More Interesting Google Searches (Nov 2008-Jan2009)

I try to keep track of some of the more interesting google (or other search engine) terms people use to get to this blog. I thought I'd lost a lot. It turned out I was saving them on two different pages with the same name in different places.

• free lebows making out and eating each other - I have no idea what this person was looking for, but I don't think it was to learn about what Victor Lebow thought about consumerism. Though that continues to be one of the most popular pages.

• hawk milk chocolate brown with white spots - this one maybe got what she was looking for. It went to the page of the Northern Hawk Owl flying into the window.
  

• how to tell the age of moose - I didn't have this answer on the page (or any other) that talked about narratives people have about wild animals in town.
  
  
• the neighbors have linksys too how do i know what one is mine - This person should have gotten what she sought on the hijacked linksys router post.
  
• what do army think of peace corps - sorry, didn't have that answer on the page the person got on a returned peace corps volunteer dinner.
  
• sex porno ropi- I saved this for you Ropi. I didn't know you were a porn start too. This person got the post on Eliot Spitzer.
  
• members of congress with obsessive-compulsive - This one got to How Many Black Members of Congress, but it didn't have such specific information. This one also gets a fair number of hits.
  
  
• how get wire across two buildings - if this person read the whole post on the movie Man on Wire he would have gotten the answer - use a bow and arrow.
  
  
• when is peter's sushi opened (from Tennessee) - This person surely was disappointed to learn that since the fire peter's sushi isn't open ever.
  
• famous people born in 2009 may 13 - I'm afraid my page on famous people born in 1909 doesn't include people who haven't been born yet. Here are a couple more ways people got to that page:
  
  
• first born famous people - interesting question, but I didn't have that information in the post
  
  
• known famous people - as opposed to, what, unknown famous people? It's easy to be flip like that, but if I think a little I can usually find an explanation. Maybe he was just being careful hoping to find at least one of the terms.
  
  
• why was the vice president oath longer than the presidential oath when the vice present doesn't do as much? - I didn't notice, but it's a good question. And the post on the duties of the vice president, the most popular in the last month (seems like there most be a lot of school assignments on this topic) won't help.
  
  
• why are the requirements for president and vice president the same - again, no answer on the vice presidential duties post for this person. How about using a little logic?
  
  
• what do wolves do in the morning - got to morning snacks. Definitely didn't get the answer there.
  
• give me an arugment that oil and gas won't effect who - Is this a school assignment? This one got to the AGIA post.
  
  
• conocophillips 2008 donations - this hit came from a Shell Services International ISP and got to a page that has some of that information, the one asking what made Conocophillip Employees Volunteers so Atypical?
  
  
• istj's in fbi - This one got to the post on the first, redacted version of Chad Joy's complaint where I speculated that if Joy was an istj it would explain some of his behavior. Out of curiosity I checked to see what else this person found in her google search and I learned that a high percent of government and law enforcement employees were istj.
  
  
• how long does it usually take for the fbi to come to someones house - Mary Beth, Chad? You want to answer this? I didn't have the answer. Not sure which post that mentioned the FBI this person got.
  
  
  
• yeti skin lere ozel blogspot 2007 anal seven - This one is from Ankara, Turkey. Catherine, is this something that can be published in polite company? They got to a post on the Anchorage restaurant Yak and Yeti ,
  Not what he was looking for I suspect.
  

Interesting October Google (and other) Searches

Well, using Google analytics, I've got the last 30 days or so. By far the most popular page was President and Vice President Job Duties with almost 2500 folks going there. It gained renewed interest after Sarah Palin talked about the vice president job duties. It also seemed that a lot of teachers gave assignments on that topic judging from the number of people search vp duties from schools. They got there googling a variety of phrases like:

• "what does the 5 things a vice president of the united states do" Part of me thinks google should have a message that says, "No hits until you fix your grammar." But only if it's coming from a computer using English.
• job without duties (vp) - item without comment

The next highest was Victor Lebow's Complete Original 1955 Article

Some of the unique search terms were:

• "men that are gay having sex whet aman" - That got the person to the Eliot Spitzer post
  
  
• "what do bears know that people don't" - This one got to the posts on wildlife in Anchorage
  
  
• "famous people born on lunar eclipses" - "famous poeple born" get a lot of people to the post on Famous People Born 1908 . Nothing there about eclipses though.
  
