Strolling
October 21st 2008 08:15
Still playing around with the idea of seeing words out of their context, I can see people who do searches on Google (or any of those other almost-forgotten search engines) as strollers, that is, people who stroll by and look for something. Of course, strollers - at least in US terms - are what we here in New Zealand would call baby buggies.
Strollers, or baby buggies (whichever you please) have become complex pieces of engineering. Whereas they were once devices in which you bunged your toddler and whipped him or her off to the shops, folding it up (the stroller, not the child) when you got there, and tucking it under your arm (again the stroller), modern versions are so complex that so much time is spent in untangling them - and the child - that little shopping ever gets done. If you get to the shops at all.
You'd think with a word like stroller that the piece of equipment would have the same kind of casual ease about it as its name implies. Sadly, no. On one site they're variously
subtitled: Infant Travel System (good grief!); Orbit Toddler Stroller Seat (the child is going to take off into outer space?); McLaren XT Techno (ah, the child will dance); and Chico Cortina KeyFit 30 Travel System. The stroller as miniature car, apparently.
The one in the picture is one of McLaren's Techno jobs. The title is almost more impressive than the machine.
Anyway back to strolling Google and the like. Don't you think it's a better word than 'surfing'? Surfing implies a good deal of effort and energy and getting wet. None of these things apply to the average search on Google. Casually typing in (or mistyping, in many cases) the words you're looking for, you sit back and relax, and let Google do the rest. That's surfing? Nah, totally inappropriate word. Let's start calling it strolling.
So, here I go strolling for Brent Stavig (another one of the top searches on my other site, or for Nintendo jewellery, or to ask why a compost pile shouldn't include lemon and orange peel.
Strollers, or baby buggies (whichever you please) have become complex pieces of engineering. Whereas they were once devices in which you bunged your toddler and whipped him or her off to the shops, folding it up (the stroller, not the child) when you got there, and tucking it under your arm (again the stroller), modern versions are so complex that so much time is spent in untangling them - and the child - that little shopping ever gets done. If you get to the shops at all.
You'd think with a word like stroller that the piece of equipment would have the same kind of casual ease about it as its name implies. Sadly, no. On one site they're variously
The one in the picture is one of McLaren's Techno jobs. The title is almost more impressive than the machine.
Anyway back to strolling Google and the like. Don't you think it's a better word than 'surfing'? Surfing implies a good deal of effort and energy and getting wet. None of these things apply to the average search on Google. Casually typing in (or mistyping, in many cases) the words you're looking for, you sit back and relax, and let Google do the rest. That's surfing? Nah, totally inappropriate word. Let's start calling it strolling.
So, here I go strolling for Brent Stavig (another one of the top searches on my other site, or for Nintendo jewellery, or to ask why a compost pile shouldn't include lemon and orange peel.
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Comment by bevetal
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Comment by bevetal
Comment by Mike Crowl
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