Missing the point of comments

mathowie wrote up a bit on this post about a show called Overhaulin’. What’s remarkable is that the people leaving comments think that they are sending a message to the people from the TV show.

hi my name is mary langford,my husband and son have been fixing up this 87 bmw for 3yrs. i would assist overhaulin in stealing this car for a good makeover. this car looks the same as when he got it.please help mary langford,april 28

He speculates that people are typing something into Google and expecting the magic of the Internet to take them to the right place. While it speaks highly of Google’s technology and brand, it also speaks poorly of people’s reading comprehension skills.
This is something I’m actually familiar with, because searching for “Tony Hawks email address” lists this post from last August in the number two slot. The best part is that the post in question links to a site where a comedian named Tony Hawks responds to emails he gets for pro skater Tony Hawk. I’m getting mistaken comments from people who really just want to send mistaken emails.
As recently as yesterday I’ve gotten comments from people who want to get in touch with the skater, with whom I have no pre-existing relationship aside from the royalty checks he gets from me buying his game.
I’m not alone either, the number 3 result is getting these too, including a 10 year old who posted on my site. Where are this kid’s parents, do they have any problem with their 10 year old putting his contact information on any website he comes across?

George Hotelling

8 responses to “Missing the point of comments”

  1. Not exactly blog comments, but the same phenomenon within a message board…. http://www.wordlab.com/chat/thread.cfm?threadid=5278&messages=84#52089 is something I stumbled on a while back – a very funny thread where posters start off making up parodical Lifetime Channel movie titles. At some point, other posters arrive and use the forum to place their requests for rebroadcasts of their faves. They seem to think Lifetime is seeing their postings, and seem completely ignorant of the agressively sarcastic postings before theirs.

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  2. I have the same name as a minor television celebrity. Every google search result but the first leads to something about the other J.D. Roth. The first google search result leads to me.
    I get lots of fan mail from pre-teen girls, but it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. I’d like to think my web site was exciting their passion, but I just don’t think it’s so… :/

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  5. By far the largest google traffic generator on commonmonkeyflower.net is a page in my wiki which people would get when they typed “benaffleck” into google. Since I hacked php wiki to put an “append comment” box on the end of the wiki page for my friends who were too damn lazy to learn wiki, I got hundreds and hundreds of comments from people who thought I was Ben Affleck, or thought that Ben Affleck read the page.
    Eventually I got bored and deleted the page.

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  6. Dear Maury,
    My name is Elizabeth and I am 18 yrs. old and the reason I am writing to you is because I was once with my soul mate but he was taken away from me. His name is Jesus an dhe was the reason I could wake up every morning with a smile on my face he made my heart melt the first time I spoke to him.He was deported back to Mexico. We never even got to say good bye to one another. I think about him every day and I watch your show mon. thru fri. and i see how you help those people.and i was wondering if maybe you could help me. so please Maury I need your advise on what to do!!!!!!!!!!!
    thank you sincerly,
    Elizabeth

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  7. hi muary my name is theresa and i have a 16 yr old daughter named shameeka!! I LEFT NYC WHEN SHE WAS 3 MONTHS OLD SHE IS GOING THREW A LOT OF THINGS RIGHT NOW AND HAS BEEN ASKING FOR HER DAD IVE TRIED TO FIND HIM BUT WITH NO SUCCESS SHE IS REALLY MAKING ALOT OF BAD CHOICES LOOKING FOR LOVE FROM GROWN MEN A COUPLE IVE HAD TO PROSECUTE IN A COURT OF LAW MAURY IF U COULD PLEASE HELP ME IN THE SEARCH TO FIND HER DAD I LIVE IN CINCINNATI OHIO NOW MAURY I HAVENT TOLD U EVERYTHING HERE CONCERNING THIS CHILD AND GOD IM SO AFRAID FOR HER MAURY SHE IS LOOKING FOR LOVE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES SHE HAS CONTRACTED A COUPLE STD AND MAURY PLEASE HELP ME FIND HER DAD I DIDNT KNOW THAT IT COULD HAVE SUCH BAD EFFECTS BY ME LEAVIN IM SORRY FIF I DID SOMETHING WRONG BUT WHEN I LEFT I CAME HERE TO MY MOM I NEEDED HER TO HELP ME THIS IS MY 1 CHILD IM JUST ASKING FOR YOUR HELP IVE SEEN U HELP SO MANY OTHERS PLEASE HELP ME TOO!! HIS NAME IS PAUL YOUNG HIS BIRTHDATE IS 04/1962 ITS BEEN 16 YRS SINCE IVE SEEN HIM WHATEVER U NEED FROM ME HOWEVER I CAN HELP PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! MY E-MAIL ADDRESS TYH722@AOL.COM
    1278B CHESTERDALE DR
    CINCINNATI,OHIO45246
    (513) 671-2770 HM
    (513) 295-5662 CELL
    (513
    561-3744 grandma

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