  
• "will do what's best for the people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive with the president?s agenda in that position" - from Paris, on a Spanish language Mac - I hope they weren't learning English using Palin's interviews
  
  
• "what do people look like in alaska" - Pale? What sort of answer was this person expecting?
  
  
• "what part of alaska do moose come from?" - Moose Pass?
  
  
• "how do you pronounce teklanika" - They got a bit about Teklanika, but no help pronouncing it. For the record people say Tek Kla NEE Ka. And while we're at it, the 1989 oil spill was near Val Deez, even though it's spelled Valdez.
  
  
• "anyone ever get in trouble for leaving off a dependent to join the military" - from someone in Oklahoma- is this like the new laws about dropping off kids you can't handle?
  
  
• "teeth been sold out" - got to “Bear Tooth vp debate sold out” - from the UK
  
  
• "mccarthy alaska 4th july videos" - Here's a Google screw up. They got an archive page in July, but not the videos of July 4th in McCarthy
  
  
• "tiberius gracchus and obama" - did someone else really make this association between these two folks, or had they seen the post once and were trying to find it again?
  
  
• "governors appointing themselves us senators" - hmmm, wonder what could have spurred this query? Sarah, any thoughts?

Recent Google Searches - Sept. 08

I tend to copy some of the more interesting or bizarre google (and other) search terms people use to get to this blog. So here are some that came in during the last month or so:

• sarah palin bathing suit - I got a fair number of these right after Palin was selected by McCain. I do have a quote from the Palin biography which linked the words Palin and bathing suit. Those died down after a week or so when, I suppose, more relevant hits showed up. (I was going to say that interest in those declined, but I suspect that wasn't the cause.)
  
  
• where do 5 passengers sleep on a carnival cruise - did this person have any particular five in mind? He got to an old post on cruise line ownership.
  
  
• do the president and the vice president know each other - what can I say? This person got duties of the vice president post, which has been pretty popular, and lists what the Constitution says the VP, President, and Congress' Constitutional duties are.
  
  
• what to do with old ties - I slipped in a video on what to do with old neck ties on a post on renewing old (personal) ties. So it's nice to find someone probably found what he was looking for.
  
  
• high wire fajans - This one took the searcher to a post I really like with a video of Michael Fajans' neat series of life size magician paintings in the Seattle Airport. If the person wanted to see the paintings, he or she scored a bullseye.
  
  
• what's the difference between a hurricane and tornado (from Houston and Louisiana) - This post continues to get regular hits. These two were right as Ike was heading into shore.
  
  
• thai translation mayflower story - here's a google malfunction. All those words show up on my blog somewhere, but not together, but then not that many sites even have those four words I guess. I don't think this person was satisfied.
  
  
• responsible for more deaths: bear or moose (South Carolina) - there were a couple more of these. I did have stats on people killed by bears and by dogs in Alaska, but I don't think I have by moose.
  
  
• gaz thank hole (This one from Montreal made it to Petrol Tank Hole)
  
  
• 22" martini glasses - got to a video of our friend Marty comparing the size of old and new martini glasses.
  
  
• yiddish cat names - don't know if they got what they wanted which was a look at the Michael Chabon's talk here about his book The Yiddish Police Union
  
  
• can i join the army instead of going to jail - the stories of Track Palin's alleged deal that got him into the army has gotten a few people interested in the same deal. This story remains unconfirmed, though people I've talked to who are in positions to know believe it is true, but sealed juvenile court documents apparently remain sealed (or non-existent). One blog I saw says that one of the participants says Track wasn't involved. But given the high pressure tactics of the McCain campaign in Alaska (ie on Troopergate subpoenas), you'll have to forgive me if I don't put it past them to pay people enough to say what they want said. Sorry, but Rove's legacy is win at any cost so I remain skeptical of what people say.
  
  
• how many times has emmanuel onunwor been married - I have no idea how this got here. (He's the ex-Mayor of East Cleveland.)
  
  
• what does the president do to execute laws? This maybe?
  I didn't have this picture up so this person got to the VP duties post instead. (Mariano, if you're looking, I just used Keynote and iPhoto, so sorry about the head.)
  
  
• religion in kenai fjords - They got to Kenai Fjiords National Park, but I don't think there was any religion in that post.
  
  
• what to gain on knowing the firing - This came from someone in the Philippines who got to a piece on the Monegan Firing

Google Searches

I continue to find interesting ways people got to this blog.

