Last week I discovered a fun utility: www.google.com/alerts. This allows you to set up a permanent Google search on whatever topic you choose. When the googlebots discover a new instance of your chosen term, they send you an email. Marvellous for the paranoid: I knew They were talking about me—and now I can prove it. Except They aren’t talking about me…(with a nod to Oscar Wilde). Paranoia is wonderfully resourceful, though. Obviously They have sabotaged the utility so that it doesn’t work on searches on “tim stretton”. In fact, the lack of result proves it.
No-one who knows me will be surprised to know that I set up a Jack Vance alert immediately. Neither will they be surprised to know that Vance has already featured on my blog. What only the most intuitive would expect (and here I exclude myself) is that this afternoon, Google Alert came back notifying me of a new Jack Vance reference: my own blog. The perfection of plot, in live action…
No comments:
Post a Comment