Googly Eyes

Have you ever heard the song about Barney Google, with the goo-goo-goo-ga-ly eyes? Inspired by a comic strip, Barney had googly eyes. My dad used to sing this song sometimes. I can remember Sing-a-long with Mitch on the television with the bouncing ball helping us sing about Barney Google. It has a great catchy early jazz tune. I hope you’ll take the time to enjoy the video included.

The word Google first came into the language in the early 1900’s in a children’s book The Google Book where googles inhabited googleland.  Now we use Google to refer to the search engine, Google reader, this blog is a Google blog, the list of parts of the Google Empire is very long. Before we Googled we “askjeeves,” went to altavista or some other search engine. Perhaps you are a “binger” trying the newer search engine BING.

My favorite Google feature is Google Analytics.  I’ve used it since I first started to blog. Another blogger told me about this feature and I love it. Thanks to it, I know how many people read my blog every day, where they live, how long they stay on the blog in minutes, how they came to the blog, whether they are a first time reader, how many unique readers I have… the list goes on and on. I am sure I haven’t scoped out all the features of Analytics.

I started tracking information on Analytics on December 1, 2009. Since then, I have had 1445 visits by 570 visitors who viewed 2806 views. They spent an average of 2.44 minutes and nearly 40% of them are new readers.  These people came from 29 countries. Not surprisingly, the most popular is the US.  There have been 1340 visits came from 44 states. That’s a lot of territory to cover.

Visits from Virginia top the list at 252 with only 5% being first time. Those visits come from Charlottesville. That’s a lot of loyal readership. While I can never tell exactly who is reading my blog, this is no doubt the second child of my parents and members of his family. When I wrote about them early this week, readership from Charlottesville was through the roof! I guess they enjoyed reading that blog.

Virginia is followed by Tennessee and South Dakota. Those make sense.  I live in both of those places simultaneously. Number four is Iowa. That surprises me. It seems the people of Spirit Lake/Estherville area are loyal readers. I’ve never been there so I find that interesting.

People who use Google and end up on my blog mostly search for some variation of my name. Curiously, one of the most popular searches is does God like hotdogs. That particular blog has been very popular as well. It’s the second most popular entry of all time. Recently, I had to delete a few comments on it. Seems people don’t think God can do miracles anymore and were quite rude. That’s sad.

So what’s the point? The point is that there is a big world out there. In my living room, often in my pj’s I write and a lot of people read it. That makes me think about my responsibility. I think of some of the things I’ve written. I know that not all of it was necessary or maybe even the wisest.

I am not out to win the world with the power of my words. Nor do I see myself as some great evangelist trying to preach the Gospel via blogging. If I did, I have already showed you my own struggles and that doesn't make for a good evangelist.

Sometimes my blogs are serious; sometimes they are silly. Mostly they are my thoughts and pains put on paper. Like a virtual diary that I share with the world.  

I’ve been told I am a very transparent person. I am. I don’t think that is going to change. I’m sticking myself out there – perhaps too much, perhaps not. Sometimes you may like what I have to say, sometimes you won’t. But I thank all 570 of you for listening.

Thanks to the googly eyes of Google I know you are out there.

PS – I want to encourage you to check out my daughter’s blog just launched yesterday:

Lessons, Trials and Miracles