Spice Girls Pic

So I was trying to work out why the number of visitors to this site spiked so dramatically this morning (think from 10 or 15 a day to over 400 already). After a bit of digging, it turns out that if you have safesearch turned on moderate, and are looking for images of the Spice Girls, I somehow end up at number 2 in the list with the pic above. So, no idea how all the google magic works, but today it's working good (for me).

Searching the Lijit Way

I mentioned Lijit a while ago, when I first added the widget over on the left. It seems like people actually use it as well, which is a bit of a bonus ;-)

I've actually used it quite a bit, either to search for stuff I know I posted about but can't remember where it was, and also for this stats page (which I've made public so you can all take a look if you're so inclined). The great thing about this is that I get an idea of how many people are actually looking for specific things, and how people end up at my site.

Recent winners seem to be the Kohler Rain Tile (highly recommended, I promise I'll try and take the pick today...), and our good friend Jonny Decker, from this previous post. And also, for whoever was looking to see when Heidi's birthday is - July 25th, and yes, we're going to attempt the usual big bash (the weekend before, as a certain Mr Tonkin has something going in Vegas the weekend after...).

So, if you haven't tried it out, you might be pleasantly surprised...

Lijit - the new way to search

So I'm always interested in cool techie stuff, especially the stuff that actually happens on your own doorstep, and through a wild journey through the interweb place (via Brad, MyBlogLog, WanderingStan and Tara) I finally ended up taking the plunge and signed up for my latest widget over there on the right.

So, here goes, I'll try and explain how it works. It's basically recommended or personal searching. I sign up and say which blogs and websources I typically read (including my own, although looking at some of the typos that get in here I obviously don't read it very well). Then, when you search, it searches those sources for the links and answers to what you're looking for. So, if you think I am probably an expert in for example cars, or gadgets, or button nosed puppies or whatever, you're much more likely to get something that you actually think is relevant. Now I'm obviously not suggesting that I am an expert in anything really (although the cars and over-priced techie toys I do spend an inordinate amount of my limited free time researching and playing with) - that's for you to decide, and then either use the search or not.

So anyway, I still need to add in a couple of (hundred) more links on stuff I read regularly for the answers to start coming back in a somewhat representative fashion (and if you Lijit guys are reading this, being able to suck in my Google Reader feeds would have made me smile even more when I signed up....) but given all 4 people who read this site are probably already down the pub wondering where I am (see previous post), it should be up to date by the time you try.

Anyway, give it a shot and let me know what you think. I can hear the guinness calling.....