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April 8, 2006
Emergent Behavior and the internet
I swear the internet is out of control. As proof, consider the following. Tonight, I was browsing through the hits to my website, and checking how they found me. Mostly, I just see the normal google searches for airplane crash videos, how to make TATP in a bathtub, Al Queda training manuals, how to shoot down a plane with a .22 rifle. Just the normal searches. Then, I saw a link into my website today that seemed odd.
Someone searching for a youth hostel in Key West. OK. I've been there. Never stayed there, but I checked the place out, just for good measure. So, I click on the URL, and there's a freaking Google Map entry pinpointing the place with a big red thumbtack and a link back to my article on Key West on Peenie Wallie. So, I'm like...huh. And I'm hinking, how on earth did this item end up on a Google Map with my website tied to it. So, I go to my post on Key West and it says the following:
If the homeless runaways come up with any cash, they move into the Youth Hostel at 718 South Street (305)296-5719. They sleep 6 to a room, but it only costs $18.95 per night.
So, the only thing I can figure is that the googlebot spiders crawled my website, somehow deduced that this Youth Hostel was in Key West, Florida, put it on their Google Maps, and gave me credit for finding it. It seems to me that the internet is dangerously close to exhibiting signs of emergent behavior and self-organization, if it's not doing so already.
I, for one, welcome our new googlebot overlords.
Posted by Peenie Wallie on April 8, 2006 at 10:51 PM
Comments
You're the cutest! It was probably some hot chick that saw you there, at the hostel (or near by), and thought...hum.."he's HOT!"
Life? Is it treating you good? Hope so!
Posted by: Me on April 9, 2006 at 1:13 AM