Sunday, September 16, 2007

Lost and Found

I have a confession to make: I monitor the traffic coming to this blog. I'm able to track how many people visit the site, where they are from, how long they spend, and whether they are repeat visitors or not. To be fair, though... I'm not really interested in any of that information. I mean, does it really help me to know that somebody from Calgary, Alberta with the IP address xx.xxx.xxx.xxx visits me once a week? Not so much. What really interests me is how people find my site. The nifty thing about my counting widget is that is also keeps track of any random terms that people type into search engines and find my blog with.

A number of people might actually be looking for me on the internet. This is evident in the hits I have from people who type my first or last name into a search engine and end up here. (Welcome!) Other people type something along the lines of 'exnomad, blog' and end up here, too. That's fine but not as thrilling as some of the other terms people use to get here!

Some of my favourite search terms include the following: (And yes, all of these are actual things that people search for on the internet!! Can you believe it?!)

Things related to 'ex's of all types:

- ex jealous
- revenge on my ex nude photo
- ex office carpet Victoria
- i want to jinx my ex
- birthday wish to ex
- ex superstitious
- usher's ex girlfriend

Things related to nomads of all types:

- big nomad camper for 6
- romantic nomad
- 56 nomad for sale
- diy campervans
- i married a nomad

Burning questions:

- why is pickled ginger sweetened with aspartame (I've often wondered the same thing...)
- ex. topic of response to eulogy (???)
- who won oscar de la hoyas fight (can't help you there, brother)
- how to make a luminara lantern (well, I've now officially written the book on luminara lanterns, let me tell you!)
- calgary taxi why don't they answer the phone (I wish I knew, sister-- I wish I knew)

Knitting, crafting, and camping-related queries:

- third eye chullo hat pattern
- hat baby knitted pattern free
- knitted zodiac signs
- unipo sock yarn
- thrift store t-shirts recycled
- recycled cosmetics
- finnish viking symbols
- boxy sunglasses
- adrspach teplice camping
- luminara and lighthouse (again, we wrote the book!)

Random (and I do mean random) topics:

- being on the mantracker show
- stirrup pants
- calgary dating
- other woman
- wild rose cleanse bra
- hermaphrodite sister
- tiny math
- csi
- space relations test
- those little donuts stampede
- hummus gave me indigestion
- smackdown play
- my short haircut
- orca breach
- threesome with another woman-- teen (I don't even want to know...)
- qualicum bay sphere
- legitimate personality tests
- ponytail addiction

I'm not sure which is more disturbing: the fact that people search for half these things on the internet, or the fact that they end up at my blog using said terms? What do you think?

2 comments:

thinkingdifference said...

so, you're not interested to know that somebody from Calgary (me) with IP address (hm, don't know it by heart...) checks your blog once a week??? i am heart-broken!!!

i have google analytics in my blog too. i think most of us have them. it's a cool way of intruding other people's privacy, as they are intruding ours... talk about foucault and surveillance society...

there's also an element of playfulness here. it's funny to make public what people (like us...) search on the internet, from the privacy of our living-rooms... (i personally liked the search on take revenge ex-girlfriend nude...). a blogger i read in Romanian does this on a regular basis, and it is truly enlightening...

granolagirl said...

DANA WHERE ARE YOU??