AOL search data leaked
August 24th, 2006
AOL publicly posted search terms from 650,000 AOL users last month. They posted the search log on a research site, and subsequently removed it due to a torrent of bloggers and forum posters linking to it. However by the time AOL realised what they had done there were already several mirror sites hosting the AOL search data.
AOL search Query sites have now emerged using the leaked AOL data for anyone to use. The actual usernames of the people whose searches were logged have been replaced by random id numbers to conceal their identity. This will come as a relief to this AOL user!
While the AOL data obviously raises privacy concerns, it can contain useful information for search engine marketers.
Which result page gets the most clicks?
The AOL data allows us to find out how many people visit more than one result page on AOL.
91.63% of the AOL users clicked on the results on the first result page. Only 4.49% clicked a result from the second result page, 2.19% clicked a result on the third result page and even less people looked beyond the first three result pages.
Which search result position gets the
most clicks?
The AOL data also allows us to find out which search result gets the most clicks. The following diagram shows the percentage of user clicks per search result position.
Being #1 on the search results is best by far. 47.16% of the users clicked on the first result. That means that the first position in the search results gets almost half of the traffic.
It this also true for Google and Yahoo?
The numbers are for AOL users. Google and Yahoo users might be from a different demographic group than AOL users and they might have different search behavior. AOL users are often less tech-savvy, when compared to Google users.
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