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AOL Caves and Releases Keyword Search Data and Client Information to the Government.

AOL released the keyword search terms that more than 650,000 of its subscribers entered over a three-month period and admitted Monday that what it originally intended as a gesture to researchers amounted to a privacy breach and a mistake.

Although AOL urged that substituted numeric IDs for the subscribers' real user names, the company acknowledges that the keyword search queries themselves may contain personally identifiable data.

For example, many users type their names to locate their phone, credit card or Social Security numbers. A few days later, these same users may search for dry cleaners or restaurants in their neighborhoods, revealing their locations, or possibly search by keyword phrase for prescription drug prices, revealing their personal medical conditions. AOL admits the data that they released links all of the search data by user together in one numeric user ID.

AOL apologized for the keyword search history disclosure last week.

"This was a screw up, and we're angry and upset about it," said an AOL spokesman. "It was an innocent attempt to help the academic community with new keyword research tools, but it was obviously not appropriately vetted, and if it had been, it would have been stopped."

The recent disclosure by AOL comes as the Time Warner Inc. unit tries to increase search advertising revenues, usage of AOL keyword search services and other free, ad-supported features to offset a decline in subscriptions, a drop likely to accelerate with its recent decision to give away free AOL.com e-mail accounts and software.

AOL also announced it will lay off 5,000 employees by October 2006 as the company continues to spiral out of control.

AOL ranks fourth in search, behind Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft's MSN according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Although AOL does recieve keyword search fill results and small keyword search ad subsidies from Google, which now owns 5 percent of AOL, is still trying to get users to search directly on AOL sites in hopes of distracting them with an ad-supported video or two.

Industry executives are now pleading with Google and other major search engines to release keyword search history and data per user.

AOL search released data and information on what keyword search phrases were used, when the search was conducted and which results page link was clicked by user.

AOL released 19 million keyword search queries from 660,000 AOL subscribers from March 1 to May 31, 2006. The keyword search data only included searches conducted in the United States by AOL monthly subscribers.

AOL, like other search engines, does make historical keyword search data by user available to law-enforcement authorities with subpoenas. AOL complied with a Justice Department request for keyword search queries to revive a law meant to shield children from online pornography and collected a fee upon release of the information.

Google, on the other hand, fought the subpoena, and a judge ultimately ruled that Google did not have to turn over specific keyword search requests.

*Will Google Sue AOL for this most recent profit driven error in judgement?.

A display in the lobby of Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., continually scrolls some of the keyword searches being conducted through its site. The Google keyword search data can only be viewed only by people physically in Google's offices, and multiple keyword searches by the same user are not linked.

*Will AOL subscribers sue AOL for this error in judgement?