Blog: November 2004 Archives

The Web is Broken


Once a month or so, I comb through the server logs. Among other things, I look at the phrases or keywords which people enter on my blog or into search engines that drive them to my little spot on the web.

After carefully considering all that people search for, I have to reach the conclusion that the web is irrevocably broken.

Here is a selection of the terms people are searching for.

Blog Search Terms

Search: query for 'Marsupial'
Search: query for 'POOR PEOPLE PHOTOES STRUGGLING FOR FOOD'
Search: query for '99 Luft Balloons'
Search: query for 'WHAT IS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY'

WWW Server Search Terms

hiking in panties
cute pictures i m a little teapot
egg shells for sale
top ten things president theodore roosevelt accomplished

My little corner of the web is so far removed from being an authoritative source of information on any of those topics, that it's laughable. I must admit that some of the search terms which I didn't list do map more neatly on to actual content that I provide. I still don't think I should be the #1 hit on google for the phrase "hiker cuts limb off".


It's interesting that the vision of a semantic web put forward by the good folks at W3C doesn't seem like it has much traction. However, searching the web as a collection of unstructured data seems to be really working. I think blogs fit really nicely into that ecosystem, by serving as artifact collectors and editors who constantly point out new and useful things on the web. One million poo flinging monkeys can make the world a better place.

Comment Policy


Monica wrote about the notion of a comment policy today.

Oddly enough, I was IM'ed just a few days ago and asked about my comment policy.

Official Comment Policy:

I once read that quaker religious services have no set order, but that people sit quietly and only share something when they are confident that they can improve upon the silence.

That is my comment policy. If you believe you have something to say which "improves upon the silence" then it stays.

I may or may not fix your spelling or formatting errrors. I may or may not censor your potty mouth, depending mostly on how funny you are.

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About this Archive

This page is a archive of entries in the Blog category from November 2004.

Blog: October 2004 is the previous archive.

Blog: December 2004 is the next archive.

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