The Seven Types of Internet Searcher

Found this great article by Paul Boutin at slate.

"AOL researchers recently published the search logs of about 650,000 members—a total of 36,389,629 individual searches."

"AOL's search nerds intended the files to be an academic resource but didn't consider that users might be peeved to see their private queries become a research tool."

"Last weekend, the Internet service provider tried to pull back the data, but by that point it had leaked all over the Web. If you've ever wanted to see what other people type into search boxes, now's your chance."

He identifies seven typographies:

"The Pornhound. Big surprise, there are millions of searches for mind-bendingly kinky stuff."

"The Manhunter. The person who searches for other people."

"The Shopper......searches for 'coupon' are a lot more common."

"The Obsessive. The guy who searches for the same thing over and over and over."

"The Omnivore. Many users aren't obsessive—they're just online a lot."

"The Newbie. They just figured out how to turn on the computer."

"The Basket Case........queries like "i hate my job" and "why am i so ugly."

As with all these things, some people will be one thing one week, different the next. But assigning characteristics makes understanding their actions easier to imagine.