Someone has set up a Splunk server for the the massive query database that AOL foolishly released to the public a few days ago.
Even though users' screennames have been replaced by unique ID numbers to hide their identity, you can learn a lot about the person from their searches, and maybe even find out who they are.
Look what Declan McCullough learned about AOL user 2708:
Whoever wrote that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned had clearly never experienced the Internet. For a three-month period, AOL user 2708, apparently a resident of the greater Boston area, was searching for little else.
Her search terms suggest that she signed up her ex-boyfriend for Columbia House CDs, articles on "gay life," and Christian literature–while shopping for women's Harley Davidson boots. User 2708's ex apparently lives in New Hampshire:
- revenge tactics
- the woman's book of revenge
- dirty tricks for chicks
- voice changer
- how to humiliate someone
- bill me pay later for cd's
- scams to play on people
- how to get revenge on an old lover
- i hate my ex boyfriend
- how to really make someone hurt for the pain they caused to someone else
- columbia house
- advice from women who have seeked revenge on old lovers
- makehimsuffer.com
- how to say goodbye hurtfully
- how to report child neglect in the state of new hampshire
- free articles on gay life that can be mailed to me
- free christian things
- free gay magazines
- free angry stuff to send to an ex lover
- how to permanently delete information from your hard drive
- makehimpay.net
- women's harley davidson boots
- www.match.com
- the worst thing to send someone via email
- thong dancewear
- locatecell.com
- what can i do to an old lover for revenge
- mean revenge tactics
- death records in hampstead new hampshire
If you search on "2708" you can sort of piece together this person's unfortunate life story during the last several months.
Reader comments:
Paul Boutin says:
To see all of anyone AOL user's searches in the Splunk index, click on the AOL-assigned ID number at the very start of the entry. Splunk returns all matching searches, sorted in reverse chronological order.
To plot search results, click "Show Events by Time."
The typeahead in the search box is fun, too. You can see that 622 searches for "boingboing" are in the index.
Kevin says:
Heres a New York times article detailing an AOL user that was tracked down by reporters after AOL released 3 months of search engine data by 657,000 users assinged "anonymous" numbers. It makes me feel good they found a nice old lady at the end of it all. I guess they steered clear of tracking down the guy searching for various types of pornography over and over — would not have made such a heart warming piece. I think we all knew this process was / is possible, but its nice to be reminded.
