For those of you who often find yourselves wondering how the hell it is that people make their way around the Internet without ever reading their search results, I suggest you go to AOL’s database of search results from specific users which it recently put up online, and search for number 711391. It’s a magnificent case study in how some people use search engines. What I want to know is how and why they come to use them this way; I know my own use of search strings is significantly different. (For one thing, I don’t feed search engines my cries for help, or even questions worded as such.)
I’ve been in the Google offices and seen their scrolling wall of real-time search terms, and I can tell you these are more or less par for the course. The amazing thing is seeing one person’s searches play themselves out over time. As Bakon says:
I can’t even explain how overwhelming it is–it’s an incredibly heartbreaking and bizarre blend of vanity, “Christian” values, insecurity, sexual manipulation, and something akin to a descent into madness. It’s like Dostoevsky meets the world wide internets, except worse, because you know it’s all true.
Thanks to Bakon for pointing this particular thread out.
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