Search Terms Pt. 3

My favorite part of egotistically glancing at my blog's status overview is reviewing the search terms that people use to mysteriously end up at a specific blog entry.  Some of them make sense: "librarian in the cupboard," anything Harry Potter, "books for kids," etc.  Actually, they all make sense and that's a little bit frightening. Or maybe it's not frightening - it just demonstrates that search engines aren't always the perfect choice for finding information.

"candy chocolate the big bang theory"

I think what this person was searching for was the episode where Sheldon performs operant conditioning on Penny by giving her chocolate for good behavior.  What they were instead led to was a crazed description of how I'm happy when I eat a lot of food and how I met the actor who plays Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory

"telling kids they are ugly"

Yeaaaaa, I don't actually give advice for this one.  My apologies.

"ugly duckling - backstreet boys fan fic"

So, so, so utterly terrifying that I understand why this user ended up at my blog.  (I mention the Backstreet Boys in my rant about The Ugly Duckling - you need to read it to understand why).

"is there symbolism in al capone does my shirts?"

YES! THERE IS!

"picture books that compare to i am the messenger."

I don't have this, but now I'm intrigued.

"list of graphic novels in big bang theory"

Also something I don't have, but intend to work on now

Search Terms

More humorous search phrases people are using that somehow lead them to my blog:

"who is the mastermind in i am the messenger"

Did you have a book report to finish?  Couldn't bother reading the rest of the book?  Actually, I can't blame you for asking this question.  The ending of that book is pretty lame.  The answer is the author.  Deep, eh?

"why shouldn't adults judge children"

Because they're tricky lil buggers, that's why.   Did you never read Matilda or see "Home Alone"?  Piss them off and they will get you.  But all joking aside, though I technically wasn't joking, children are a lot smarter than they're given credit for.  So unless you're complaining about how the TV shows they're watching are nothing compared to the shows Nickelodeon used to play, which is an incredibly valid argument, then try to hold back a little judgment. 

"why doesn't mrs. basil frankweil not like the museum"

Uh, she doesn't have a problem with the museum, but then again, your use of double negatives is asking why she does like it.  Also, you spelled her name wrong. 

"librarian risque images"
I have no idea what entry this led to.  I feel like I should be concerned.

Again, it's pretty clear that search engines zero in on the keywords and match searches to sites in such a fashion.  They don't look for context, they look for word matches.  None of these searches would have led to anything remotely useful in my blog. 

Search Terms

-panopticon related to the disreputable history

-"cautionary tales" +"children's books list"

-ap we didn't start the fire lesson plan

-what happened pp 80-150 in the giver

These are just some of the search terms people have used to end up at this blog.  Only 1 of them led to  what I would consider an actual match.  Unfortunately for that last search, which I assume came from a student who hadn't done his/her homework, it wasn't the match.

Sometimes you can get lucky with longer search phrases, but most of the time you're not going to find exactly what you're looking for.  Being specific in your search doesn't mean use more words.  Search engines just bring up results that contain those words, usually in order of popularity.  Just because the terms are all present in the site doesn't mean that they're actually related to each other in their presentation. 

Adults have a hard enough time figuring out how to search for information, but children who are just learning how to use search engines are usually worse.  Not only do they never look past the first page of results, but their search terms are atrocious.  According to research, if children don't find what they're looking for, they either change their spelling, rearrange their search terms, or add more words.  Then they repeat the process over and over.  With the rise in technology and in turn, the rise in ridiculously young children using it, children  are developing bad search habits before properly learning how to search for information.  Hence why people (cough, librarians) need to interfere before their bad search habits become too fixed. 

This video, while frightening, is pretty adorable.  Unfortunately, the kid's name is Bridger.  Oh well.