So, I was thinking of changing my name to something cool, like Stratovarius Megatrend. I'd check into a hotel, and a member of the staff would say, "Sure thing, Mr. Megatrend, I'll take your luggage up right away." Awesome. But could there be a cooler name…? I had to find out.

So I ran a quick search on Google for the exact phrase, "list of cool names."

Almost immediately, I noticed something odd. See if you can spot it:

The 6th result on Google's front page for this specific search term is actually a link to a Dogpile search of a similar term!

Let's see what Dogpile has to offer…

Hmm… I'm curious about something… Let's check back on that Google page:

Ok, ok, and… on Dogpile…?

Wow. Google has 1,720 results. Number 6 is a link to Dogpile, which has 84 results. Granted, the search terms were a little different, but the one used on Dogpile was far less specific! It didn't even use quotes, and it only came up with 84. Plus, it's searching multiple search engines! Weird. Maybe Dogpile says, "I know what is relevant to a far greater extent than the peons of Google or Yahoo. I will selectively remove results that do not suit me." You'd think a search engine would strive for more results, in order to give visitors a greater chance of clicking an ad! And especially since Dogpile's pulling its sources from elsewhere…

I found it most interesting how Dogpile's "Now Searching" area listed Google first! So we search Google, which searches Dogpile, which searches Google, which goes back in time and kills Dogpile's grandfather, who just so happens to be Google's Great-great uncle, and then the universe explodes and implodes simultaneously!

One final thing that jumped out at me was the 6th result on Dogpile. Pretty sneaky, Buzz…

The search terms aren't amazing, but one of them brings up 8,520,000 results, and I'm on the front page, so I'm happy!

I found out when I checked Google Analytics today to see how Misinterpreted dot Org was doing. I thought, "I wonder what kinds of searches are bringing most people here?"

Among the top terms were:

aquafrequencies
watch me move with my juke
watch me juke
watch me move
watch me move like my juke
watch my juke
peter petrelli scrubs
has vista failed

All the juke stuff relates to a post I made a while back called, A Commercial I Hate: "Watch Me Move, Got My Juke!" Now that I think about it, my quote of the lyrics was wrong! More on that later…

So I thought I'd see what a search term like "watch me move" would bring up in the results. I thought maybe I'm somewhere on some random page.

Lo and behold, I'm on page one:

Watch Me Move

– #5 out of 8,520,000

Lets check all the variants.

Watch Me Juke

– #2 out of 656,000

Watch My Juke

– #3 out of 700,000

Watch Me Move With My Juke

– #1 out of 34,100

Watch Me Move Like My Juke

– #9 out of 20,000

Watch Me Like With My Juke

– #2 out of 57,300 (I had typed in the wrong query, but being #2 is awesome [unless you're Bono])

Watch Me Move Got My Juke

– #1 out of 193,000

I read this comment on YouTube under the Verizon Juke video commercial: "That is called "Juking" my friend…very hard, but fun to do…it's been big for over 30 years and in the Midwest, but its finaly made its way around…."

I guess to Juke is to dance? And listening to the song again, it sounds like, "Watch me move, like my Juke?" Like, "Watch me dance, like my moves?" So in that case, the title to my post is completely wrong! But I'm not changing it. Being on the front page of Google for those search terms is too much motivation to leave it as is.

Among the other search terms that were bringing me traffic were aquafrequencies, peter petrelli scrubs, and has vista failed. The Vista one didn't bring me up anywhere near #1, so I'll just cover the other two.

Aquafrequencies relates to another post I wrote called "The Power Of Water And Positive Thought" about the Aquafrequencies cure-all software system. How do I rank for that search term?

Aquafrequencies

– #6 and #7 out of 188

It's interesting that I'm listed on the front page, just a few results below the actual site for the program. But I guess since there are only 188 results for the term, that doesn't really mean as much as it might otherwise.

