A couple of weeks ago AOL made a(nother) big mistake. They released a big pile of people's web search queries. Beware naive netizens, every time you search for whatever brand of filth turns you on on the Big Bad Internet, the chances are that some record of it is made.

AOL saw a large potential in academic tech researchers having access to a big clump of these real world usage examples of their search. So for a few days, anyone could download a file of 20,000,000ish searches done by 658,000 of their customers.

Whilst, phenomenally, reading the Poorhouse is still free, sadly not everything in life is. There are any number of ways to save money via the Internet. Maybe this topic will be revisited, but for now...online supermarket shopping.

Supermarkets are generally pretty evil. So, if you succumb to their clean, shiny, bargain items, why not at least cut down the bit of money you hand over. The Internet is covered in money-off codes. For instance if you do your online shopping via Tescos, always be sure to surf the interweb for some free money that will not only make up for any delivery charge, but actually save you a few quid compared to if you went a-shopping via manual methods. Check this blog for plenty of codes. If it fails you, do some sensible Googling for other sites, forums and blogs just desperate to give you vouchers.

Last month it came to light that AOL was planning on instigating a new mail service for its subscribers based on Goodmail's "CertifiedEmail". There has been an angry uprising from a coalition of mostly-righteous groups such as the EFF, MoveOn, Friends of the Earth in response, with some participants claiming AOL is essentially putting a tax on sending email. This campaign can be seen and endorsed at dearaol.com. The opposition say it is nothing of the sort and it will only be of pure positive and virtuous use to its own members, citing reasons mainly to do with blocking spam.