Help! I've been Flickrwhacked!
To googlewhack means to find a search term that returns only one result in Google. To be a true googlewhack, the search term should consist of actual words that can be found in a dictionary. The googlewhack craze has been around a while. It's worth noting that when someone finds a good googlewhack like ambidextrous scallywags, the search term doesn't stay a whack?note the 740 (or so) hits for this term in Google.
Now there's a new game in town: flickrwhacking.
A successful flickrwhack finds a flickr tag that uniquely identifies one Flickr photo.
To back up for a moment, when a Flickr member posts a photo that can mark their image with tags that describe the contents. These tags are a useful way to find photos on Flickr (one's own, or photos relating to the subject of a tag). Flickr tags have come to play an important role in the folksonomic categorization of the web because they provide a high-volume approach to correlating subject-matter with visuals.
Some Flickr tags can be pretty idiosyncratic, hence the game of flickrwhacking.
I tagged a somewhat unusual photo of mine of a holly flower with the tag By Golly. It turns out that By Golly is a flickrwhack, and was added to the Flickr flickrwhack thread.
Flickrwhacking is part of a general Flickr trend of making a game out of everything. Another example: one group is devoted to each member finding their least interesting photo on Flickr. Of course, as with googlewhacking, the moment a photo is labeled as uninteresting-which is an automated Flickr ranking system for photos-it becomes more interesting.
Googlewhacking! Flickrwhacking! The web! Ain't life grand?
Posted by Harold Davis at May 5, 2006 1:48 PM
