The hidden power of blogs

I like to check my referrer logs (click on the picture to the left) every once in awhile to see how people find my site.  Recently, I saw that someone googled the word ‘attorney’ and found my site.  So I googled it myself and saw that I’m like the 9th hit for that search term.  Then somone else googled ‘katrina anniversary’ and they found me because my post about the Rising Tide Conference is the 5th hit for that search term (the Times Picayune link is below mine, interestingly enough).

I mention this not to pat myself on the back (I didn’t do anything special to deserve this sort of ‘google stature’; I just got into the blog thing early and kept at it).  I point this phenomenon out because it’s something that I constantly see, as do other bloggers who examine how people find their sites.  I like blogging, mostly because blogging continues to bring me into contact with new people and new ideas.  But I also like having some influence over how people find certain kinds of information.  I wish I had more time to exert this influence towards all the things that I think deserve to be noticed, but I don’t.  So I do what I can, when I can, and hope that it makes a significant difference.

Here is an update on other search results:

#1 result for "call apple customer care" (as of: 8/23/06)

#1 result for "driving in new orleans" (as of: 8/23/06)

#3 result for "legal brief writing" (as of: 8/23/06)

#3 result for "katrina videos" (as of: 8/23/06)