Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Roadblocks to Research

Thanks to Mary for that peek at the Dark Side yesterday. Getting into the heads of those bad guys can be scary.

As I attempt to comprehend what it's going to mean when we have to disconnect from the Internet and pack my PC, I realize my laptop isn't a duplicate of my PC. I use Dropbox (which I raved about in a post a few months ago) but only move files I'm working on, or plan to be working on into the box. So, just as I have to decide which of our possessions I will have to have with me and which I can leave in storage until we find a home, I'm trying to determine which files I'll need. I realize my laptop bookmarks for my browser are very minimal. I wanted to copy all the bookmarks from my PC to my laptop, but wasn't sure how to find them.

I went to the Firefox Help files, but still couldn't figure it out. "Find" bookmarks wasn't getting me anywhere. So, I asked my in-house IT guy, and he (with that undertone of, "how stupid can you be?") directed me to the right places to click. Which, it turns out, are under "Organize". I got them onto my flash drive and went to put them on my laptop. However, the "logical" option for me was "Import." I mean, "Import" means move something from one place to another, right? Nope. Hubster stomped in, comandeered the laptop, and moved them, telling me it was simple. Just click "Restore." Well, that wasn't intuitive.

Keep Reading...

As writers, doing research is part of the game. And it's not only writers who use the internet to look for things. Could be a restaurant, a map, or a recipe. But, as I learned long ago, it means asking the right questions.

Today, I'm revisiting a post from June of 2008. Did Your Search Engine Run out of Gas?

I got curious about how people found this blog. I'm not exactly a 'big name'. So, for the month of May, I tracked all the search engine words that brought people to this site. After eliminating those who were actually looking for me specifically, this is what I ended up with:

behind the scene sex scene
between her legs
bluesex
brockmann into the fire
bullet catchers apprentice blogspot
buy voice stress analyzer
central florida dui checkpoints
cerridwen press in print
coldest winter in florida
computerized voice stress analyzer
contractions
counting to 10 in Africa
crutch words
darrell-king-artist
dead heat audiobook dick francis
drink coasters one liners
excerpt: into the fire by suzanne brockmann
flashbang candle
frustrations with research
funniest character names
funny names that don't fit ironic
gayle wilson award of excellence
graaf reneit
handyman proposals
how can i reenforce pages in a ring binder
hurricane breeze paper
hurricane count down
hwuhwule game reserve
interview in progress sign
jason santiago good nite
jason santiago-central florida location
jonathan odell the last safe place
male pov sites
marjorie m. liu
military civilian police academy test quiz
my chip carving-give away contest
nightgown sex
police class 5
polygraph have you ever had sex with an animal
polygraph place
polygraph say no to everything
reading programs nora
retirement jobs handyman
righting a tipped-over motorcycle
sara dennis no accounting for chase
scoring guide for a womanless contest
severe back pain, begged for backrub
sex bed scenes
sex scene
short sex scene
sleuthfest agent
smartours south Africa
spoilers: into the fire by suzanne brockmann
stephanie odell
suzanne brockmann ebook - over the edge
syneca cover art
terri Detweiler
terrie's place
terry exterminator place
terry meanings names
terry odell irad
terry sex
terryodell free reads
terry's place hair Chicago
the dreaded synopsis
the waiter slipped his hand under the table up her leg her date opened her playing with her nipples
trouble fundraising with team in training
what to wear for chp voice stress analysis test
why men apologize

I wonder -- were you looking for me when you came here? How did you find me?

And again, if you enjoy my posts, please share them via the links below.

8 comments:

Carol Kilgore said...

"So, I asked my in-house IT guy, and he (with that undertone of, "how stupid can you be?") directed me to the right places to click. Which, it turns out, are under "Organize"..."

Don't you hate that?

I'm still laughing.

And I have an award for you at my blog - for when you nothing to do - LOL

Sam said...

Hmm. How did I find you? Oh, right, we sat together at a Sleuthfest cocktail party. See you Friday!

Terry Odell said...

Carol - thanks for stopping by. And glad I gave you a chuckle -- I'll try to get to your blog.

Sam - yes, I remember meeting at SleuthFest. Can't wait to get out of here tomorrow!

Mary Ricksen said...

You're a TWRP author, that says it all!

Terry Stonecrop said...

You showed up somehow on a Google Alert. I forget which one, I change them periodically. But it looked good and I read your site and started coming back for more because I enjoy your posts and learn a lot.

Terry Odell said...

Mary - glad that was a connect for you

Terry - I'm delighted you found me, and more delighted you became a frequent visitor.

Dr. Harl Delos said...

If I hadn't seen some of the strange search terms people used when they've come to my various sites over the years, I'd be concerned. My word, your searchers seem to have sex on their mind. And some pretty kinky sex at that!

No wonder I like this site!

Doc Searles did a post a week or so ago, pointing out that Google may be in trouble, long-term, because they mostly depend on advertising for their income, and fewer and fewer people are clicking on ads. He had stats, and I don't, but I suspect fewer and fewer people are finding sites through search.

I found this site because you posted on another blog, and I wanted to know more about the person who made that particular observation.

There's a whole industry out there of Search Engine Optimization, but he who lives by SEO is highly vulnerable to SEO. If you consistantly post content people want to read, you'll get a lot of repeat traffic, and those people will send you more readers.

Imagine that! Good writing might actually attract readers!

Terry Odell said...

Harl, however you found me, I'm glad you did, and glad you decided it was worth sticking around.