What Isn't on the Internet?
An Anonymous Coward writes: "Every modern geek knows that one can find practically everything
on the Internet these days. In fact, I just realized today that
I have *never* not found anything I've searched for, barring things
that can't for some reason be released in such an environment, or
things that just don't exist, even off the 'net. I think it would be
interesting to find out what people have searched for that isn't
out there ... have any of you ever looked but come up dry?"
On a somewhat related note--have you ever (by accident or on purpose) conducted a websearch for something that doesn't *really* exist...and found it anyway?
I discovered this phenomenon the other morning. Here are some examples of things I've found that don't exist:
Even google couldn't find this one.
It's kind of obscure, but I spent hours searching for images of the "totems" from Zork: Grand Inquisitor to no avail. They've got to be out there somewhere, but damned if I can't find them.
Plus, there have been numerous occasions where I'd remember a specific web page, and even whole phrases from the webpage, and couldn't find my way back to it from any search engine. That really sucks because you know its out there, you just can't find it. And it never fails this happens just after the entry from when you first visited it has expired from your history.
NO CARRIER
Feelable Porn
There's a shortage of full-text scientific papers on the internet. Even as a subscriber to several full-text services and journals, I can never seem to find online scientific papers that appear in journals that my university library doesn't have.
I know that journals want to make money by selling them, but scientific papers ARE public domain, and why should I have to pay to read them (in sometimes very poor quality - on microfilm/fiche).