• doing' it to it like pruitt used to do it to it
• lots of people, mostly from towns that have McClatchy papers, have been checking on Gary Pruitt. But what is this one about?
• why do i know things before they happen
• I'm sure this person didn't find the answer here
  
• meaning of wild hair up his butt
• Bingo, I had a whole post answering this question.
  
• gary pruitt needs to go
• more pruitt
  
• how can you know if a person is wearing a wire
• well I did discuss the ethics of wearing a wire, but not how you could tell
  
• battered Gary Pruitt
• yak a mai noodles (Lisbon)
• Google seems to first look for the whole phrase. They it looks for the words in a post. Then on the blog as a whole. So this person got the post on Yak and Yeti restaurant. There have been various posts on noodles. How Google decides which post to send the person to I have no idea.
  
• where do the japanese flight attendants eat sushi in anchorage?
• This actually got them to Yamato Ya where the Japanese flight attendants go. But the post didn't say that. But it had a picture of their sashimi.
  
• charlie in on golden pond
• Charlie, who own's Charlie's Bakery, used to own a restaurant called Golden Pond. This is explained in the post so all those words were in one post. But it wasn't what the searcher seems to have in mind. A few South Africans have checked out Charlie's Bakery. I think there must be one there too.
  
• downey gunk in my washing machine
• Downy gunk? This one got to one of the Maytag posts
  
• what do hfh look like?
• This person got to the Habitat for Humanity post (same as Yak and Yeti post.) If that's what they meant by hfh, then they got a picture of what HfH housing looks like. At least one project.
  
• buy companies that can be run by gary pruitt (Fresno Bee)
• fly horses fairbanks to seattle (Lemon Lima)
• I reviewed a short movie called Dear Lemon Lima that was set in Fairbanks. They were going to film the long version in Seattle. I suggested if the French crew that filmed Crossing Alaska With Horses could do it in Alaska, the Lemon Lima team could too. I don't think that's what they were looking for.
  
• how to resign because of inability to do job
• I did talk when people should resign
  
• are thoughts sin
• The Spitzer posts gets hits like this now and then
  
• fire gary pruitt
• us marshals polo shirts
• Here's what the Google preview on this one looked like:
  "... almost everyone had on a yellow polo type shirt with a royal emblem on the chest. ... US Marshals Flying Vic Kohring To California Monda…"(Yahoo search)
• if i was born in 1908 how old would i be?
• Math is so hard. I wonder if my post on people born in 1908 answered the question for him.
  

Celtic Diva's Conventioning, I'm Moving Boxes

First meet the kids for breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe in the University district.











Then we drive to the truck rental place.













Then to where J and C have had their stuff stored for the year. It was all in these three large units.












Here's the truck still mostly empty.













The unit is finally empty!!!
















The truck is almost full, just the mattresses to buttress the end.













The view from the storage building looking at the end of the truck at the dock.












One of the workers at the storage place. Lots of tatoos.











On the way back to M's. The skies opened.







Then off to dinner at Galeria on Capitol Hill - meet a former student and her husband and a good friend of J.




Galieria's Jose Cuervo collection.










Tomorrow J and J drive the truck to San Francisco.

Things People Search

Here's my latest of collection of search terms that got people to this blog:

• turning wife over to sexual demonic powers (Columbus Georgia)
  No comment - I think this got to the post on Eliot Spitzer
  
• i know my first name is steven (from Start.no, a Norwegian search engine)
  This turned out to be the title of a movie about a seven year old boy who was kidnapped, but it has a lot of words in common with What Do I know?
  
• how to tell if people dont like you (san diego)
  
• what do birds have in common
  With what? This got to post on ten common birds of Chiang Mai
• how to get ready for a dentist appointment in 1 day (Tennessee)

• western union, little india
  Sometimes people get exactly what (it would appear) they want.
  This got to this picture of the Western Union shop in Little India, Singapore
  
• interesting cow parsnip facts
  And they got to a long post with pictures and links on cow parsnips
  
• motor vehicle called hummer (from Malawi using Eng us)
  They got a picture of Senator Lyman Hoffman's Hummer
  
• charity ceo "reporting unethical behavior" (Chicago)
  doesn't sound good
  
• instructions for life
  That's a pretty ambitious request. They got Victor Lebow, then went on to Buddhism
  
• what do you do when the company act unethical
  another person with a real problem
  
• land hidden above alaska
  let me know if you find it
  
• preparation for porn
  I'm embarrassed to say What Do I Know showed up as #1 out of about 14 million hits for this one. They got something on Anchorage's Soapscum porn - theater production. I guess there aren't many posts that have "porn" and "preparation" in them together. By the way, that post has what used to be the most popular picture that people got through Google Images.
  
