To attract media attention is one of the most vital needs for an organization, may it be positive or negative. And no one needs to teach AOL how to attract such an attention. AOL, the online giant which has to an extent lost its glory, now wants to get its glory back. So last week it tempted the users with 5GB of space, and this week arrives the news that AOL had published the search histories of more than 650,000 users. It is a pure attempt to get noticed, for this act of AOL is pure breach of privacy. One thing that they are attempting here is to get publicity and the other thing that are show casing is their Search Engine’s capability. Though AOL has apologised for its act and has removed the database, an act is an act. Already database have been mirrored, though the names of the people may not be known, yet it is possible for some inferences. Or was this an act of AOL to showcase to the world that “Look We Search Companies know what you are doing, So be careful about what you do?”.

CNET in its article has brought out some interesting observations of the search users, who are known only by their unique ID number. It is a mine of data, which may definitely be useful in identifying patterns and at times may help identify the misuse of Net, yet the act of AOL to showcase this is something that cannot be appreciated.