ Ping Server SocialMail ~ RSS via email Very cool. I just love the Open Source community . I have actually been writing some code of late, and it's great to have some reference code to check out. Not sure if I'm going to go with Ruby on Rails yet, however. And, for the record. I have no idea if this is big in Japan. Tags: Open Source , GPL , Ruby On Rails , Big In Japan , Brian Berliner , brianberliner

CA Acquires 3Tera – It’s About Time!

I started tracking 3Tera in August 2005. They made some amazing progress with their AppLogic release in the next 12 months and things were really starting to look good, so I wrote my first article about them in September 2006 . A couple weeks later, ReadWriteWeb called them out as well . Time passed. 3Tera was early. The market was maturing. Keep pounding away at it… Meanwhile, Cassatt Corporation, the company I co-founded in April 2003 with Bill Coleman and Dave McAlister, sold its technology assets and people to Computer Associates in June 2009 . The Cassatt team was all over scalable “cloud” computing architectures and the management thereof. CA’s acquisition, combined with some of their other aggressive moves in this space (the similar acquisitions of NetQoS, Oblicore, Orchestria, Platinum Technology, and Netreon) made it clear that CA saw some white-space for them to expand into cloud management in a big way. Next, I reported how Bill Coleman joined up with 3Tera as