Loan sharks, Anwar Ibrahim, spunk and me

Over the last month 223 of you have made your way to this blog through a search engine, using 178 different keywords, according to the ever-useful Google Analytics service.

Many people came here after searching for information about Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian opposition leader, loan sharks and Singapore. Not surprising as that I have given these subjects a lot of coverage over recent weeks.

The most popular inbound search term was "ben bland blog", which led to 24 visits. I can assure you that none of these were vanity searches...

One person arrived at The Asia File after searching for "ben bland journalist photo". I wonder whether I have a secret admirer or if the media police from one of the regions more repressive regimes are after me.

While I hope to satisfy all my readers, some of the searchers will undoubtedly arrive here to much disappointment.

Like the web fiends who googled "asian upskirt blogspot.com" and "search spunking" only to end up at one of the region's most high-brow political blogs.

One apparent entreprenuer searched for "how to start loan shark singapore" but sadly for him/her this blog will have been of little use, other than to provide some basic information about the typical interest rates charged by the illegal moneylenders.

If only they could have connected with the visitor who googled "loan shark needed singapore".

Some of the inbound searches seem to defy logic and question my faith in the supremacy of the Google way.

Why someone would search for "markings on land that no one can explain" and end up here, I cannot understand.

Still, so long as the search engines keep driving traffic here, I cannot complain.