Google Hits and Misses September/October 2009
I started doing these posts to highlight unusual search terms that got someone to this blog. This evolved into an assessment of how well Google directed someone based on the search terms, but it still has a mix of the two.
Here are two new insights I've gleaned about google search seems to work that I've gotten from this month.
1. Google takes all the terms on 'one page.' On a blog that will depend on how the blogger has set the pages. In my case, a 'page' is a month unless the month has too many posts and runs out of space. I'm assuming this because Google finds terms from unrelated posts and either picks one post to send the searcher to, or the whole page. You can see some examples below where I show what the Google search page showed the searcher.
2. Image searches look at the words in the post as well as the tags on the image. Sometimes this works well, sometimes not.
3. Google is pretty good at figuring out mispellings.
Bulls-eye
karen language hello - This person didn't just get the words for hello in Karen written phonetically, this person got a video tape of a Karen villager in Northern Thailand teaching me how to say hello in Karen. I'd call that a bulls-eye. Now, whether the dialect of Karen spoken in Texas is the same dialect, I can't say.
michael palin book apple seed potato - got to a post on Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire. which discusses apples, seeds, and potatoes. I'm impressed how Google can sort through mispellings. Pollan is not related to Palin.
botany of desire - One of the interesting parts of following google hits, is getting a sense that something is happening related to one of the items on your blog. I started getting an increasing number of hits for Botany of Desire as publicity came out about the television show based on the book.
why are professional baseball diamonds different sizes - this person got to a post "Why are baseball diamonds different sizes?" and then to the link to the NPR interview that answered the question. I'd forgotten all about this post. I had to go check the answer too.
grilled sticky rice - And they got a picture of grilled sticky rice in the banana leaf wrapper and a loose recipe as related by the Chiang Mai shopowner.
mountain ask leaf - I'll give Google a bullseye for this one. I'm assuming that the searcher mistyped and so did Google, giving him a picture of mountain ash leaves.
Close
Do spittle bugs have teeth - They got to this post on spittle bugs which shows the spittle, but doesn't discuss teeth.
inside of a banana sketch different sections - This was an image search that got to a picture of cross section of an elephant toe banana.
classical music effects on ice crystals - This was an image search and they got a picture
of ice crystals on our storm door at -10˚F (-23˚C). But no music.
used italian ice machine - got to picture of an old Thai ice scraping machine in a post from Chiang Mai. Who knows? Maybe it originally came from Italy.
can't seem to wake up at amrit vela - I can't seem to wake up at the Eiffel Tower in the morning. Sometimes these searches leave me scratching my head only to find I do have something on this that I've totally forgotten. This got to a post on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India where you can find out what amrit vela means. It does make sense after all. Well, actually, instead of giving the specific post, Google gave the whole archive page for October 2006. Again, some of the words come from other posts. So you have to scroll down to Oct. 25.
red & yellow flower pointed upwards indoor plants long stem -
got to this picture of a red flower on the trail to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, Thailand. BTW, Doi means mountain, Suthep is a type of angel.
snow leopard update blank screen - I got a lot of these, more for 'black' screen. With good reason. I have several posts on my snow leopard problem. Google first took most people to a post I wrote before I had the solution. When I saw this, I did put links in all the posts about the black screen to get them to the cure post. And only some people took that link. By October 10, it seemed that most of these were being sent to the post with the 'cure' at the end of the title. So Google can learn. The number of these searches also confirms that this is inherent in Snow Leopard.
A Stretch -
nice green birds for cage - This was a person from Canada. I can understand wanting to have a nice green bird around, but the idea of putting a bird into a cage for one's entertainment is a little disturbing. I recognize there's a difference between capturing a wild bird and putting it into a cage and getting one born in captivity. But people raise birds to sell only because there are people who want to put them in cages. This person got to a picture of picture of a bird of paradise in the Bird Park in Singapore. It's a very big cage and you can barely see the bird for all the greenery, but it's still in a cage. Sort of like being under house arrest.
rumor of birds in the house - More birds. Not sure what this means exactly, but it got to a post about a bird that flew into our bedroom window and other bird-house incidents.
kenny g is a jehovahs witness - Well, I have posts on Jehovah's witnesses and I have a post on Pat Metheny writing about Kenny G. But nothing that combines the two. There was a surprisingly large number of people googling Pat Metheny on Kenny G.
apple genius josh at apple store santa monica fired - Well, I did go to the Apple Store in Santa Monica and I did spend time at the genius bar, but I don't recall anyone named Josh. Google found all the words in scattered over four posts. The searcher simply got to my blog - not even a specific post.
parking garages hidden inside mountains pictures - This Austrian searcher got a picture of a parking garage in LA, not at all hidden in a mountain. It was way down on the page they got, but since it was an image search, they did get to choose from a page full of pictures.
famous people who were born in dangerous places - Don't know how helpful this was, but it was an interesting search. They got to Famous People Born in 1909.
what ethical obligations do you personally feel towards wolves and whales - Got to a post about an article written about Wales, Alaska. It talked about ethical obligations urban Alaskans have to understanding the history of rural Alaska among other things.
