The 7 Ways That People Search the Web 239
SpaceAdmiral writes "After the recent release of AOL search logs, Paul Boutin used the site splunkd.com to analyse the logs. His analysis groups searchers into seven categories: The Pornhound, the Manhunter, the Shopper, the Obsessive, the Omnivore, the Newbie, and the Basketcase. My favorite example search is in the Basketcase category: 'i hurt when i think too much i love roadtrips i hate my weight i fear being alone for the rest of my life.'"
Moo (Score:5, Funny)
The First Poster - Although this phenominon has been addressed and has somewhat lessened, there are still echoes of "First Post". These people wait on a "Mysterious Furure" story as post stupidities just to get in first.
The Fisher - These posters, rarely named Bobby, check-in with a kingly posts to generate replies and nothing more. Their posts, perhaps at first, seem to make sense, but on closer review contain mnay misstakes, intentionally designed to garner replies.
The old-timer - These posters, who hang around slashdot land, have forgotten to move on. They post just to show off their low slashdot id. This makes some druel, and others comment that low id does not mean more intelligent. However, they're all wrong anyway.
The reposter - Reposters wait for old stories to come up again and find modded-up comments from the old stories to repost. If this is the first time such a story is up, they post a bunch of old buzzwords that realign synergistic paradigm shifts.
The soap stander - Soap-Standers have what to say, and don't care where they say it, such as about why Bush is beery good, and that the UN and its anonymous leader are drunkards, and no amount of coffee will help.
The idiot - Idiots can't count, post moronic comments, and quickly type in useless garbage to fill in a little more space.
And the Cowboy (Score:2)
One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:4, Interesting)
You forgot number seven. Should it be a troll? Or perhaps you forgot Poland?
Beyond your ability to count, the article seems quite interesting. My PhD supervisor made an intesresting comment about Google the other day: he said that people at Google must have very interesting information concerning the trends of "common knowledge," this is, before September, 11, 2001 a Google search for "september wtc" would yield totally different results, which surely will show the most "common" of things that people was searching for.
Likewise, if you searched for "Katrina" in Google before August 2005, you maybe ended in the page of someone named like that.
These are basic examples of informaiton that can be obtained with the "time" factor of the Google logs. Remember that time gives another dimension to your data, which lets you extract more information from it. Something among tht lines of image-pattern recognition, it is easier to match patterns from a moving image than from a static image.
Re:One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:5, Funny)
I believe he was purposefully putting himself in the 'idiot' category for comedic value.
Perhaps the 7th category is for people who miss the joke?:)
Re:One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:2)
I think the idiot joke was the only meta-joke.
Re:One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:2)
7: The Pedant (Score:2)
That would make the 7th category nothing but a subset of the 6th.
Re:7: The Pedant (Score:2)
Re:One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:2)
Re:One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:2)
Actually, it was the second post. But i got that close.
Re:One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a trick post. (Score:2)
This proves, however, that the categories are bitmasks and not discrete values.
Re:One, two, three, four, five, six. (Score:3, Interesting)
Why yes [google.com], yes they do [google.com].
Re:Moo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Moo (Score:4, Funny)
the oblivious pedantic bastard you mean (Score:2)
Re:the oblivious pedantic bastard you mean (Score:2)
Re:the oblivious pedantic bastard you mean (Score:2)
Too many *whoosh* sounds, too many tender egos...
Re:the oblivious pedantic bastard you mean (Score:2)
There is another category, the people who have to explain their jokes. I was tempted to say there should be another category, for people with no sense of humor, but the overlap involved rules out such an idea.
Re:Moo (Score:2)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
Re:Moo (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
Crap someone has figured us out.
Re:Moo (Score:2)
Re:Moo (Score:5, Funny)
Thats me, and I think your wrong about being wrong.
Re:Moo (Score:2)
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Re:Moo (Score:2)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
The Spellchecker - Posts to note that the parent has dreamed up the worst spelling of drool ever.
