Google, Yahoo, Bing, Alta Vista…  and literally dozens of others of which most of us have never heard.  Search engines to find anything and everything on the web.  How they operate is a mystery, and one that we seldom think much about, if at all.  For those of us who obsess over the “stats” on our blogs, however, those algorithms can mean fame, or ignoble invisibility.

On this blog, I’ve noticed a steadily increasing number of hits, and I’ve patted myself on the back on my increasing readership.  Then I noticed something that pretty much deflated my burgeoning ego.

A picture that I found on the web and used last year has somehow managed to make itself climb in the search engine voodoo, to where I’m getting increasing hits on the blog post containing that picture.  This is strictly due to folks seeing the picture in the “images” page of the ‘vacation’ search, and clicking on it, ending up at my blog post.  I was hoping it was my endlessly fascinating blogs themselves that was driving traffic, but I guess I should take what I can get…  in the blogging world, it’s hits that count, and lets not look too close at what brings them in!

On an atheist blog I contribute to, I’ve noticed a similar and sudden surge in hits, on a story posted about a year ago.  Somehow, that story has rocketed to the top of the returns for “The Shroud of Turin“.  The site has gone from only a few hits a day, to yesterday over 500.  That sudden surge has been over the course of a few days.  Something ‘clicked’ in the search engines, and now people are being directed to it in droves.  The pity is we don’t do much with the site anymore.

I suppose if I want to bring more people here to read my blogging, I better blog something worth reading!  😉  Any suggestions?