They Come From All Over

This may end up being a bit boring, but it is what's on my mind today. I think I've mentioned before that I watch the hits coming into the blog. I can tell when someone has viewed it, but I can't tell exactly who. For example, here is the line for so far today:

Sunday 13-Apr-08..... 3 --- 2 --- 0 --- 2

The 3 is the page loads so far today, the next number (2) is the number of visitors, the 0 is the number of first time visitors and the next 2 is the number of returning visitors. So for today 2 people have connected to the blog, both have been to it before and one of those looked at 2 pages.

If I open today's line it will tell me where the hit originated from by IP address. Something like this -- 74.242.99.157 (BELLSOUTH.NET INC) Which is the IP address for a BellSouth server someplace.

As I said, I can't tell exactly who the person was, but sometimes I can make a good guess. For example, Brenda and Sylvia connect from work, so instead of BellSouth I see their company name, so I know it was them. Sandra is just about the only person who uses AOL, so I can usually tell when she's connected, and I think I can pick out Donna and Kathey, but I'm not sure.

There is one other piece of information I look at. It's called the referrer, which is the route the visitor used. If you come to the site directly from your PC, there is no referrer, but if someone comes to the site via a link, or through a search on Google or Yahoo, I see that, and in the case of searches, I can see what was searched for, and that does get interesting at times. For example, over the past 30 days these people visited the site:

Someone in Killeen, TX searched for Gordo Watson --- how many Gordos do you think there are in the world?
Someone in Richardson, TX searched for Vonore, TN
Someone in Mt Laurel, NJ searched for the Carmichael Inn
Someone in Chattanooga searched for Schrimpsher
Someone in Chicago searched for the Loudon Chair Factory
And people in Grand Rapids, MI, Sewanee, TN, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, CA and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia searched for Loudon High School.

I will admit the Malaysia hit has me stumped the most, as does a fairly routine hit from the East Tennessee School for the Deaf. I know of no one connected with either place. Do any of you?

I'm not telling you this to make you think I'm spying on you. I'm not, so please don't stop coming to the blog. But it is interesting, at least to me, and lets me know how often the blog is being used.