Amazing abilities of Web 4.0 search engines - recap
I recently wrote a not-entirely-serious blog post about how Web 4.0 was imminent, and how one of the amazing things about Web 4.0 would be the ability of search engines to find anything for you, even lost car keys!
Silly things people search for
Well looking through my logs for the search terms that people key into search engines to get to my site, I see people looking for really weird stuff!
The silliest example I had today was a hit on this blog using the Google search term:
fear of poo phobia (whaaat?!)
The hit came from Australia, so maybe that explains something :D. I don't know whether to be more concerned that someone is searching for this expression, or that the result took them to my site!
Concealing my searches
OK, I search for some pretty weird stuff too, sometimes, which probably makes sense to me at the time, but could seem pretty weird to others. However, now that I am more aware of how the technology works, and I know that webmasters can see what I searched for in order to get to their site, I sometimes actually (this is so embarassing) mask what I was searching for by not clicking on the Google link that gets thrown up (that's where your search terms are appended so the site you go to can see what you searched for), but by Copy/Pasting the link into my browser.
Pretty sad, right! I mean, what do I care what a complete stranger thinks about what I am searching for on the net?!
Have you got any examples, either from your own site logs, or of weird stuff you search for on the net?
P.S. Once I got into this topic, I found that I wasn't the only one bemused by weird search terms. Check out a few of the following:
http://www.rodcollins.com/wordpress/some-strange-search-terms
http://www.invisibleinstitute.com/eads/blog/searchterms
http://sugardelirium.wordpress.com/2007/02/01/weird-search-words/
buttcrack cookies is one of my favourites! I thought I was gonna die laughing!
"A unique, wry and often satirical look at the Internet, the modern age and life in general" (there is way too much search-engine competition for the phrase "incoherent ramblings")
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Silly things people search for on the net
Comments welcome, nofollow and comment moderation are OFF, but our patented, human-powered spam-detector is most definitely ON, and we can tell that stink a mile off!
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2 comments:
Hey, thanks for linking to my post about weird search terms. It is, indeed, fascinating stuff.
Like I've said elsewhere, it can be extremely disturbing to be running a site that's specifically about resisting certain forms of violence and be getting a lot of hits from people who are searching for stories about stepfathers raping their daughters or kicking women in the vagina. It goes with the territory, I suppose, but I wonder what people think when they see our site. Is it a buzzkill? Do they just keep going? All very strange.
Anyway, I'll cull the logs for more and do a follow up post. Amusingly, the more this conversation goes, the more hits we'll all be getting for how to shave naked potatoes and the recent scandals in extreme pigeons.
Yeah, it's sort of ironic that you will end up attracting just that ("wrong") sort of search!
I thought of deliberately keying in weird search terms and then visiting any sites which pop up and that are totally unassuming, just to bemuse their owners. But that would probably be of fairly limited entertainment value to myself...!
Please do post a follow-up and by all means let me know, trackback or something and I'll give it a mention: my search terms have been a bit staid of late - most of them are actually relevant... boring..!
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