What is a keyword?  Is it a word that unlocks some magical treasure chest or door to some forbidden room--maybe like "friend" in elvish?  Maybe a keyword is something you stick in something else that keeps it in place.  It is possible that keywords are the only things you have to remember from an otherwise dull and sleep-inducing university or college lecture--or maybe a similar type of sermon.

What do search engine keywords do?  Well, first of all, they make the Internet an uneven playing field because if you have enough money you can place or generate keywords that will give you a higher search rating.  That is totally mean and unfair.  Secondly, you can spend so much time trying to come up with important keywords that the final content of your web pages stink.  Who wants that?  Finally, the results of the searches are totally biased.  Not only is that mean and unfair, as mentioned, but it also makes searching almost useless or at best a total distraction.

Let me explain. The other evening, I wanted to look up information on the shelf-life of semi-cooked meat, if unrefrigerated.  I put in words or phrases like "meat," "beef," "cooked chicken," "shelf," "life," "refrigerator," and "cooked" (without the quotes)  My results were links to alternative rock bands; complaints about fraudulent, on-line work-at-home businesses; very nasty pornography; carpentry; a bunch of poetry and religions; history of football; methamphetamine's; and how-to edit audio files.  Don't get me wrong; these are all interesting topics.  In fact, I spent the entire evening surfing from link to link.  Finally, I had to take a break.  I went to the kitchen and cut me a big hunk of old steak that had been sitting on the counter for that past few days.  Shortly after eating it, I got very ill.  I had to seek medical attention.  I thought I might have to take a bunch of prescription drugs.  What I'm saying is that I never got the information I was looking for in the first place--not from the Internet.  However, I did get some emperical experience on the matter.  I came to the conclusion that maybe a person shouldn't eat that stuff.

~ Bob Zaboo