• how do they get you brain out when your dead
  This got them to the post on Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. BTW, I was getting enough queries for a while about how the name came about, I added a bit at the top of the post guiding people to Siberart's comment explaining it.
  
• "[Alaska Politician Name]" "[relative]" gay
  I hope this was a gay rights group just trying to make a connection, but rather doubt it
  
• unethical to take lower bids (Commonwealth of Kentucky Dept. of Information Syst)
  It's usually unethical to take higher bids. They got to the post on whether it was ethical for legislators to get discounts at the Baranof Hotel
  
• names of people for unclaimed money from chugach electric for year 1988
  My post on the Chugach list had links to get all the names. I hope they got some money. There were a few that were looking for that list.
  
• people that are not famous and born on december 10 200
  The post on famous people born in 1908 is one of the most popular (after Victor Lebow), and people get there looking for all sorts of dates, but this is the first one looking for people who were NOT famous.
  
• victor tile shop in jaipur
  Well, I have a post on Victor Lebow and another one about a shop in Jaipur (India). I think these folks got the shop, but not a tile shop.
  
• what's the difference between english and french weather (London)
  The first four words got them to the post on the difference between a hurricanes, cyclone, typhoon, and tornado?.
  
• palin's new ethics commissioner is a fraud
  Do we have an ethics commissioner?
  
• i now how to do chinse staircase but i do not now how to start it
  I had to look this up. It appears that a Chinese staircase is a stitch for what I would have called a lanyard. At Boondogleman.com you can see one.
  
• soap petrol tank
  This was a story about what I thought was a pretty obscure solution to a leaky gas tank. It never occurred to me that I'd have three or four people searching using these words.

And for those wondering what picture gets the most hits now, it's the Burmese dragon tattoo.

Recent Google Searches That Got People Here

Google is fantastic at helping us find things we never could have found otherwise. But it isn't perfect. The biggest problem I see is that it will grab words from unrelated posts. In the couple of lines you get, it isn't always clear that the words don't come from the same post. And as I've mentioned before, it's not totally clear how they pick which post to send people to. Some people who have googled "Vic Kohring" have gotten to one post, and other people to another post, or just to the main What Do I Know page.

Anywho, here are some recent searches that I found interesting for one reason or another:

• do any people speak english in anchorage
  From Australia. I wonder if reading my blog answered the question.
  

• being pressured to resign, what should i do?
  Sorry to hear this. It doesn't sound good. Unfortunately, this person got to a post about when corrupt politicians should resign. Close, but not quite what I suspect what the person needed.
  
  
• monks walk what do they do for swimming
  Any thoughts on what this person wanted? I'm sure the answer wasn't there.
  
  
• discovery channel no paid employees
  I got a number of these so there is obviously some sort of a story here. When I looked at some of the Google results, there didn't seem to be anything answering the question. They got to my post on the Discovery channel shelving the movie Taxi to the Dark Side
  
  
• chiang mai, thailand women resorts motels weather
  From Venice, California. (I guess I noted that because I went to Venice High) But I hope the person didn't find what he was looking for on my site. Actually, I probably should have done a post on the topic of foreign men and Thai women. It seems that there are a number of marriages that have resulted from foreigners visiting prostitutes and economically, I'm told it works out well for the women. But that doesn't balance out the damage done to girls and boys and women forced into prostitution.
  

• contact email and telephone numbers of all the mine in alaska
  This was from South Africa. Maybe someone is just looking for a job. But I bet there's an interesting story here.
  
  
• where do pigs get their energy?
  What is there to say? I have no idea how this person got to this site. [I did mention slurry pigs and I have an energy tag. And I'm sure I've used all the other words somewhere.]
  
  
• nus auditorium rental
  Here's an example of words from unrelated posts. NUS is the National University of Singapore, where my son is studying. The person (who was from Singapore) got to a post which included the rental fees for the Wendy Williamson auditorium at the University of Alaska Anchorage. They stayed a while, so maybe comparing prices was of interest.
  
