Aug 22, 2006

AOL's Top Techie, Maureen Govern - Resigns

So, Maureen Govern paid the ultimate price for the recent debacle at AOL. A division under her was responsible for accidentally releasing search data for more than a half a million Internet users.

It all went down last month. Some person(s) within AOL's technology research department sparked a crisis for the company by posting 20 million search queries made from March through May by 658,000 members. The queries were on a publicly accessible Web site for about two weeks before bloggers noticed them and began commenting during the weekend of Aug. 6-7. AOL apologized and removed the data, but it had already been copied and circulated online.

I feel for AOL - this is a company which is trying to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving Internet landscape. Let's hope Ms Govern finds her feet elsewhere.

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