Insights into search through AOL/Google database

By: Jonathan Briggs

September 1, 2006

It has been big news over the last few days in the technology papers. The Guardian reported that Analysis of online search habits reveals that the first result - often a Wikipedia page - is by far the most popular. This and other findings have been exposed by studying a database of search queries leaked by AOL (powered by Google).

Although the database has been withdrawn over privacy concerns it is easily accessible online and provides all sorts of insights into the search behaviour of nearly half a million users over a 3 month period.

Unlike other records this one allows all of the queries from individual users to be explored. This means that we can watch people struggling (or not) to find the information they are looking for or the product they need.

Perhaps the most interesting observation is the diversity of things being searched for and the myriad of ways in which queries are expressed. We can see this too from examination of the internal searches we run for our clients. By analyzing this sort of data we can appreciate the huge number of different motivations that help people to find a site.

This sort of thinking has a major impact on how we build, change and manage client sites. Through customer insight we will design directly for the visitor rather than on what we or the client imagines they want. It will help us plan search engine optimisation and pay-per-click campaigns too.