MYSTERIES OF THE INTERNET
(plus a little horn-tooting)
Almost a year ago I allowed my Picasa Photo Album to be searchable on Google image search and within the Picasa community. I didn't think much of it and because there's no way to track traffic on Picasa I never thought anybody visited my photo albums.
Then all of a sudden starting on October 8th I started getting tons of comments from people all over the world on different individual photos. There were comments in English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Polish, Chinese and other languages. They were coming in at a rate of about 12 per day! I was pretty excited about this and I have no idea why the sudden flood of comment-leaving visitors occurred. What made it even more perplexing was that after October 14 the comments suddenly stopped coming. I haven't received any since!
UPDATE: Some Russian lady has just left a bunch of comments in Russian! They translate really funny because I think she was trying to be poetic. Cool!
I have no explanation for this. I don't know if a photo of mine was posted as a "photo of the week" somewhere on Picasa or what. It really has me baffled.
Here are some of the "most talked about" photos. If you click on them it will take you to the Picasa album where you can read the comments for yourself.
I was a little surprised that this photo from my day on Lake Constance received by far the most comments...
Another Lake Constance photo...
An old classic from Amethyst Basin in the Uintah Mountains, 2006.
Bell's Canyon Waterfall, 2006...
At the "Wave" in Arizona, 2007...
Tulum, Mexico, 2007...
Driving by Strawberry Reservoir, 2007...
Approaching Garmisch last August...
Above La Paz, Bolivia, 2007....
Some of the comments are pretty funny. Most are in "My Favorite Photos" album.
My other internet mystery concerns YouTube. Pretty much the only reason I use YouTube is to occasionally post small video clips on my blog. The videos on my YouTube page are all searchable within YouTube, but I usually give them obscure tags so that people won't easily stumble onto them.
If you'll recall way back in February when I was in Hamburg, I went up the stairs of a church tower and recorded the bells of St. Michaelis ringing. I posted it on the blog just for fun, but I thought it was a fairly "whoopdie-doo" kind of thing.
The mystery: As of the writing of this post this video has 966 views!
This one has 931 views!
This is by far much more than any of my other videos have received. Somebody out there is getting a real kick out of those bells.
Explanations??
...
9 Deep thoughts:
Quasimoto finally decided he was a laptop kinda guy?
Nate, I've just spent the better part of my afternoon going through your trips with Alan, Oktoberfest, Sound of music, etc. etc. When I saw this recent post, I had to comment. I know why people love your blogs - because they are so fun! The pictures are gorgeous, the wit is funny, the comments about what we're seeing are so detailed and it all adds up to an amazing blog experience. Thanks!! Way to go Nate!
As far as why people would come in droves and then disappear as suddenly, I have no idea. It will just have to go down as one of the mysteries of the internet. You go Nate!
I blame El Nino. The pending one.
I think bret has a crush on you.
Uncle Bret?
Nah... he's just a nice guy.
Oh, I forgot to tell you that I've programmed those bells as my kids' alarm clock every morning. Yah, all ya do is set up a laptop by their bed and they can wake up to the bells. It is their little gift from Uncle Nate every morning. Mostly they just grumble, "Darn Nate..."
As you can see, I've woken them up about 931 times.
Maybe it's because of those stickers I made (with your Picasaweb address, of course) and stuck every where I went. Okay, I didn't really do that. But you deserve praise, those pictures are amazing.
I can't believe your bells have gotten more views than Baby Ben eating dirt. Sometimes things just aren't fair.
The web is a weird place. I can't believe over 13,000 have now seen my short clip on JFK and the Mormons. Several new comments are posted each week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vScmOEEAW_8&feature=related
In all your travels you have developed a pretty impressive photo collection! Marco Polo would be proud.
Post a Comment