  
• what do women do at conventions?
  Greely, CO. Your guess is as good as mine.
  
  
• why you may find indian hospitality uncomfortable
  Well, this person probably got what she was looking for. I did a post from India about the cross cultural mixed signals that Indian sales people give that make Americans uncomfortable
  
  
• airline oxygen mask for a fee
  Oh my. I suggested this in my list of absurd new fees airlines could create. But you'd have to be really warped to think about such a fee.
  
  
• morels of abortion
  Spelling errors can be so much fun. This person got a post on mushrooms. By the way, there are new morels in our backyard again this year.
  
  
• what was the biggest cyclone/hurricane/typhoon of all times to hit the world
  My post on the difference between cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes has been getting a fair number of hits since I posted it. But I don't have the answer to this one.
  
  
• blogspot thoughts about sex
  From Moldova - I just discussed this one in the previous post.
  

Google Searches

Here are some of the search words people used to get to this site in the last couple of weeks. Some leave me scratching my head. Some leave me wanting to hear more of the story. Others make me wish I'd had more information for the person.

• if mayo clinic turns down request
• this doesn't sound hopeful
  

• Conduction cooker
• I meant to put up more information on the INnduction cooker hot plate we bought in Chiang Mai, but I never got around to it. I loved it. It doesn't get hot. It starts instantly, and when you change it to a lower level in changes instantly. And stops instantly. But you do need to have the right pot - aluminum and glass won't work. Wikipedia says:

An induction cooker uses induction heating for cooking. A ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic coated pot is placed above an induction coil for the heating process to take place. This type of cooktop(or, stove top, range, etc. And in British English often times called a hob) does not work with non-ferromagnetic cookware, such as glass, aluminum, and most stainless steel, nor with ferromagnetic material covered with a conductive layer, such as a copper-bottomed pan.
if you were born in 1908 how old are you now

We returned the aluminum pot we bought and replaced it with a stainless steel pot that worked fine. Also got a stainless steel frying pan.

• alaskan old people rituals sending old people to die on iceberg
• No comment
  

• country road westen style hadn bags wholoesale
• No idea how this got to the person to this site
  

• is child sex a sin?
• What I find interesting is that these could have various meanings. My first reaction was, "You have to ask?" But, if say, this was a 15 year old wondering whether having sex with another 15 year old, it isn't as stark, say as it would be about a 45 year old contemplating a three year old. This got the searcher to a post on Eliot Spitzer.
  

• how much different vocabulary does a three year old know
• Interesting question, again not sure what post this got the person to.
  

• alaska news, a man,sexual,dog
• ??????
  

• the anger wat temple history
• was this person looking for Angkor Wat?
  

• shameless sex thoughts
• to Eliot Spitzer again
  

• what do monks eat for lunch
• I didn't have the answer for this person. Thai monks don't eat after 12 noon.
  

• pigs are they dumb or smart
• I think this got to a post on BP's dumb smart pigs
  

• N begich jewish?
  
• this came from someone in California
  

• what kind of anchorage do you know
  
• this came from Poland
  

• bulbul birds for sale in the usa
  
• This one from Albuquerque, got me upset. Why would someone want to buy a bulbul? I have seen a few in little cages in Chiang Mai and when you see how much fun they have flying around, you know how monstrous caging them is.
  

• black tailed japanese rooster tattoo
• The post with the Burmese man's tattoo on his back has attracted a number of hits, few, I suspect, looking for what they got
  

• how will i come 2 know my true love
  
• This one came from Bombay. What would you tell him? her?

• at the height of its power (16th?17th century), it spanned three continents, controlling much of southeastern europe
  
• This one came from DePaul University. Looks like a test or essay question. Were they allowed to Google in a test? Ropi will surely tell us the answer to this one.
  

• audio of speech given by george washington on january 8, 1790
  
• This one from New Dehli, using US English. Let me know if you get a copy of the original speech on audio. I'd love to hear it. My post on this suggested that the quotes were bogus.
  

A Short Post - things people search

A good friend complained a couple days ago that my posts were too long to read. So here's a short one while I work on another long one.

As I look through the sitemeter reports on who visits the blog, one thing I get to see is what terms they put in the search engine (if that's how they got here.) Here are a couple recent ones that I couldn't help but wonder about.

