Maybe it wasn't a good idea to name this site webscotch. People seem to think that it has something to do with scotch...
So why not confuse them a bit more by playing the game with "Best Scotch"?
Enter "Best Scotch" in GOOGLE and the number one result is the one you want to click:
That's one of the best headlines I've ever seen!
Pretty good info on the landing page: "Uisge beatha" The Water of Life. I did not know that...
Continue clicking: SCOTCH TASTING
"However, the good new is that scotch whisky tasting is FUN!!!"
Believe me when I say i had my share of that FUN! Anyways nothing much here, keep clicking:
Visit our
Scotch Whisky Blog
the SINGLE MALT SOCIETY
Well it does not look like a blog that is updated regularly. So I click on Boozin' Gear. It opens up in a new window. It actually is a Beer Blog and the last post is You Need a Personal Breathalyzer. Now I started with a Scotch and ended up with a Beer chaser. At this point I don't even know what that thing you call breath-a-something does. So I am not sure if it would be a wise investment...
OK! First off I am not a Microsoft hater. I have been using Microsoft software from the very beginning. Always been an IBM compatible user. Never thought about switching to Apple. I find Apple hardware and software overpriced and limited. Experimented with Linux by installing several different distros on my computer at different times but always liked Microsoft Windows. It has always been a perfect combo for all the computers I owned and built.
I have no idea why a company like Microsoft makes such a blunder. Last year I tried to install Vista release candidate but it did not work. I figured hey it is not the final product. About a month ago I went ahead and purchased Vista Home Edition. After a lengthy install process with no useful and timely feedback I got it working only to find out that it won't work with my scanner. There were a few other annoyances so I wiped it off my hard drive and returned it back. This again is on my desktop computer I built which is an Intel Core Duo 2.4 GHz with all the bells and whistles.
About a week ago I decided to get a new laptop replacing my Sony Vaio 3Ghz Dual Core PCG-K45 with 1GB RAM. Having had such a great experience with Sony I ended up getting a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ150E. This laptop has 2GHz dual core centrino duo intel 7200 processor with 2GB RAM and 160GB Hard Drive. It came pre-loaded with Windows Vista Home Edition. Honestly if I could have found a laptop I liked with Windows XP installed I would have bought that. Giving vista benefit of doubt, thinking maybe the home built computer is the problem, I took this new laptop home...
What a disaster the Vista is... Now I can say with authority. Why on earth Microsoft did want to turn windows into apple OS. Who cares about all that eyecandy. One of the first things I did -- right after disabling that annoying user account control -- was to turn off all the visualizations and aero desktop. I went back to windows classic theme. It still is sloooow. It keeps running out of memory. This has double the memory I had before. I used to work on an XP desktop with over 20 browser windows open while running a few heavy duty apps. I need windows for the multitasking but Vista runs out of memory if I have only 5-6 tabs open in IE7. Outlook Express replacement is so slow I moved all my email accounts to online services. Do I need to spend $3K to get a laptop that will run Vista fast or will it be more waste of time and money to have this crappy os work? It still won't work with my scanner which is not old and I have no intention of replacing since my desktop works a lot faster and smoother with windows XP. I probably am going to install win xp on this laptop or return it and find one with win xp preinstalled. I just can't believe this!
Anyways the point of all this rant is to see if others share my view and go on a new webscotch game:
I decided to try "I'm feeling lucky" button on google with my query "vista sucks".
That is the title of the page I got: "Vista Sucks". Interesting thing is that this page is located on a microsoft platform developer website. Whatever you read there is pretty much my experience. I even forgot to mention one of my biggest complaint: New Explorer interface: I hate it. I think this webpage with all the comments sums up all the reasons why Vista sucks. I just cannot understand the big brains running microsoft. Hey maybe there is a good reason they called this piece of junk "Vista" not Windows something.
What is the secret to happiness? Can a web search help us find it? This morning we start webscotching with the phrase "Secret to Happiness". Impressed with the previous session I choose ask.com as the starting point again. Here we go...
I am surprised to see the first two results have the phrase "Secret of Happiness" instead of "Secret to Happiness". I know the search engines do ignore words to, of, in, on, the,etc..., but if there is an exact match available like one of the results that is shown on the page, I would think the exact match should be listed first. When I tried the "Advanced Search" end enter the phrase "Secret to Happiness" in the exact match field I get a slightly different result set but ask.com still returns results with "Secret of Happiness". Evidently the exact match option also ignores these words.
