Some lucky person discovered part of my Web site using the truly unlikely image search string “apes on a unicycle”. Here are the results for that search. I noticed this unlikely visitor during my regular visit to the dashboard of SlimStat, the plug-in I use to log traffic here.

This discovery was an eye-opener on two levels. First, it is a demonstration of the enormous reach of Google. This version of my site is only a couple months old at the time of this writing, and it is hardly a high-traffic destination. Yet, the hard-working search spiders located and indexed my site thoroughly enough to find one obscure drawing in my sketchbook.

Second, it is a reminder of how differently it is possible to view the same subject. I could have spent weeks writing a list of search strings that might potentially return my site and never thought of the words “apes on a unicycle”. However, to the programmer that wrote the search spider it is just as valid a way to describe my site as my own name. To the person who ran this unlikely search, “apes on a unicycle” is how they will remember their visit. I’ll have to review my own preconceptions about my site, as well as apes for that matter.