In the postmodern sense, I (Jordan Hurder) am opening a dialog with a robot, a webcrawling spider that will index this page and probably rank it fairly high up on the list of results that pop up when you google “Jordan Hurder.” Also, I should apologize up front that this Jordan Hurder-laden post has nothing to do with book collecting (and as such, belongs more on the now-defunct Jordan Hurder MySpace blog). But, I do have to vent my curiosity a little bit at the fact that, according to WordPress’s site statistics for this blog, at least a few internetters a week find this page by googling “Jordan Hurder.” (Also, as a slightly hilarious aside, at least 2 people have found this blog by googling “eraser crumbs.”)
So, in the traditional sense, I am opening a dialog with a hypothetical internet user who sees this page ranked highly after searching for “Jordan Hurder.” Specifically, I am wondering who you are and why you googled me. I am not a very private person (hence the blog and my liberal use of my real name), so I don’t really mind your interest in Jordan Hurder. Also, I don’t harbor an inflated sense of self-importance that leads me to assume that you are indeed looking for me… In fact, I was downright shocked when I noticed for the first time that someone had actually found my blog by googling “Jordan Hurder.” But, in the interest of keeping this dialog open, wouldn’t you be so kind as to leave a comment identifying yourself? I realize you hold all the cards here, being the one cloaked in anonymity (although I would consider having a kickass blog about book collecting to be a card), but it’s still worth a shot.
Also, I’m really curious: did you find what you wanted to find RE: Jordan Hurder here in this blog?
Update (May 2011): This post is around two years old and has become the 2nd most popular post on my blog, which is funny to me. I suppose that has helped it stay relatively high in the search results for Jordan Hurder, which is good, since it’s always nice when you can claim that you have SEO’d your own name (“Jordan Hurder,” in this case). Unfortunately, this apparently only works with Google, since searching for “Jordan Hurder” on Bing mostly brings up spammy sites like zoominfo.com and mylife.com that don’t give you any real information. You also get news results about Jordan Hurder being involved in a lawsuit in 2003, and the exploits of Jordan Hurder on the high school debate team circa 1997. So if you were searching for what Jordan Hurder was up to a decade ago, or you wanted to find out more information about Jordan Hurder from websites that would open fifteen popup ads when you clicked on them, definitely use Bing to search for Jordan Hurder. (It’s kind of funny that this page doesn’t even show up on the first 10 pages of search results when you use Bing to search for Jordan Hurder, which suggests that their algorithm de-indexes pages that use the word “Googling” prominently.)
I may be biased, though, since I hate Bing and have hated it since it started – it is not nearly as useful as Google, and its ads are positively the most annoying that I have ever seen. So, I decided to repurpose this page as not just a repository of my own name (Jordan Hurder, in case you forgot), but also an opportunity to sound off about Bing. What has search overload done to us? Nothing. Meet Bing – a solution in search of its problem.
The Windbag Litwag 
looking for chance press…..
In fact, I was googling for “Luigi Serafini” & his codex.
Actually, I Googled stuffy, self important, wannabe intellectuals. My quest has concluded.
Jordan, for some reason I’m only finding your site now. Thanks for linking to AJRMS. I must get my greedy paws on Etimologiario and everything else.
Re: “eraser crumbs” — 1.9 percent of users reach my Hans Henny Jahnn site by searching the phrase “ran over by a truck and his body is torn to shreds.”
Long time no see! Hope all is well!
Jordan, I Googled you because I wanted to see samples of your poetry. We’re both in buk scene 1. Mike
Looking for? Jordan’s blog
Why? Found out about Chance Press via Facebook since all other lines of communication have been down for oh about 9 years. Blog was mentioned in comment about Chance Press’s most recent publication; interested in taking a look.
Found what I wanted? Yes
I am looking to sell around 200 copies of FMR magazine (they are in pristine condition, and include French and Italian issues and copies of FMR Blanco and guides).
The collection is currently in London, England.
Perhaps you could let me know if you are interested.
Thank you
Alison
i bought a used copy of genette’s the architext. your name is written in it, along w/ various notes. i googled you because when reading the architext out loud to someone, i prefaced a passage w/ “as jordan and i know…” felt i owed it to you to look for a facebook page or something. i like that this came up.
wow, that’s wild… yeah, i recently got rid of most of my old books from when i was a comparative literature grad student… the funny part is that i obviously read the book, as evidenced by the notes, but i have absolutely no memory of ever doing so. thank for leaving a comment!
trying to find your phone number.email doesnt cut it sometimes
Hi Jordan,
I didn’t actually Google your name, I did a search for “Luigi Serafini interview” and found myself here. I read all your Serafini related posts and I’m slowly working my way through your other posts. I don’t usually read blogs but your writing is pretty damn compelling. Great stuff. And how did I hear about Serafini? I wrote and illustrated a book for a children’s literature class I was taking and posted it online- http://www.brettharder.com/index.php?p=1_15_Furlqump
For some reason it’s been getting attention recently and someone randomly asked me if I was influenced by Serafini’s Codex. Needless to say I looked him up and was simply blown away, much like how you described it in your essay. Now I’m hooked. Thanks for blogging, I’ll continue to spread the word.
CMFBMH
it’s pretty much inevitable.
I didn’t search for Jordan Hurder. I searched for Hurder. Your site came up second. (1st was the site I was looking for ^^).
I was looking for Luigi Serafini…anyway, good blog.
I was looking as well for the Codex Seraphinianus -more precisely, the deluxe, 2013 edition. If I can’t afford it, at least I will be able to drool over the screen.