Since Google began openly logging your search history, navigating the Internet has become an ever-creepier proposition. Anonymity, for the most part, is feigned. Your privacy is an illusion. And with behavioral marketing seen as the holy grail of online advertising, it won't be long before someone rips open and sells your history of search requests — it'd be as exposing as, say, revealing the racier parts of your Netflix queue. This site's editor, for example, certainly doesn't want Google knowing how often he searches for topless photos of Jakob Lodwick. (Oh puhleeze. So not my type. -Ed.)

TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington's rumor that Netscape would be killed off has proven off the mark. Not because several Netscapers have surfaced to deny the rumors, but because you can't kill something that's already dead. There may be a community that, out of laziness or inertia, still visits its grave daily. But a society of denial-ridden necrophiliacs hardly makes for a compelling audience. When AOL purchased Netscape in 1998, it did everything imaginable to keep the brand alive — and everything imaginable to kill it. It forced the worst features of AOL onto Netscape and migrated the best features of Netscape to AOL — not that it helped either. And Jason Calacanis's brief tenure at AOL? That dirt-grubbing graverobber just made things worse, and then left for greener pastures.

Gmail may be introducing larger mailboxes. Of course, Google's 10 GB seems paltry compared to Yahoo and AOL's new unlimited-email storage. [Infectious Greed]

When Brian Alvey, the cofounder of Weblogs Inc. and a former AOL executive, suggested that AOL change its name to TMZ, the popular gossip blog it owns a stake in, I took it as the throwaway joke it was. But now, some idiot named Bill Hartzer on InternetFinancialNews.com appears to be taking Alvey seriously. For anyone else equally lacking in both sense of humor and sense, let me 'splain something to you. Alvey's idea is, of course, brilliant. But it's not going to happen.

There was a time, back in 1998 or so, when AOL was synonymous with email for most ordinary folks. That time, of course, is long past. But AOL's tireless flacks are trying to bring it back with a press release outlining which cities' residents are most addicted to email. Surprisingly, Washington, D.C. comes in first. But unsurprisingly, the release doesn't mention the reality AOL now faces: Today's email users, by the hundreds of millions, spurn AOL's offerings in favor of Yahoo Mail, Microsoft's Hotmail, and Google's Gmail.

Jason Calacanis, the former AOL executive, just posted the following on Twitter:

Can we, at last, put to rest any whispers by jealous Sand Hill Road rivals about the strengths of Fred Wilson's portfolio? The New York-based venture capitalist, a partner at Union Square Ventures, has ably spotted the most profitable segments of targeted marketing and online publishing, from social bookmarks (Del.icio.us, sold to Yahoo) to RSS-feed advertising (FeedBurner, sold to Google) and now, behavioral ad-targeting firm Tacoda, sold to AOL for a reported price of more than $200 million. This deal is more than just a financial win for Wilson — it's a vindication of his entire strategy. Here's why.

Maybe Facebook really is the new AOL: Ex-AOL exec and "serious poker player" Chamath Palihapitiya joins Facebook as VP of product marketing and operations. [WSJ]

The latest Internet-advertising buzzword sounds like something you'd do to the office restroom. But what does "bucketize" actually mean? True personalization takes too much effort, AOL and Yahoo executives told an audience at the Supernova conference today. Instead, the Internet giants lump users into "buckets," or broad psychographic groups, and target content and ads to them accordingly. This neologism, alas, is probably here to stay. "Profiling" users sounds too sinister, and "categorizing" them too prosaic. Grab a mop, marketing geeks.

Revolution Health, AOL cofounder Steve Case's new venture, promises to make picking health plans simpler for consumers. Its employees, on the other hand, are left with no choice at all: We're told that the company, despite being flush with venture capital, offers until recently offered no group health plan. A job listing at Revolution says the company is "constantly looking for new talent." If the benefits package is really so skimpy, it's no wonder. Heard anything else about working conditions at Case's company? Do tell.

CONFONZ — The lovely thing about having a relatively well read gossip blog is that people bring the gossip to you. Case in point: the AOL Beta that resembles Yahoo's page. Someone inside AOL, or at least, inside AOL's heating ducts, brings us this report on the words of Ron Grant at yesterday's AOL management summit.

