Would you believe it?

NZ_Chris · Post by **NZ_Chris** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 5:25 am

I just did a google search on "build outdoor fireplace plans" because (not surprisingly) we are considering building an outdoor fireplace ..it brought up, amongst a great many others, a link to a site called "wooden outdoor play equipment plans" - sounds innocent enough you might think, but the link leads to a lichen site for goodness sake!!! Now you would have thought that outdoor fireplace plans were a simple and non-sexy thing to search for ... but nooooooooo

Anyway, enough ranting ... I was just so surprised that I had to make comment to someone - and you guys are the lucky recipients of my ramblings

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:19 am

Several years ago a few of us were looking for the definition of a word. So we typed in www.oed.com, figuring this would take us to the Oxford English Dictionary. Nope. It was a lichen site. (The OED has bought the rights to it now.) I thought it was hilarious and clever, but wonder how many people got into trouble at work for visiting a lichen site just to look up a word.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:33 am

I want an OED.

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 7:00 am

Chris, I can't seem to find that site, could you possibly slip it under the counter to me in a discreet brown paper bag?

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 7:20 am

I would hope that those who have their internet use vetted by their employer would be given the benfit of the doubt if they simply visit a site but don't download material from it. Google can land you in some pretty strange places but, in most cases, you can tell from the phrase the search turns up if the site is likely to be of interest.

..... Esmerelda likes to frolic naked outdoors. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen .....

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 7:26 am

Wombat wrote: ..... Esmerelda likes to frolic naked outdoors. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen .....

Aha! A quote from Quasimodo's Diary, I believe.

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:29 pm

It is not very well known,but Quasimodos expertise in bellringing was due to the daring technique of head-butting the bells! He was head butting away to his hearts content one day when the lovely Esmeralda popped her head over the belfry trapdoor and poor old Quasi misstimed his rhythm and was knocked arse over tit right out the window way down onto the street below. A Gendarme fought his way through the gathering crowd and on seeing the horrible mess of blood and bones asked if anybody knew this man. An Onion seller from a nearby stall came over and said "I can't be sure ,but the face rings a bell"........ :roll:

Slan,
D.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:41 pm

dubhlinn wrote:It is not very well known,but Quasimodos expertise in bellringing was due to the daring technique of head-butting the bells! He was head butting away to his hearts content one day when the lovely Esmeralda popped her head over the belfry trapdoor and poor old Quasi misstimed his rhythm and was knocked arse over tit right out the window way down onto the street below. A Gendarme fought his way through the gathering crowd and on seeing the horrible mess of blood and bones asked if anybody knew this man. An Onion seller from a nearby stall came over and said "I can't be sure ,but the face rings a bell"........ :roll:

Slan,
D.

Nah, that wasn't Quasimodo. Quasimodo was ill, so there was a substitute bell-ringer that day. After the onion seller made his comment, the fish-monger was heard to say, "He's a dead ringer for Quasimodo, though."

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:26 pm

OH, MY! I think I am going to be ill......

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:33 pm

NZ_Chris what would be interesting is go the lichen site, I know, it's not right but try this: When on the lichen site go up to the tool bar click on View, when the box drops down click on Source, this will give you all the HTML language and Metadata source: words that are used to describe the web page you are on.

Bots from Google and Yahoo et al look for these words to index a page and pornographers are savy to this when entering words that describe their page.

Anyone innocent or not will eventually get a lichen page unexpectedly in their search, even if filters are in place.

MarkB

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:34 pm

I recall from my earliest days on the Web that whitehouse.com was a lichen site. I didn't realize that I should have typed whitehouse.gov. I've hit a couple of others when I typed .com instead of .org or .net.

NZ_Chris · Post by **NZ_Chris** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:15 pm

Wombat wrote:I would hope that those who have their internet use vetted by their employer would be given the benfit of the doubt if they simply visit a site but don't download material from it. Google can land you in some pretty strange places but, in most cases, you can tell from the phrase the search turns up if the site is likely to be of interest.

..... Esmerelda likes to frolic naked outdoors. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen .....

Interestingly though Wombat, the blurb on the google hit definitely suggested a fireplace/outdoor furniture site. Even the url something like outdoor-furniture-plans.html Guess these guys are trying hard to hide the site till you are right there ...

Seth · Post by **Seth** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:39 pm

One of my favorite online comics is www.sinfest.net
Believe me, it's important to be sure on the .net part. Real important.

Seth

MarkB · Post by **MarkB** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:46 pm

Seth wrote:

Believe me, it's important to be sure on the .net part. Real important.

Tell me Seth how'd you knewed that? Or are you suggesting that we try it with dot com or dot edu or dot tv? Esplane yur self!

MarkB