Probably Not Google's Fault
Sometimes searchers give Google a real challenge. What did these people want?
how to make the constitution 1500 papers in photoshop - Who knows what this person was after? Not me. Their search got several posts mashed into one and it linked them to one on a post where I photoshopped a picture I took while cross country skiing. But I put the blame here on the person searching - what was he looking for?
what can i grow that isn't agapanthus - lot's of things I'd venture. Can't blame Google for sending this to a post that mentions agapanthus. This is someone who needs to think about her search terms more carefully.
thyland people are eatting abortion child flash is it true - this query came from someone in India who got to a post on the ethics of publishing photos of children. Google combined Children, people's, flash, eating from several different places on the blog.
photo gull light cloudy sky new york city airport - Was this person looking for a specific picture or a picture with all those things? Since this was an image search the searcher presumably got lots of pictures to look at. But this one had no gull, was not New York City or even an airport. But It did have clouds and blue sky. The post it was in mentioned the Santa Monica Airport. I've started to notice - now that I can usually see the image search terms - that Google considers not only the terms in the photo file name, but also terms in the post as well.
does human nature exists in everyone - Now this is an interesting question. I've never directly addressed this question, but the searcher got directed to the post on why everyone should study philosophy.
how much wild salmon 28 weeks pregnant - What was this person looking for? How much she could eat at 28 weeks? How long salmon are pregnant? She got a post on the difference between wild, farmed, and hatchery salmon.
last year when it snowed for eight days complete sentence? - Not completely sure what the searcher wanted. Whether his words were a complete sentence? I'm guessing it was a school assignment and he had to complete the sentence. The google hit combined several posts and had the word snow. The post was about the president-elect breaking with tradition by using complete sentences when he talked.
You Missed This One Google
Most of these are Google trying too hard to come up with something. Google has trouble saying, "I can't find anything" and maybe that's ok. People find things they didn't know they were looking for.
mango 21 44000 - There's 44,000 in one post. mango in another. And 21 in the google search information. But I don't think this was what the German searcher was looking for.
What Do I know?: 44000 (NYE) at Alaska Women Against Palin ... - [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]
Here are two new insights I've gleaned about google search seems to work that I've gotten from this month.
1. Google takes all the terms on 'one page.' On a blog that will depend on how the blogger has set the pages. In my case, a 'page' is a month unless the month has too many posts and runs out of space. I'm assuming this because Google finds terms from unrelated posts and either picks one post to send the searcher to, or the whole page. You can see some examples below where I show what the Google search page showed the searcher.
2. Image searches look at the words in the post as well as the tags on the image. Sometimes this works well, sometimes not.
3. Google is pretty good at figuring out mispellings.
Bulls-eye
karen language hello - This person didn't just get the words for hello in Karen written phonetically, this person got a video tape of a Karen villager in Northern Thailand teaching me how to say hello in Karen. I'd call that a bulls-eye. Now, whether the dialect of Karen spoken in Texas is the same dialect, I can't say.
michael palin book apple seed potato - got to a post on Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire. which discusses apples, seeds, and potatoes. I'm impressed how Google can sort through mispellings. Pollan is not related to Palin.
botany of desire - One of the interesting parts of following google hits, is getting a sense that something is happening related to one of the items on your blog. I started getting an increasing number of hits for Botany of Desire as publicity came out about the television show based on the book.
why are professional baseball diamonds different sizes - this person got to a post "Why are baseball diamonds different sizes?" and then to the link to the NPR interview that answered the question. I'd forgotten all about this post. I had to go check the answer too.
grilled sticky rice - And they got a picture of grilled sticky rice in the banana leaf wrapper and a loose recipe as related by the Chiang Mai shopowner.
mountain ask leaf - I'll give Google a bullseye for this one. I'm assuming that the searcher mistyped and so did Google, giving him a picture of mountain ash leaves.
