For some reason AOL Research Labs thought it would be a great idea to release a 2 gig file containing search records from their users and simply replace names with unique number strings. They did this on purpose hoping to increase brand awareness of AOL and get their name on research papers. Yep, you read that right, they did this on purpose.

After a few days someone higher up in managment saw it, realized how stupid it was, and took the site down but not before it became mirrored all over the place.

The information given out by AOL easily allow a savvy internet detective to discover the identity of the search users since they do not filter out personal name searches, address lookups, or anything else at all. A user at Digg quickly found information on one searcher that indicates he's both a teacher and a pedophile. Paradigm Shift has found a guy who keeps searching up ways to kill his wife. And, of course, the goons over at Something Awful are finding all the good stuff.

So AOL users you can rest easy now that the search for "Nazi woman porn" you made last April is finally available for the world to see.

Update: AOL has put out a statement about the incident that reads, "Doh, sorry about that, we're idiots."