Saturday, April 4, 2009

Search Me

WTF? Google

This single post, The Cars of the Beast, is responsible for nearly 60% of the traffic on this blog. Folks are coming from around the world to see that page. It's been viewed from one hundred countries just since February     What's up with that?

The Cars of the Beast screen shot

The Cars of the Beast, on LostBob's Blog


A Google Web search for cars of the beast, the title of the post, shows nothing unusual. My Blog is listed part way down the first page.

Note: Clicking on the images below will repeat the Google Search as I entered it, opening in a (single) new window.

Google search screen capture
If I put the search string in quotes Google's response is more specific but still nothing to compel folks from around the world to click on it.

Google search screen captureA closer look at my StatsCounter reports show that over 77% of my visitors arrive Google Image Search, less than 4% from all other searches and only two of nearly 2000 from Google Blog Search. Isn't that curious?

A Google Image search for the cars of the beast yields this:

Google image search screen capture OK, the shiny black Porsche Carrera and Lamborghini are pretty cool. I'd click on those. Seems to explain why folks find that post. But watch what happens if you put the search string in quotes:

Google Image Search screen capture Every picture displayed, save one, is by LostBob, every link is to this blog. Those on the second page too. Most of the images shown do not appear on the Cars of the Beast post. In fact, clicking most will take you to places in the blog where the car of the beast photos cannot even be seen. Some take you to posts with photos different than the one shown.

WTF? Google

And here's a surprise. If You leave the s off of cars Google gets really personal, ignoring the car photos completely. I think Google is trying to scare me away from Flickr and onto Picasa.

Google image search screen capture
Big Brother really is watching.

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