Michael Gracie

I do check site stats - I am usually looking for what other people are looking for - keywords that got them here. I don’t try putting two and two together, to figure out who looked for what, and I don’t adjust postings based on keywords (unless I get a request to remove a name or something like that). It is more about curiousity than anything else. Seems that the federal government is curious about what people are searching for too, as they are after Google’s personalized search results.

I was tired of hacking the Safari search bar to use my preferred engine in place of Apple’s hardcoded Google “suggestion” (something that has to been done everytime the browser gets cued for a regular patch), and was using Google again over the last month. I just cleaned up those personalized results from Google, after getting tired of it making suggestions for me as well.

By the way, Google has NOT turned over any results to the government - how long they can hold off subpoenas is anyone’s guess. The Feds say they need the data for research into how often pornography shows up in online searches, but with all the chatter about spying and so forth, I just have to wonder…

Why isn’t the government just running their own queries?
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I found out about a cute trick while browsing Frank Anderson’s Blingo Buzz. Pop your name into a search bar, followed by the word “needs” and see what the results tell you.

What do I need? As it turns out:

- open lines of communication;
- juice;
- a bit more flesh; and
- some dependable adults in my life.

I could also use a hole in my head, but who’s asking.