Close
Do spittle bugs have teeth - They got to this post on spittle bugs which shows the spittle, but doesn't discuss teeth.
inside of a banana sketch different sections - This was an image search that got to a picture of cross section of an elephant toe banana.
classical music effects on ice crystals - This was an image search and they got a picture
of ice crystals on our storm door at -10˚F (-23˚C). But no music.used italian ice machine - got to picture of an old Thai ice scraping machine in a post from Chiang Mai. Who knows? Maybe it originally came from Italy.
can't seem to wake up at amrit vela - I can't seem to wake up at the Eiffel Tower in the morning. Sometimes these searches leave me scratching my head only to find I do have something on this that I've totally forgotten. This got to a post on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India where you can find out what amrit vela means. It does make sense after all. Well, actually, instead of giving the specific post, Google gave the whole archive page for October 2006. Again, some of the words come from other posts. So you have to scroll down to Oct. 25.
red & yellow flower pointed upwards indoor plants long stem -
got to this picture of a red flower on the trail to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, Thailand. BTW, Doi means mountain, Suthep is a type of angel.snow leopard update blank screen - I got a lot of these, more for 'black' screen. With good reason. I have several posts on my snow leopard problem. Google first took most people to a post I wrote before I had the solution. When I saw this, I did put links in all the posts about the black screen to get them to the cure post. And only some people took that link. By October 10, it seemed that most of these were being sent to the post with the 'cure' at the end of the title. So Google can learn. The number of these searches also confirms that this is inherent in Snow Leopard.
A Stretch -
nice green birds for cage - This was a person from Canada. I can understand wanting to have a nice green bird around, but the idea of putting a bird into a cage for one's entertainment is a little disturbing. I recognize there's a difference between capturing a wild bird and putting it into a cage and getting one born in captivity. But people raise birds to sell only because there are people who want to put them in cages. This person got to a picture of picture of a bird of paradise in the Bird Park in Singapore. It's a very big cage and you can barely see the bird for all the greenery, but it's still in a cage. Sort of like being under house arrest.
rumor of birds in the house - More birds. Not sure what this means exactly, but it got to a post about a bird that flew into our bedroom window and other bird-house incidents.
kenny g is a jehovahs witness - Well, I have posts on Jehovah's witnesses and I have a post on Pat Metheny writing about Kenny G. But nothing that combines the two. There was a surprisingly large number of people googling Pat Metheny on Kenny G.
apple genius josh at apple store santa monica fired - Well, I did go to the Apple Store in Santa Monica and I did spend time at the genius bar, but I don't recall anyone named Josh. Google found all the words in scattered over four posts. The searcher simply got to my blog - not even a specific post.
parking garages hidden inside mountains pictures - This Austrian searcher got a picture of a parking garage in LA, not at all hidden in a mountain. It was way down on the page they got, but since it was an image search, they did get to choose from a page full of pictures.
famous people who were born in dangerous places - Don't know how helpful this was, but it was an interesting search. They got to Famous People Born in 1909.
what ethical obligations do you personally feel towards wolves and whales - Got to a post about an article written about Wales, Alaska. It talked about ethical obligations urban Alaskans have to understanding the history of rural Alaska among other things.
Probably Not Google's FaultSometimes searchers give Google a real challenge. What did these people want?
how to make the constitution 1500 papers in photoshop - Who knows what this person was after? Not me. Their search got several posts mashed into one and it linked them to one on a post where I photoshopped a picture I took while cross country skiing. But I put the blame here on the person searching - what was he looking for?
what can i grow that isn't agapanthus - lot's of things I'd venture. Can't blame Google for sending this to a post that mentions agapanthus. This is someone who needs to think about her search terms more carefully.
thyland people are eatting abortion child flash is it true - this query came from someone in India who got to a post on the ethics of publishing photos of children. Google combined Children, people's, flash, eating from several different places on the blog.
photo gull light cloudy sky new york city airport - Was this person looking for a specific picture or a picture with all those things? Since this was an image search the searcher presumably got lots of pictures to look at. But this one had no gull, was not New York City or even an airport. But It did have clouds and blue sky. The post it was in mentioned the Santa Monica Airport. I've started to notice - now that I can usually see the image search terms - that Google considers not only the terms in the photo file name, but also terms in the post as well.
does human nature exists in everyone - Now this is an interesting question. I've never directly addressed this question, but the searcher got directed to the post on why everyone should study philosophy.
how much wild salmon 28 weeks pregnant - What was this person looking for? How much she could eat at 28 weeks? How long salmon are pregnant? She got a post on the difference between wild, farmed, and hatchery salmon.
last year when it snowed for eight days complete sentence? - Not completely sure what the searcher wanted. Whether his words were a complete sentence? I'm guessing it was a school assignment and he had to complete the sentence. The google hit combined several posts and had the word snow. The post was about the president-elect breaking with tradition by using complete sentences when he talked.