Re:Moo (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
In an attempt to help you decide which type you are, I have decided to proof your post.
s/phenominon/phenomenon/
s/"Mysterious Furure" story as post stupidities/"Mysterious Future" story and post stupidities/
s/check-in with a kingly posts/check in with a kingly post/ (or s/check-in with a kingly posts/check in with kingly posts/)
mnay misstakes: I assumed this was intentional. See? I a
Re:Moo (Score:2)
s/phenominon/phenomenon/
I actually figured i spelled that incorrectly, but i forgot to check it before i posted.
s/"Mysterious Furure" story as post stupidities/"Mysterious Future" story and post stupidities/
No excuse for that one.
s/check-in with a kingly posts/check in with a kingly post/ (or s/check-in with a kingly posts/check in with kingly posts/)
That happened because i rewrote it to have a stupid chess reference. I didn't double-check the rewrite closely enough.
mnay misstakes: I assumed t
Re:Moo (Score:2)
If you care about your spelling, you should use a spell checker, you can get them for all major web browsers these days :D
Re:Moo - Newbie! (Score:2)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
(Hmm, I just made a useless comment to fill space. I must be an idiot.)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
+h3 1337-5p34k!|\|6 h4x0r - vvh4+3v3r !5 541) !|\| 7331 50|\|)5 pr0f0|\|).
The troll - The evolution of this species has more to do with Godwin's Law than Darwin's.
The
The tag-along - Though incapable of original thought, this poster can flog any subject through mimicry until all humor and
Re:Moo (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Moo (Score:2)
On that note (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:On that note (Score:2)
Re:On that note (Score:2)
Other options? (Score:2)
Where does Cowboy Neal fit into the 7?
Are politicians their own category, or are they basketcases, or Pornhounds?
The Truth is out There (Score:3, Interesting)
So was Neo a manhunter, an obsessive, or just an omnivore?
Re:The Truth is out There (Score:4, Funny)
Categories (Score:2, Funny)
Just a note on the Obsessive (Score:5, Insightful)
For some reason I stubbornly don't use bookmarks often (as when you have too many, they quickly become worthless) so that obscure search term might be in my profile 300 times over the course of a year if it's a site that I visit daily from the office.
Then again, I post on Slashdot a ton... I'm sure it's pretty obsessive anyway.
Re:Just a note on the Obsessive (Score:2)
The thing thatgets me is when I find something via search, only to forget to bookmark it, then forget exactly what combination got me there. I've noted Google has a way of looking at your past searches (beta, of course) and that's helpful, although scary to thi
Re:Just a note on the Obsessive (Score:3, Interesting)
The one that kills me is the website that is huge and poorly organized. I will remember the main website, but damn if I can remember how to get to the particular page I need... or if I really want to navigate through six slow-loading pages to get there.
Re:Just a note on the Obsessive (Score:2)
They're all just people (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, a lot of this AOL search data is quite amusing, in a sad, pathetic way. Too many people are having their jollies over it, while secretly being scared someone's going to get a peek at their searching record when Google finally loses its mind and makes the data available. It's easy to laugh, and be downright frightened, but in the end, we type our searches in, click the button and don't give it another thought. People wish to judge (myself included); it was a survival instinct in a far distant past and now it manifests itself as a morbid curiosity with the lives of other people.
People come in all colors, size, and mental states, AOL users undoubtedly more so. SO in their you'll find your fair share of freaks or freak wannabes, but mostly you'll just find people trying to find out things. What makes them freakish is not what they type in, but what they do with the information.
Re:They're all just people (Score:3, Interesting)
Admit it, which one of you never googled their own name?
Googling yourself (Score:3, Interesting)
But if you've googled yourself and other people, it's a little trickier to determine from the list which one is you.
Though if the list of names contains 25 celebrities and "Joe Smith," it might not be hard to narrow down. At that point, you're the guy in the red shirt who beamed down to the hostile planet with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty. Yeah, the monsters could kill anyone in the party, but it doesn't take much effort to guess who it'll be.
Re:They're all just people (Score:3, Funny)
Sweet Jesus, not while I was searching for porn!
The 8th way (Score:3, Funny)
So AOL is ...... The Breakfast Club??? (Score:5, Funny)
Probably most people on this board are too young to remember anyway....
Re:So AOL is ...... The Breakfast Club??? (Score:4, Funny)
Nope those of us too young to have seen it in the theater have definitely seen it on video, many times.
In fact the movie gives rise to the unofficial Slashdot slogan:
Slashdot: Demented and sad, but social.
Re:So AOL is ...... The Breakfast Club??? (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, the fact that I think that probably means I'm an old geezer
nice splunk spam (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:nice splunk spam (Score:2)
This is Fascinating, But ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is Fascinating, But ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is Fascinating, But ... (Score:3, Interesting)
If they really log it, I really hope they use a compression that checks the redundancy of messages, considered all the porn spam bot messages. Oh well that probably mostly affects AIM (to the point there isn't even any conversation ever going on anymore, I recently tried, blocked all the bots and waited, and lurking during half an hour all you could see was a couple of 14 year old girls saying hello and leaving as soon) but if they log AOL chatrooms why wouldn't they log AIM too?
