Hmmm, since I posted this, I tried the ‘lurgid’ search again. My blog is ‘no longer’ ‘number 1’ for that search. That, of course, is not a big deal. However, I wonder why it was the first time I tried it.

I have a feeling that the concept of ‘number 1 for that search’ is no longer always a meaningful one. At least Google (and probably other engines) has talked about using inferred (or directly known) data about the searcher to augment the search terms themselves to make for better searches. Given my gmail account, they know my name. So they could very well rerank my blog posts in my searches, which of course wouldn’t affect other people’s searches. Unless, of course, they were inferred to be my friends, or people who read my blog, or something.

So, I suppose the shocking number of number 1’s I mentioned may well be a simple artifact of the fact that I’m me, and that search engines know ‘too much’ about me. Hmmm.