You Missed This One GoogleMost of these are Google trying too hard to come up with something. Google has trouble saying, "I can't find anything" and maybe that's ok. People find things they didn't know they were looking for.
mango 21 44000 - There's 44,000 in one post. mango in another. And 21 in the google search information. But I don't think this was what the German searcher was looking for.
What Do I know?: 44000 (NYE) at Alaska Women Against Palin ... - [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]
13 Sep 2008 ... That would be like having 44000 people rally in New York City, 20800 in LA, or 15350 in Chicago. ... I can see the mango and sticky rice, but I can't reach it. But I'll learn. ..... 21 hours ago ...
www.whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/.../44000-nye-at-alaska-women-against-
palin.html - Im Cache - Ähnlich
wat do they mean when they say the the duty of the beast in flesh by a split second - Maybe I should have a category of "Searcher goofed." Google found some posts that had some of words. But they weren't all one posts and ultimately I doubt they answered whatever question the searcher had. Here's what Google gave him that got him to this blog:
Should Google have some sort of minimum standard of words being together in a single post? While the bots can find the words really fast, it seems it still takes a human to say, "This is gibberish."
Or is this some sort of internet beach combing and people are just curious about what they might find? The collection of posts Google offered are all from one archived month. I think this is what I've seen before for what seems like random words collected from different posts. If that's accurate, then they have limited the searches to some identified 'page'. Thus they found a single 'page' that had the most words on it, though for a blog that means lots of generally unrelated posts. Perhaps it would be more meaningful on a regular website page. Perhaps they should have a filter for blogs.
what does moosegoose look like - Let me know if you find out. Google gave them a post titled "Moose, Goose Lake, UAA Science Building" I got another one about moosegoose as October ended.
molar tooth - The searcher got a picture (this was image search) of growing tamarind from seed. But it tells us a bit about how the image search works. In the text I mention that the seeds are about the size of a molar tooth. So Google is checking out the words in the text around the picture. This one clearly missed completely.
Does Google have a Sense of Humor?
money saving shopkeeper expert - This image search got to a picture labeled "Buddha Image Shopkeeper Chiang Mai." The picture is of a shop that sells Buddha Images.
www.whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/.../44000-nye-at-alaska-women-against-
wat do they mean when they say the the duty of the beast in flesh by a split second - Maybe I should have a category of "Searcher goofed." Google found some posts that had some of words. But they weren't all one posts and ultimately I doubt they answered whatever question the searcher had. Here's what Google gave him that got him to this blog:
I'm surprised they didn't find 'wat' too.What Do I know?: January 2008
Jan 5, 2008 ... Yes, despite the flesh in the ADN promo article, it's fine for kids ...... 666, the Antichrist and the Mark of the Beast Who is the Antichrist .... Whatever they say is calculated. Truth is a strategic choice, ..... Just because one has the legal right to do something doesn't mean they should do it. ...
whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html - Cached - Similar -
Should Google have some sort of minimum standard of words being together in a single post? While the bots can find the words really fast, it seems it still takes a human to say, "This is gibberish."
Or is this some sort of internet beach combing and people are just curious about what they might find? The collection of posts Google offered are all from one archived month. I think this is what I've seen before for what seems like random words collected from different posts. If that's accurate, then they have limited the searches to some identified 'page'. Thus they found a single 'page' that had the most words on it, though for a blog that means lots of generally unrelated posts. Perhaps it would be more meaningful on a regular website page. Perhaps they should have a filter for blogs.
what does moosegoose look like - Let me know if you find out. Google gave them a post titled "Moose, Goose Lake, UAA Science Building" I got another one about moosegoose as October ended.
molar tooth - The searcher got a picture (this was image search) of growing tamarind from seed. But it tells us a bit about how the image search works. In the text I mention that the seeds are about the size of a molar tooth. So Google is checking out the words in the text around the picture. This one clearly missed completely.
Does Google have a Sense of Humor?
money saving shopkeeper expert - This image search got to a picture labeled "Buddha Image Shopkeeper Chiang Mai." The picture is of a shop that sells Buddha Images.
