rustypants speaks

heard about the new browser from google? it’s in beta right now and i’m giving it a run. it’s intriguing at this point and it gives me a couple reasons to consider it over firefox (my browser of choice for many years now).

here’s a good article about it in the washington post.

here’s the link to download the beta version.

here’s google’s cool comic book format explaining why you should switch (and the specifics on the technology behind the browser).

in conversation with fellow blogger SWNID the other evening, we enjoyed discussion on the zany search strings that lead people to our writings.

for the uninitiated, when you go to google or yahoo or dogpile and enter a phrase that you want the search engine to find matches for, this results in a search string – the search engine then uses this to determine which websites most closely hit all aspects of your search… and sometimes to hilarious results.

google has a little program that i use called Google Analytics – it looks at traffic on websites and shows very specific information that can be a HUGE help for folks who are trying to track and analyze who and how and why people are visiting their sites. it also shows the specific phrases used in search engines that brought these people to my writing. now, my blogging exploits are mainly fun and entertainment for me (and you?) and hardly warrant in-depth analysis of who’s reading and who’s not…

but it IS fun to see some of this information! it’s even more fun to think, “how on earth did this search engine figure that MY blog matches THIS string of words?!?”

so some of the search strings that have landed people at rustypants.net in the last 45 days include:

• “+18 plus eighteen mad in turkey t-shirt”
• “the longest toes”
• “dogs that like to roll in poop”
• “graduation verses 8th grade you’ve made me so proud”
• “if you don’t go to church do you go to hell?”
• “junk in truck lots of sugar in tank” (this one is one of my favorites)
• “nasty hot pants.net”
• “nudist spy cam.”
• “mittens anti-poop”
• “smart women stripping in bathroom”
• “thick southern accents and teaching phonics”
• “women dancing around propane grill”

and my personal favorite of the last 45 days…

• “why does peter furler wear eyeliner”

certainly, some of these i can somewhat fathom how they related to my writing. anything with “poop” in it must relate to dolby’s poop-eating past. church-going-to-hell would be the sign along the highway. longest toes must be the fehrman sisters. the peter furler search was because of my hatred of the newsboys.

but turkey t-shirts? junk in trunk? nudist spy cam?

and there are about a dozen that i can’t even list on a family-oriented blog such as this (har har).

what has gotten me the most traffic in the last thirty days has been my post referencing stretch armstrong – five to ten people a day are searching for a picture or information on stretch and land here.

useless, mindless information but still a good laugh for the blogger.

hey, maybe if i blog about paris hilton or amy winehouse, i can really get the number of visits up!

this article surprised (scared?) the crap out of me.

but then given how facebook opened up and started broadcasting everyone’s personal business even on their own pages earlier this year, maybe i shouldn’t be surprised.

in the end, though, i don’t need everyone knowing every single thing i do down to the purchases i make online.

and then there are new applications such as Twitter that a friend of mine uses and i have to ask: dude, who cares this much about every single little thing that you do all damn day long? i mean, do you really want to advertise all the boring junk you do? and do your other friends really care that at 9:22 you brushed your teeth?

oy vey.