Dec. 31, 2007

• "the last 5 times winter solstice happened"
  

• "what do people from sierra leone look like"

I'll let you ponder what they were trying to find out. They actually could get answers to those questions on this blog.

On the last day of 2007 I also got what I think was my first hit from someone in Iran.


Jan 1, 2008

• "how do i know if my insurance will cover an abortion"

Now this doesn't sound like a happy story and I'm afraid this blog didn't have any answers for this one.

Today I went quickly through the last 100 hits to see what pages they went to on the blog. Victor Lebow has been the most popular subject for the last few days. One Lebow googler has University of California Office of the President as the ISP.

Lebow posts - 12
Anchorage International Film Festival - 10
People born in 1908 - 6
Solstice - 3
Dan Fagan - 2
Leslie Gallant - 2 (Alaska State Medical Board)
Maytag A207 -2
Kohring Trial Leftovers - 2
Cruise Lines - 2
Eight others had one hit each.
The rest went to the main blog page or to archived pages from Google image searches.

Google Hits and Misses

It's interesting to see how people get to this site. I've posted about this before in Blogging is Like Fishing. I'm constantly amazed by what people are looking for or that I actually show up on page 1 of their google search. Lately, people have searched for

• Alaska Mushrooms,
  
• various places we stayed in India and Thailand, including
  
• "prevention taken to stop the turning of yellow over the taj mahal,"
  
• several hits for 'bibidibobididoo' (I guess some one showed Cinderella somewhere),
• "things to do on a sunny day in anchorage",
  
• Dan Fagan,
  
• Termination Dust.
  
• Carnival Cruise line queries (usually about getting from the Anchorage Airport to the cruise.
  
• people related to the Kott trial. The day after the trial Debora Stovern was searched more than anyone else.
  

And the other day someone googled

• "lemon and peppers Hindu talisman."
  

That's when I learned that not all my pictures have stayed visible - I had a picture of such a lemon and peppers under a car parked in Goa.

But today I got a pretty creepy one and I couldn't imagine where the googler was sent on my site for this. Someone in Abijan, Cote D'Ivoire

Referring URL		http://www.google.fr...hl=fr&start=130&sa=N
Search Engine		google.fr
Search Words		2007 email contact of nazi germany director and staff

You can click on the URL to see what he got. The ones I saw would not get him contact with any nazis. Below is what he got on my website - a strange collection of posts that had one, or at most two, of the words he was looking for. You can see how random it is below. And I have no idea how Google decided to include some pages with 2007 in them and not others. I've left out most of the 2007's:

Les termes de recherche suivants ont été mis en valeur :

2007

email

contact

nazi

germany

director

staff

Germany has the Goethe Institutes

Sunday, April 29, 2007

a community member on the steering committee and member of the Mayor's staff,

"There was something in the disk of his smile - a kind of mischievous exuberance, more honest and more excited than mere happiness - that pierced me to the heart. It was the work of a second, the eye contact between us.

His parents were never able to get visas out of Germany.

he talks about how the Nazis are manipulating language to effectively get the German people to support the Nazi Party, a particularly appropriate topic for those living under the Bush regime. It is a fascinating account of day-to-day life of a Jewish professor in Nazi Germany. He had converted to Christianity and was married to an 'Aryan' and had been on the front lines for Germany in WWI, all of which helped delay his being taken to the concentration camps. The first volume covers 1933-1941.

Christian, a former student of mine, and the director, writer, and an actor in the play, told me it was going to be a comedic look at the porn industry.

I wasn't able to meet any of the volunteers while we were in India in November (though I had some email contact and one good phone conversation).

Blogging Is Like Fishing

It's been a year now that I've been blogging. What Do I Know now I didn't know then? Lots. Some thoughts:

1. Blogging is like fishing

I started blogging to just see what it was all about. I really didn't care who read it, and I'm reasonably pleased that those who do stop and comment have been civil (I know that's sounds like an invitation to the uncivil, but it seems they aren't reading it, or it's too boring for them to even respond.) But I noticed early on that I started looking at the "Viewed Profile" numbers. Then someone suggested I put up site-meter. That is addictive - not just seeing how many hits I get, but where they are all from. And until I got site-meter, I had no idea how much information I left at other websites. Unlike fishing, even posts I've dropped into the water months ago can get hits today.