What about Peter Petrelli? I had written a post about his name being mentioned on Scrubs, When Worlds Collide: Peter Petrelli and Scrubs. And now:

Peter Petrelli Scrubs

– #1 out of 51,500

I had heard someone say on Scrubs that her fear of death forced her to ask Peter Petrelli to the sock hop in the 8th grade. Astounded, I searched and searched before finding that others on the net had noticed the same thing. At one point I mistakenly thought that there was only 1 other person who knew. Later I found out that others were also aware of the triviality (well, I thought it was cool). But now being #1 for the search term I had originally used — all I can say is wow.

So now I bet you're wondering, how did I pull off getting on the front page of Google for 9 different searches? Here's my 3 Point Solution to this conundrum:

Point 1: I wrote 3 separate posts, each of which used the key words in their titles.
Point 2: WordPress automatically added header tags and created SEO-friendly URLs.
Point 3: The ideas for each search are either rare or relatively new.

As I said, Peter Petrelli mentioned on Scrubs seemed at first to be rarely noticed, and therefore not too often mentioned online. Aquafrequencies only has 188 results because the program isn't that well-known. And the Verizon Juke commercial is fairly new.

I believe I was able to rank highly for all these terms because there isn't a major amount of competition (just yet). Plus, the terms don't send me a huge amount of traffic. If they did, you can bet there'd be other sites more proactive about ranking for them.

But still… I'm made the front page of Google, and not just for some Googlewhack!

Have you ever wondered why a search of certain sites will bring up one result up top with links throughout the domain, and then another result for a random page? Why bother showing that second result?

Today I found out. At BlogStorm, it was shared that although many people perceive this search behavior to be bug-related, it is in fact intentional. In fact, many people actually do not see the first (Sitelinks) result at all, which is why a second, different (some might say "normal") one is also available.

It would seem to make sense why some people are blind to Sitelinks results, as not all sites have them, and ads are sometimes placed in that area.

The second listing is believed to be the most recently popular (or perhaps most linked to) page in the site.

Do you sometimes unintentionally overlook that first Sitelinks result? I honestly can say that I have. I'm so ashamed. :)

I read at John Chow's site how Google plans to take a few weeks to allow users to vote on search results. With this system, you as an individual could add, vote up, vote down, and remove individual Google results for various search queries. Unlike other voting systems like DIGG, however, your votes will only impact the results you see.

It's been said that were Google to allow your votes to impact the search results everybody sees, there'd be some way to abuse the system, and a whole new form of BlackHat SEO would emerge. Originally, I doubted Google would allow votes to impact the system as a whole. After all, if you clean up your own search results, who cares how other people's look, right?

But what if Google took all your votes, and began using them to tabulate Page Rank? A site aware of this could probably find large groups of people willing to vote on its behalf, artificially boosting its ratings. So even if the masses all vote on mostly helpful sites, there will still be groups of abusers out there manipulating things to their own end.

But there are deterrents to such tactics. DIGG has a system where users can bury stories that don't belong. I'm thinking if Google's experiment goes far enough, it will eventually reach a point where results that are impacted by everyone include a failsafe whereby normal users can act against malicious users. Click here to vote this site up, click here to vote it down, click here to report it as a repeat offender.

That might work.

On my browser's toolbar, I've bookmarked all of these sites in one folder, seeing as how they tend to come in handy fairly often. Some much more so than others. I had assumed that most other web surfers were similarly aware of these great sites, since they're so useful in finding practically whatever you have in mind. But today the thought occurred to me that there are probably a few people who aren't familiar with one or two (or more) of these helpful resources. So, without further ado, I present THE LIST:

1. Google – The mother of all Search Engines. My favorite part is that most pages are cached, so if the site is currently down or has undergone a major change, you can still see what came up in the results, with all your search terms highlighted.
2. Wikipedia – The user-generated online encyclopedia of everything. Some say that the "truth" found here is only what everybody agrees upon. And that's probably correct. But for most subjects, Wikipedia is a simple, dependable resource that can inform and educate in a hurry.
3. YouTube – Now owned by Google, YouTube is where to search for video clips from shows, movies, the news, and everywhere else. Eyewitness reports are often quickly uploaded to YouTube, so if a news story didn't provide the live footage you wanted, YouTube just might have it. It's also a decent place to find the occasional song, as some users upload whole tracks with album covers as the visual.
4. Dictionary.com – Much easier than using a conventional dictionary, as it's not heavy and you don't have to flip through page after page! Just type in your word or phrase, and even if you don't get the spelling right, you'll usually find just what you're looking for.
5. Thesaurus.com – Sister site of Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com comes in major handy when you need to find another word for something. You'll never have to use, apply, or expend the same word twice.
6. IMDb – The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has detailed files on all movies, past, present, and even future! Who's that actor? Were there any goofs? When's the sequel? Just go to IMDb. There's even a forum and special features for registered users.
7. Internet Archive – Featuring the WayBack Machine, which keeps a record of every incarnation of a web page since that page's creation. You can go back in time and see the earliest form of pretty much any site. It can be extremely helpful when a page isn't currently available or no longer exists. Check out an early archive of Google. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
8. Acronym Finder – The next time you see a strange abbreviation, you can quickly and easily find out what it means. Pretty much every conceivable meaning of each acronym is listed, so all you need to do is find the one that fits the context.
9. Amazon.com – You can buy almost anything online, and Amazon.com is a great place to do it. They used to be mostly focused on books, but in recent times have broadened their horizons tremendously. Now they sell pretty much everything! Not only are the prices low, but free shipping is offered in many cases. One of the best features is the Customer Reviews section for each product. The next time you hear about a hot new item and need to find out the pros and cons from real users, just go to Amazon.com.
10. eBay – Here you can brave rapidly-growing world of consumer-to-consumer sales. Shopping eBay is riskier than Amazon, but there's definite potential to find some really great deals. What's more, some products that aren't listed at Amazon can be found at eBay. It's a great resource when you need to learn about a hard-to-find item or a mystery object.
11. Dogpile – A search engine that compiles results from Google, Yahoo, Live Search, and Ask. I used to use it until I found that it didn't offer the same caching of pages that Google provides. But Dogpile does have an "Audio Search" option that is supremely helpful. Whether you're searching for a clip of a radio interview, a song, or a sound effect, Dogpile's Audio Search is usually pretty helpful. It may take some time to find an audio link that works, but once you do, it's usually well worth it. And if you run out of options, you might try plugging the bogus links into the Internet Archive. The audio file may just be saved there.
12. Urban Dictionary – Dictionary.com is fine for "normal" speech, but what about all those new slang terms? Urban Dictionary is basically a WikiDictionary, where users add and define new words and phrases. The next time you hear a strange word that sounds like it was born yesterday, you can look it up at the Urban Dictionary.
13. OldVersion.com – This site features downloads of previously-released versions of popular software, including instant messengers, file-sharing platforms, web browsers, file unzippers, and graphics programs. When the new version isn't as good as the old one, or is too expensive, you can usually get the old one for free at OldVersion.com.
14. Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation – This is a killer resource that allows you to translate a block of text or an entire web page from one major language to another. The results aren't always word-perfect, but they'll usually provide you with enough information to understand what was written. The whole-page translation feature is amazing. If you're ever searching for something and it looks like you've found it, but it's written in a foreign language, you can clarify things with Alta Vista Babel Fish.
15. Google Blog Search – I just learned about this today. You can search for blogs that are written about or contain information on specific topics. Instead of just using Google to find out what websites are saying, you can use Google Blog Search to find out what people are saying on their blogs. So if you want a more down-to-earth take on something, this could be the site for you.

That's it! These are what I believe to be the top 15 online search resources. The internet has incredible informative power, if you know where to look. I hope I mentioned at least a couple of sites that you weren't fully aware of. Happy digital trails!