Congrats to The Onion... "THE" Number 1 Site

Anybody who has read The Onion will know about the power of great journalism and how vital it is to our civilization. It is a classic example of building a following and expanding largely by word of mouth because of its excellence in reporting. Satirical as it all may be.

But what I found fascinating regarding The Onion comes straight from Google's search results. I was just curious to see what results came up when I searched the word "the". Out of 10,040,000,000 estimated results, The Onion came up #1. Quite impressive! This is clearly a triumph in search engine optimization (SEO), a marketing tactic that helps websites get to the top of the list for search engine results... whether or not The Onion did this intentionally remains to be seen. But I thought I should point out that for the search on the word "the", The Onion managed to top such venerable institutions as:

-#2: The White House (well, maybe not quite so venerable, but I digress)
-#3: A Wikipedia entry about "the"
-#4: The Economist
-#5: T.H.E.-- Technology Horizons in Education (seems rather amazing that they didn't come up #1 since THE is the title of the publication!)

As you can see, the legend of The Onion continues to grow. So to all of THE writers at THE Onion, keep up THE great work... and keep showing THE White House how to do THE job right!

The Search is On: How to Google Something Old School Style

I moved to my current house in August of this year. I live in a pretty busy area where everything I could possibly need is a stone's throw away. Including my newly adopted hair salon.

I've gotten my hair cut at this salon twice already, yet I couldn't tell you the name of the shop. I don't know the exact street address, nor do I know the phone number. The only bit of info that I can remember is my stylist's first name. Nice gal. Good stylist. Reasonable rates. Convenient location. But something's wrong with this picture.

I will certainly take the blame for failing to put the salon's phone number in my cell phone. That should have been job 1. But getting caught up with everything else in life, I forgot.

So this week I noticed my hair beginning to 'fro a bit and wanted to set up an appointment for a cut during their limited after-work hours. But without the salon's name, number, or address (and I don't think they have a web site), how can I possibly look them up on Google or even the phone book so I can call to make an appointment? I'm stuck, right? Right!

Wrong! I have to go out of my way to drive by the salon after a long day at work through a heavily congested area to get the name and phone number from the sign in their window like I did the first two times. I'd stop in to arrange an appointment, but unless I leave work early, they're unlikely to be open.

Maybe this time I'll learn my lesson and get the info when I finally enter the shop to get my haircut. Or perhaps, the salon employees will go out of their way to make sure I have this crucial information. A brochure. A business card. A tattoo. Something with some contact or marketing info to keep in my address book or to give to a friend.

But for some reason I doubt I'll leave there with the info I need for the next time I want to call and make an appointment. History tends to repeat itself.