Fun with web-counters! And Search Engines, too!

Yahoo seach has stolen the lead on Google, at least in the short term. Or at least when it comes to my blog, which is interesting, because Google owns Blogger. But more on that later.

FYI - web-trackers are an interesting thing. They let you know how many unique vistors you've had to your site. Although someone visiting 3-5 times a day might throw the numbers off, I look at it as a close guestimate. One other thing that they can do is give you some info on the people who've visted recently. It lets you judge which stories are the most popular, and the web domains that visitors come from. I admit it, I checked a little obsessively at first, but now only look every week or so. Really. {grin}

A funny thing related to the above arose from a recent sad thing in my life. Red has moved away to Berkeley to fulfill her dream of getting a degree from a school that shares her name. {grin} not really - instead, she's getting her masters, and will hopefully return to work in a year. The Tuesday after she left on this cross-country trip, there was a visitor to my site from the domain Berkeley.Edu. "Hooray," I thought quietly to myself, "she's there safely, and wants to see what's going on with me!" Then I noticed the timestamp (4 AM) and looked at the detail of the visit.

Apparently, instead of Red, it was someone who had searched on Yahoo for "definition for hella". I did the same, and sure enough, my blog was link number 8 for that search. And number 10. Good timing, random Yahoo surfer! If I knew who you were, I'd introduce you to Red - sounds the two of you would have a hella good time. Unless it *was* you, Red. Eh, I'm pretty sure you have already have the definition of hella down pat.

In honor of that search, I wanted to do a entry with some recent searches that have brought people to my site, even if accidentially. (I am beginning to think that "Finger File" may sound dirtier to a web searcher than it actually is.) These rankings are accurate as of 9:40 PM, 8/16.

Someone from the domain Army.mil did a search on "you sure do have a pretty mouth". I would like to say that in this case, I am proud to support the troops. However, something about the combination makes me not want to drop the soap. But for that search I was number 10.

I am proud and surprised to see that I am number 4 for the search "dog vs. porcupine". Snopes is still number one, as it should be. "dog vs porcupine" ranks my site 5, "dog-porcupine" is at 9th, while "porcupine, dog" puts me at 16.

I honestly have NO IDEA who did this search originally, but "dance white boy" and "andrew sullivan" together make me smack at number one. I have no clue how I beat out Andrew Sullivan for this honor. Weird search engine heuristics, I suppose.

Finally, I'll end with a tribute to EverBabe. It's another Number One ranking, which I never would have gotten if it hadn't been for her. "gross finger spider bite pictures" I think that the search says it all. It truly was hella gross.