Google Inc. is adopting new privacy measures to make it more difficult to connect online search requests with the people making them a thorny issue that provoked a showdown with the U.S. government last year... Google believes it can provide more assurances of privacy by removing key pieces of identifying information from its system every 18 to 24 months... Privacy experts applauded Google's precautions as a major step in the right direction... AOL [part of Time Warner] believes it is a step ahead of Google because it doesn't store its users' IP addresses and encrypts whatever personal information that it does collect, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. AOL keeps the encrypted data for only 13 months, a change prompted by the backlash to last year's mishandling of search requests. [also refers to Microsoft, Yahoo]