2004-01-14 - 11:11 a.m.
Interesting: after noticing a bit of Googling that brought someone to my site, and then Googling their search phrase myself, I discover that this bit of ancient Mirabile Visu history, in which I describe local-Regina-businessman-and-not-wacky-filmmaker Tim Burton's moving enterprise, is actually ranked higher on Google than the official Tim Burton's Moving website itself.In other words, if you visit Google looking for information on Tim Burton's Moving, and you click the links you're offered in sequence, you must first watch as I interrupt your search for a moving business with a bit of silliness about Johnny Depp driving a moving van and then you can hear from Mr. Burton himself and get information about your upcoming move. Odd, isn't it? My drivel, only secondarily connected to a serious subject, must be waded through before you may arrive at the serious subject itself.
It's a little like an eighteenth-century night at the theatre flipped around backwards. First you must sift through the one-act farce, and then you can settle in for the show proper.
I like it, actually.
But what will happen when this page is added to the Google "databank" * and "Tim Burton's Moving" is subsequently Googled? I've gone and said it a few times here -- so will this page outrank the other? Will one be forced to sift through first the commentary about the parasitic phenomenon, then the parasitic phenomenon itself, and then the serious subject? What happens if I update later with the results of having discussed this?
I can see it now: a "mustn't talk about search engine results on websites" rule established at the next meeting of the World Wide Web Consortium.
* Where did this word go? And others like it? "Databank" is such a charming word, from a simpler time when computers required warehouse space and computer operators were people in lab coats walking around replacing vacuum tubes. "Databank" is the squarish, spring-armed take-me-to-your-leader robot (Tobor!) of the English language.
