Monday, January 14, 2008

Digital Navel Gazing

One of the little joys of running a website is checking the logs periodically, to see what search terms are leading people to you. I first discovered this in graduate school, when I created a specialized scientific database/website as part of my thesis work. I was always amused by the occasional odd search that would bring people to my digital door.

I recently checked out the logs for this blog. The Brits definitely have the most interesting searches:

Whoever searched on "New Zealanders are loud" was no doubt disappointed to find my post saying the exact opposite. If that reader thinks Kiwis are loud, he/she should never visit the US.

Someone else wondered "Why do US stalls have gaps?" and was taken to the same post. It offered no insight into why our public toilets are different, so there is another disappointed reader.

I wonder if my post about the impact of norovirus on our holidays convinced the person who typed "I want norovirus" into Google to rethink his or her position?

The Brits may have the largest number of odd searches, but the single most odd search award goes to someone in West Virginia, who was looking for "pumpkin bathroom cockroach blog". I trust he or she was also disappointed in my post on the pests we encountered while traveling.

A few searches might have led people to actual useful information. There were several searches about Easter Island, and I think my trip story about Easter Island will have told the searchers that yes, it is "worth it" and that the snorkeling is not excellent in a traditional sense, but definitely cool. Similarly, my story about French Polynesia will hopefully have spared at least one person from making our mistake of taking the slow ferry between Pape'ete and Moorea.

The most common useful search leads people to the recipe I found for dairy-free brownies.

However, the search that I most hope was useful was from a woman who searched on "feel a failure as a mum". It took her to my post on the benefits of being a working mother, which may or may not have been the best place for her to land. I hope she stayed long enough to discover that other mothers feel the same way, and maybe followed one of the blogroll links out to a site like Ask Moxie. In short, I hope she found some comfort in the Momosphere. I certainly do.

1 comment:

  1. Seriously, are in you IN my head? I currently have a draft post in my blogger account about a topic that people keep searching for and finding my blog. (Wow, did that sentence make sense?)

    Thanks for sharing some of the funny, interesting and weird searches that brought people to you! I hope that mom did find what she was looking for and realizes that we all feel like failures sometimes, but we are not. We are just people doing the best we can.

    That's my zen for the day! (You've totally inspired me, and created a monster!)

    ReplyDelete

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