This being said, I'll never
Very interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if a similar Google sample would show different results or identify other archetypes?
I definitly fall into the "Omnivore" type. I would imagine most Slashdotters do.
Actually, maybe the Basket Case one is a better fit for most Slashdotters.
Re:Very interesting... (Score:2)
There are very few laws protecting the concept of privacy, especially at the federal level. The Supreme Court hasn't made any breakthrough privacy rulings in its existance. The only thing protecting your privacy is really the apparent goodwill of other citizens.
You se
Why TIA is a bad idea (Score:5, Insightful)
That, right there, tells you why we need to worry about "Uncle Sam" having access to *everyone's* search logs - search terms alone contain an implicit picture of what should be some of the most private aspects of your life. Now imagine if user number 672368 turns out to be, say, John McCain's daughter, and Karl Rove got his hands on this just before the Republican presidential primaries...
what do you think would happen? what do you think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy [wikipedia.org]Joe McCarthy could have done with this kind of data? Write to your elected official and ask them these questions, and what safeguards they are putting in place to prevent any such abuse - and tell them you will be voting this fall. Then call your local news channel, and ask them to run a story on it, and ask the candidates for comment. The big networks won't start a story like this, but if a small station is lucky enough to get a clip of a politician stumbling over an answer, it'll be syndicated faster than you can say "feeding frenzy".
(and for those of you naive enough to think that Karl Rove doesn't have access to the equivalent government databases through some back-room contact or another, I have a bridge you might be interested in buying...)
Re:Why TIA is a bad idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh, no.
If you push the "mainstream media" (which is a profit-seeking sensationalism machine) to run with this, the story will not be, "The Government can spy on the most intimate details of your life." Rather, it will be, "Searching for The Searcher: Hunt for Abortion-Seeker Grips Nation." Unholy amounts of money and media resources will be devoted, not to checking Government excesses and lawlessness and preserving the integrity of the Republic, but instead to trying to determine the identity of this mysterious woman, abandoned by a lothario, and left to agonize over the moral quandary of leading an exemplary Christian life (whatever that might mean) and terminating a pregnancy she knows she can't handle. The media circus around this story would make the stories surrounding Terri Schiavo look like a 30-second Public Service Announcement.
Face it: It's the perfect American "news" soap opera. And it also has the beauty of urgency: "Can she be found before she has the abortion?" (Never mind the fact these search queries are fairly old.)
So, no. You don't want to push this in front of CNN. They will spin it completely the wrong way. Why? Because that's what'll make them the most money. And the poor unfortunate woman in the middle of all this will be totally fucked. Again.
Schwab
Re:Why TIA is a bad idea (Score:2)
Ooops, I think I just proved your point.
Re:Why TIA is a bad idea (Score:2)
How in blue blazes is that post +Funny?
Now.. (Score:2)
Example : Obsessive Pornhounds(typical behaviour: spends inordinate times in usenet, loves tenta..)
or Manhunter Shopper(typical behaviour : posts on craiglists under 10 different profiles, e/n queen at somethingcrappy or somethinsomething)
or perhaps Newbie Basketcase (typical behaviour: reloads
or heck maybe Newbie Pornhounds or Basketcase Omnivore..
Purely in the name of research of co
Seven Dirty Searches (Score:2, Funny)
In a way, it sort of is.
Assumptions (Score:5, Insightful)
The article is an interesting read but I'm not buying into his category system.
Re:Assumptions (Score:2)
Not to mention that I sometimes find patterns in search results and re-search to refine it. I may be searching for reviews on the Honda Civic, but be getting a lot of dealership sites, so I'd go back and exclude "dealership", and whatnot, until the search comes out with a good signal-to-noise ratio.
Slashdotted (Score:2)
The porn site has now been slashdotted.
Get off my born, bitches!
Not "obsessive", but lazy (Score:2, Insightful)
For me, I will goggle words that I know that will contain links that I want to see, but never remember to bookmark. It's much easier to just go to a search engine and type a keyword and scroll for the link in the first 10 hits, rather than go through your hundreds of bookmarks to find exactly the one you're looking for.
You're as crazy as my wife! (Score:3, Funny)
I do have fun with it and occasionally, block Google on my DNS and watch as
Re:You're as crazy as my wife! (Score:2)
Was it strategic ? (Score:2, Insightful)
If you analyze the search data you'll know that video market is growing rapidly. Search engines are surely driven by porn market. It explains why google was fighting for that data. It could have bought down their revenue. As search engines are useful for the development of internet, user data is useful for the development of future product because you k
2281868 is the winner... (Score:5, Funny)
Basketcase (Score:2)
Re:Basketcase (Score:2)
Is it good news or bad news.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Is it good news or bad news.... (Score:5, Funny)
Or at least they don't use AOL searches to find it.
