Tasks / Request Search Engine Data
As you've no doubt heard, MSN, Yahoo!, and perhaps others complied with a Department of Justice subpoena requesting one week's worth of search queries and one million random websites. We'd like you to request the same information. Since there are no privacy concerns, we imagine they'll comply. Here are a few points:
- You may not have much luck unless you can put together a subpoena, and are the government
- You might try asking Jeeves, who, in what must have been a blow to his self-esteem, wasn't asked for similar information.
- We wonder what format the data was provided in. If it looks like you'll be successful, why not demand that MSN provide the search data in OpenDocument format?
- Come to think of it, we'd rather you not upload huge database dumps to SF0. So just post your request, any response you receive, and - if you're successful - some graphical representation of some subset of the data.
- If you don't get a response from the search engines, but really have your heart set on a massive data set, try asking AT&T for random phone call origins/destinations (by city/state/country) and lengths, or eBay for the content (no user info) of one million random pieces of feedback.
1 to 2 players
30 points
Level 2
In the zone of: EquivalenZ
3 completed :: 0 in progress
Interested in collaborating on this: (no one yet!)
this task is retired
Praxis
view all images for: Request Search Engine Data
Drafted letter to Yahoo! and put it in the mail. Waited several weeks for a response. Suprisingly, I've heard nothing back... not even a, "thank you, but no" letter. :-(
You would think this wouldn't be that big a deal - after all, it's not like we're asking for anything that might violate privacy concerns. But no! I emailed every search engine I could find using google and typing in "search engines." Here are some o...
AOL has taken the "request" part out of this task and voluntarily provided the data. They've since pulled it, acknowledging that posting it was a "screw-up", but it can still be downloaded here: http://www.gregsadetsky.com/aol-data/ Reading th...