2. Hits

I was averaging anywhere from 3 to 10 hits per day -with spikes into the 20s - before July. Up til then, the biggest days came from my posts on automaticwashers.org trying to get help fixing my Maytag. But in July I blogged a local trial of a politician tried (and convicted) of extortion, bribery, and money laundering. That got me links on the local newspaper's website and several other sites and my hits zoomed up - 30, 45, on up to 150 and then slowly back down. But some of those folks have stayed and I'm in the 20s regularly now. This week's Sicko review got linked to a major Italian movie site and was translated into German on another site. Then there are the "unknown" referrals. Some, like my mom, are regulars. But I wonder how others found my site. One commenter said her search engine alerted her that my site had mentioned one of her flagged terms: 'prophy-paste.'

3. What are people searching for?

Major topics have been the Tom Anderson Trial, Carnival Cruise lines, Alaska Airport Railroad Depot. I like the idea that people trying to figure out how to get from the airport to their cruise get to read about how the cruiselines are ripping everyone off. A few hits for "Viddler v. Youtube." Then there are my favorites who searh for the exotic. Who are the people (three or four altogether) who have searched for awazdo? (I did some posts on trucks in India with pictures of their "Please Honk" signs. Then I discovered awazdo meant "give me horn" in Hindi (Maharashtri?) and posted on that. ) I guess other people have the same bizarre curiosity I have. People also have searched for names of people (ordinary people) I've posted about. And then there are the people whose searches get them to me, but only because the words appear scattered in different posts, but nothing I have is relevant to them. Someone the other day from New Jersey got here googling, "i live in a condo above a smoker and the smell comes in what can i do to get rid of it." That got him to my April archive that began with a post on the Confucius Institute. But five or six posts down was
"What is it about smokers?" Did he read down that far? Who knows?

4. Searching and Finding
I still haven't figured out exactly why search engines give the results they do. Sometimes they give the archive - like with the smoker - and then the person has to find it on the page. Sometimes they give my latest posts and then they have to search the blog. Sometimes they give the exact post they were looking for. I haven't studied it enough to figure out if there is a pattern - whether the word is in the post, title, or labels. I originally thought the labels were a good idea so people could search my blog by topics so I wanted to limit it to a few general categories. But I've been slipping in more specific things lately.

5. Google Hits and Technorati Rankings

Technorati seems to be focused on how many other people link to you and how high their rankings are. I've moved up from Zero to 1, then 2, and eventually up to 9 this week. (The Italian movie blog was ranked around 3200 to give you a sense.) So I'm a slight bump in the blogosphere. On the other hand, Google must be impacted by how often you post. I've been posting once or more a day on average and as I check the site-meter to see how people got to me, I've been on page one of Google fairly often.

6. New features

I started with just text. Buying my Canon Powershot changed everything. I was soon adding photos. And then video. First YouTube, then I found Viddler. And now Blogger has an upload, but it didn't work yesterday. That may have to do with the bugs in iMovie08. Fortunately, it left iMovie06 on my computer. (There was no '07, but the blog wags are calling iMovie08, iMovie07.) And Jamfest made posting audio easy. You can even download directly from websites to Jamfest. And Blogger added polls, but I'm not sure how I would use them. They seem like toys on most blogs. And I probably don't have enough readers anyway.

7. Comments.

I discovered early, accidentally, that leaving comments on other posts, often brings a visit from that blogger, and even a comment. I do wander to other blogs now and then, though I'm cruising Alaska blogs more than the 'next blog' button. I'm not even sure how I got to Mirksome Bogle. Mirk has become a regular commenter here. Visually, our sites are totally different, but our content has some overlaps - photos of nature, quirky photos, punnish, and eclecticity.

Those are some things that pop into mind musing on my blogging.

Google finally kicks in

I started this blog just to see how blogs work. One of my early questions was about how the giant search engines, especially Google, find you and then get you reasonably close to page one. I read some of the Google help information, did get confirmation they knew this blog existed, and even was able to find myself through Google if I used the right combination of very particular search words. But after a week or so even that didn't work. When I learned about the specialized blog search engines, I resigned myself to being found that way.

But as I was looking at the site-meter report yesterday, there were suddenly 'lots' of people getting to the site through Google. Not sure how or why.

About site-meter. I got that up mid-October and anyone can check out the site traffic. Just click on the counter number at the bottom of the right hand side of the blog. You can see all the information that sites get about their visitors.