Stopping being picky about the exact words I continue scrolling down the search results page. Here is the link I find compelling to click:
The Secret of Happiness in 8 Words
It is not the exact phrase I searched but I think what makes it stand out from all the other links is the ending that says "in 8 words". You get the sense that you will get a concise answer. You hope that by clicking on this link you will find the secret to happiness told to you in a short sentence. So what did I get?
Well... The first impression was not good. The site looked like one of those sites that hawks those get rich quick schemes. The 8 words were right there though:
Tomorrow - Today - Live - For - Better - Working - A - While
Not making sense of these words and reading this sense under them: "What? You can't make sense of that? I gave you the words for free, but the correct order is going to cost you plenty...". I start to think yep, it is one of those sites that will ask me to pay to get some kind of ebook for $99.95. So ignoring the instructions to read carefully I quickly scroll down the page to find the 8 words in correct order:
"Live Today While Working For a Better Tomorrow."
There you have it: The Secret to Happiness in 8 Words. You also find an explanation in two paragraphs immediately following this sentence. I never went back to read whatever in between the scrambled and unscrambled versions of these words. Remembering that I alsmost bounced off the page immediately, the author could have done better if s/he did not play any word games and fill the page withh all the fluff. Anyways, at this point, I really don't think amount the wisdom here. It sounds pretty common sense. Not only that, it exactly is what we do on a daily basis. Well, I guess it still is important that we remind ourselves the basics on a daily basis. The truth is that the secret to happiness is very basic and there is no need to look for it in exotic places.
Still thinking the site will eventually ask me to sign up for something, I scroll down to find out "this article is an excerpt from the book Seven Secrets of the Millionaires" and continuing to play webscotch I click on the link which I will not put here because it is the link that asks you to buy the secrets. I immediately closed my browser finishing my game.
Hey! We go wherever webscotch takes us.
So what did you expect the first word/phrase I would go webscotching?
Of course the word that inspired this site and the whole idea: "Hopscotch"
Let's start at YAHOO:
The second result on yahoo "hopscotch" search results page is
Hopscotch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Just seeing the word "wikipedia" made me want to click on the link. I did not even want to look down further. As far as the first result... It was from a website named streetplay.com which actually is a pretty catchy name but I cannot seem to remember the full wording of the result. Maybe it was not the word "wikipedia" that made me click on the second result. Maybe it was the word "free". Who knows... The rule says you click on the first link you find interesting and go on to the next site.
Here I am at the free encyclopedia, wikipedia, looking at the entry: Hopscotch. First I notice these big blue boxes warning me about the fact that this article needs additional references or sources for its verification and how it may contain improper references to self-published sources. OK! If you ever heard of wikipedia before none of this should be news to you. Then I get to the line that says "For other uses, see Hopscotch (disambiguation). Now I did not even think of other uses of the word hopscotch so I just click on the link: For other uses, see Hopscotch (disambiguation).
Well, what a let down the third click takes me... This page tells me that hopscotch may mean: a schoolyard game which I already knew, and then it lists couple of books and a film with the word "hopscotch" in their titles. None of these links makes me feel like clicking on them. Maybe I should have stayed longer on the previous page but hey this is how the game of webscotch played: Click on the first link you feel you gotta click on and don't look back.
This was the first webscotching game. I hope it gives you the idea what this is about. It is not only clicking through links on random web pages. It is about commenting on the pages and the links and the titles. It is about trying to understand why we click on what we click on.
Let's play WEBSCOTCH!
So what is webscotch you say...
It is playing hopscotch on the web.
Start with a simple phrase you enter in one of the major search engines, skim through the results, click the first link that grabs your attention and on to the next site... Browse the page, click again on the first link you find interesting and so on. You do this until you find no other links interesting enough to click on and close your browser.
Well... it sounds easy to do so far. Here at webscotch.com I document my journey through the web pages with my comments and opinions.
Let's venture into wild web and discover new and interesting web sites, uncover hidden web gems, gather more tools, tips and tricks, and play with the newest web technologies here.
Come hop around the web with me...