NICK DOUGLAS — America's #1 internet provider is now just #3. In Time Warner's first-quarter results, AOL reported that AT&T has 12.9 million subscribers, Comcast 12.1, and AOL 12 million. AOL lost 1.18 million subscribers in the last quarter (impressive that this many users got past AOL's arduous cancellation process). AOL says they're not worried, as users who upgrade from the dial-up service that used to support the business to high-speed connections are now spending more time on AOL's ad-supported online services (like e-mail). The upshot for everyone else? "Stupid AOL user" jokes are now "Stupid AT&T user" jokes. Doesn't have the same ring to it.

· CBS announces that Survivor's fifteenth (!) edition (tentative title: Survivor: Human Rights Violations) will shoot in China, which hopes that hosting an American reality TV series that's overstayed its welcome for ten seasons will somehow get people excited about the 2008 Beijing Olympics. [Variety]
· Mr. & Mrs. Smith writer Simon Kinberg has been brought on to overhaul the Ben Stiller/Tom Cruise project Hardy Men, hoping that the scribe will figure out a way to finally harness the duo's incredible comedic chemistry in a feature-length setting. [THR]
· AOL announces a slate of new, TV-style programming, offerings that are expected to immediately draw more viewers than the majority of NBC's primetime schedule. [Variety]
· Nearly 26 million Americans witnessed Simon Cowell do that thing with his eyes that has everyone so upset today, [THR]
· We'll have to check on this, but we think this story about the pitch (Inland Saints) Paramount bought for The Number 23 director Joel Schumacher, may have identified a totally new cinematic genre: "the supernatural urban drama." [Variety]

NICK DOUGLAS — Thailand will continue banning YouTube even though the user who posted a video mocking the king has taken it down. (There are still two pics on YouTube, says Thailand, that harm the king's sensitive sensibilities.) But Google says they'll work with Thailand to help censor YouTube. So who's outlawed in what country? Where is Google banned, and where's it just censored? And what's with North Korea? Let's answer this with the magic of charts!

Each Monday, Intern Alexis uses a rigorous scale to rank the happy pair-bonds cemented in the Times wedding announcements. But surely, the Times can't contain all the nuptial bliss to be experienced in the metro area. Ergo, the Post's weddings section, where the couples require a more flexible scale that can take into consideration differences in, say, life experience. And body type.

AOL overlord Randy Falco has enforced all kinds of cost-cutting measures since he took over, such as gently pushing or violently shoving other execs out of the company. And while he can't quite bring himself to outright purchase a jet for his own use, he's not too proud to beg:

SVP Malcolm Bird, lord of rugrats and surly teens, is bailing from AOL after his division's budget was reportedly slashed and plans to bring in outside finance partners were dropped. One tipster claims Bird had "millions in financial backing, a mangement team and a plan," before his schemes were scuttled by the higher-ups. This is particularly weird in terms of AOL spinning the changes as a recommitment to kid-teen content, when the cuts seem to telegraph the opposite. As Paidcontent notes, this kind of spin control may save corporate face, but it does nothing to motivate execs like Bird to stick around and keep holding the (empty) bag.

CFO and exec VP Steve Swad has quit AOL to "pursue an opportunity in the growing private-equity field." Swad came up in 2003 from Turner Broadcasting. He survived the recent AOL purges, but sadly, has not — as far as we can tell — posted any beefcake photos. No word yet on Swad's specific plans or his AOL replacement. Memo after the jump.

AOL's human "computer," Ron Grant, is building an elite team of high-tech ubermenschen to lead the Dulles-based online service back to technological dominance. Or maybe not. Former CNet employees are snickering over Grant's choice to head AOL's platforms division, the weightlifting, Corvette-driving, cat-loving Ted Cahall. According to one former CNet staffer, Cahall left such a miasma of bad feeling that the exodus continues a full year after he left the San Francisco tech publisher.

SCOTT KIDDER — Randy Falco's right-hand man and human "computer" — newly-appointed President and COO Ron Grant — referred to by new AOL chief Randy Falco as "my computer" — has a holiday message for AOL's tens of thousands of employees: Have a good holiday weekend, and stay the fuck away from your email!