Monday, October 9, 2006

Sign of the times

According to SiteMeter, the largest group of hits I've had lately were from many different people searching the phrase "in nomine patris, et filii, et spiritus sancti" or some shortened version of it (such as "in nomine" or "in nomine patris") or the phrase plus the word "meaning" or "translation." Except in the latter cases, I'm not sure if they're searching to find out what the phrase means, or if they're looking for a blog called "Catholic Convert" which has the entire Latin phrase as its URL, or if they're seeking another site with the entire phrase as its name (but a different URL), whose owner happened to advertise in a comment on my blog (which I've left up because as spam goes, at least it's related to the post), or if they want this goth-y bracelet. In all of these various searches my post on the Latin mass comes up on the first page.

At any rate, I find it kind of surprising that people don't know what the phrase means. Or that they can't figure out it means "in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit." Certainly those kids from Spellbound would be able to rattle off English words related to all of those Latin words (nomination! patriotic! affiliation! spiritual! sanctity!), and in my high school they told all of us that learning Latin would help us on the SATs, but I guess most people don't even make the connections between such foreign words and the English words they've spawned.

But I'm especially intrigued that it's the most common set of hits for my blog right now. Are the Googlers themselves Christian? Are they conservative Christians -- and if so, what must they think when they land on my blog (the horror! the horror! -- or perhaps, more relevant, it burns! it burns!)? Or are they people curious about Christianity and its history, or more specifically Catholicism? What are their motives? And what are they looking for? But most of all, why do they think my blog, of all places, has the answers they're looking for????

6 comments:

MT said...

What good faith you show toward your miss-hits! But this is the approach that won my dark heart.

Heo said...

Now I kinda want the gothy bracelet.

That said, it's sort of funny the searches that bring people to blogs, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

You know, as both a Christian and a regular reader of your blog, I don't actually think there is a contradiction in those two things...!

Dr. Virago said...

MT -- That link was *hilarious*! Thanks for sharing. I wish I were that funny. I especially like the post on "12 Apostles -- photos." Too funny!

HeoCwaeth -- Yeah, I kind of want it, too, though perhaps without the words of the sign of the cross on it. That might be a little hypocritical of this agnostic.

Alexandra -- Good to know! Thanks! And actually, I know other readers are Christians, too. But certain kinds of conservative Christians who ended up on my blog after such searches might be a little less willing to stick around!

Bardiac said...

The searches thing is just fascinating, isn't it.

I'm still sometimes taken totally aback by how little connection people make between words they know and other words that sound almost exactly alike.

Marine corps. corpse. You think there might be a connection? Naw.

MT said...

Eggcorns they're called.