"Googling" youself

When I started this blog over a year ago I had meant it more for myself than anything. This medium was just a way for me to put my thoughts and ideas out there and used the blog concept as a way to force myself to continue and add updates since I knew family and friends would likely swing by from time to time to see what was on my mind.

I knew it would also be a good way to keep everyone posted and up to date on the daily happenings and events of 3-2 SBCT and 1-14 CAV while the brigade was deployed, although I assumed that I would have more free time than I actually did and it turned more into a monthly update if I was lucky. There were no expectations that anyone outside of a few friends and family would find or even bother reading anything on this site.

However, over the course of the deployment I became aware that my little corner of the internet was getting some attention. Girlfriends of soldiers in the squadron would leave comments; fellow officers would come up to me and ask if I was the creator of this site they had discovered; and even some folks at Brigade stumbled upon Warhorse Intel. Part of reason my blog gained the little popularity that it has is because I was really one of the few sources out there discussing what was going on in NE Diyala. If something went boom, or civil war was on the verge of breaking out, it wasn't CNN covering it, it was me.

Not bad for what is in reality nothing more than an online journal for me, but who else is reading? I decided to "google" the site and see what came up. Here's a breakdown of what sites are quoting me:

1. A site discussing SSG Tirador's death. Unfortunately, due to the nature of her death there is some controversy as to whether or not it was suicide or homicide. The author of this blog used my posting back in November '09 to provide a little more information on SSG Tirador and the incident. Apparently some believe there is a coverup going on by the Army in regards to SSG Tirador. I'm 99% certain there isn't, but that's a different discussion for a different time. Another blog, quoting the the first site word for word, also uses my comments.

2. My comments on Somalia got me linked on this blog. That's kind of cool, not that I really wrote anything spectacular.

3. No idea why I'm linked here. I think the author was just linking any site that mentioned warhorse.

4. This guy used a picture I had on the blog for his website on Greenland. I'm linked down at the bottom of the site. Uh, dude, you could have used Google images.

5. Another site just using pictures I have. For whatever reason my site is linked for the image of H.R. Giger's alien used.

So there you have it. Maybe I should add a counter in order to determine just how many visitors I'm getting. Am I up to triple digits yet?