There are so many ways to get to the good stuff on the Internet. Lists, StumbleUpon, optimised search returns etc but there is a truly enormous long-tail of weird/wonderful/dross.

I thought it might be amusing to see some of this randomly, ignoring any notion of popularity or context. Sure, I could just surf about, but I had a feeling that I would always subliminally guide my own hand. So, here’s the method I came up with:

I used a random word generator and took the first 3 words it offered me.

They were: concocted, measlier and peruke. ( I resisted the temptation to find out what peruke meant – I confess I didn’t know )

I then created an ‘as it happens’ Google Alert for each of these words. I didn’t want to just search for the words as they would be ordered by Google’s view of importance. And waited…

The spidery nature of Google inevitably returned a distinct ‘latest news’ feel to the results. Anyway, here’s some of what I received by email:

concocted
Cellist disease a hoax, British doctor confesses
( FAIL – I heard this on the radio during the week )

The Myth of Israel’s Strategic Genius
( interesting viewpoint)

Okay, a ‘He-Man’ movie? C’mon, really?

( never really liked He-Man )

( and lots more )

measlier
http://measlier.net/
( really? FAIL )

The only other things I got were dictionary definitions of ‘measlier’. FAIL.

peruke
A random foreign blog

EDIT: A late peruke just in!

No great surprise, turns out a peruke is an old-school wig. Can’t imagine it turns up that often.

So, as experiments go, this one was largely unsuccessful. I think it might still work, so maybe I’ll have another go.