Re:Is it good news or bad news.... (Score:2)
I assume, that is.
Best. Search history. Ever. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Best. Search history. Ever. (Score:2)
Well there's your problem right there.
Looks like you already did that, Sparky.
Big news... (Score:5, Insightful)
The analysis denotes an astoundingly low level of understanding of how people actually use the web. What the author is seeing is absolutely normal and obvious. The only abnormal thing is his surprise.
The Pornhound. The fact that people search for porn on the web must rank as the discovery of the year!
The Manhunter. Who ever bookmarks other people's web pages? I just type the people's names in Google, and most people I know do just that. We are all manhunters I guess.
The Shopper. Same as above, who uses bookmarks? If I am interested in a treo 700 and I type it 37 times in 3 days, this just means that I find it more convenient to type treo 700, then select from the search results, that bookmark the result pages that I am interested in. And this is reasonable: why should I create bookmarks that become useless once I do buy the treo?
The Obsessive. See above. People that search often for A are simply people who don't bother creating a bookmark for some results about A. Big discovery.
The Omnivore. Ok, so when the pattern is complex, the author gives up. This is a really informative category.
The Newbie. Again, it must rank as one of the big discoveries of the year that there are newbies on AOL...
The Basket Case. This seems to be a repeat of "the omnivore", except that the author found these queries weirder.
Who posted this on Slashdot? It's not interesting research at all! It's junk!
Re:Big news... (Score:2)
The Pirate (Score:5, Interesting)
While the pr0n crowd gets its own category, it would seem those who use the Internet to illicitly acquire copyrighted materials would simply fall into a subcategory of the Obsessive, and not an important enough one to be mentioned in the article. What of those brave souls who search for cracks, keygens, nocd patches, torrents, dvd rippers, and the like? Are they less prevalant than some would have us believe, or perhaps because AOL appeals to a less tech-savvy demographic, its searches might underrepresent them.
Omnivore subcategory: ouch! (Score:3, Interesting)
I use IMDb as much as I use Google. A merging of those two would be quite convenient for me.
Oh, and let's throw in Wikipedia while we're at it. While it may not be as accurate as a paper-published encyclopedia, it's still a zillion times more accurate than the average one-off webpage you're likely to find on any given topic.
Re:Omnivore subcategory: ouch! (Score:2)
Oh, and let's throw in Wikipedia while we're at it.
No need. Wikipedia articles consistently come out at the top of Google searches, especially if your search term is an article title. Next time Wikipedia is having a fundraiser, Google should just give them as much money as they're looking for, which is typically pocket change as far as Google is concerned. I'd bet they drive a great deal of traffic Wikipedia's way, and are therefore responsible for much of their server load.
Re:Omnivore subcategory: ouch! (Score:2)
Self-selection (Score:4, Interesting)
Seven Deadly Search habits? (Score:4, Interesting)
{
The Pornhound: Lust,
the Manhunter: Envy,
the Shopper: Greed,
the Obsessive: Gluttony,
the Omnivore: Sloth,
the Newbie: Anger,
the Basketcase: Pride
};
*This is my post-RTFA relational array.
I don't know... those kinda look like lyrics...
Re:They missed out the Googler (Score:4, Interesting)
The Newbie.
They just figured out how to turn on the computer. User No. 12792510 is one of many who confuses AOL's search box with its browser address window--he keeps seaching for "www.google." Other AOLers type their searches without spaces between the words ("newcaddillacdeville") as if they were 1990s-era AOL keywords.
Re:They missed out the Googler (Score:2)
Re:They missed out the Googler (Score:2)
Rich
Re:They missed out the Googler (Score:2)
First you are right, it completely (or almost completely) eliminates the hassles of typo's in the URL. Personally I have gone to the wrong web site one too many times after typing in cmm.com (for CNN) or whatever - if I type it in on the Google search bar built into Firefox and Google likes it, I click it. The second reason : no history of going there in the drop-down box. I still haven't figured out in IE how to remove a single recently visited site from the
Re:They missed out the Googler (Score:4, Insightful)
I have absolutely no clue as to how the parent post deserves '+5 Insightful', I just guess there's enough people out there that *want* to believe anything bad said about AOL.