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So, I have a technical problem and I Google for an answer. The first result I find is on Stack Exchange, and the person is asking the same question. So I immediately try to like the question... and am told I can't like my own post!

What is the term for Googling for an answer to a problem, and the first result you find is your own question you asked a year earlier, and there still isn't an answer? I coined the phrase Surfendipity as finding something really, really interesting while looking for something else on Wikipedia. Is this reverse Surfendipity? Inverse Surfendipity? Blind Bad Luck? Ungoogled?

Maybe this is a Sniglet. Do people still do sniglets?

Sample sentence: I was trying to set the default path for Publishing in Visual Studio 2012, and I was ungoogled.

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    When it's done this way it's called subversion. Or sometimes Urobouros. – Hugh Dec 2 '15 at 12:44
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    Hmmm... if Ouroboros (various spellings) is a snake eating it's own tail, how about Surfoboros for finding your own answer? – CigarDoug Dec 2 '15 at 13:06
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    EL&U rules encourage OQ responses. So if you ,1, answer your own surfoboros and .2. tick for right answer, it's a Uroborosurfoboros. – Hugh Dec 2 '15 at 13:44
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    I am remortgaging my house and I'm in a rather complex situation involving equity loans. Luckily I came across an old Guardian article written by a financial advisor which was a response to a reader's question. By pure coincidence, the reader seemed to be in very similar circumstances to myself: same house price, same year of purchase, everything. I shared it with my husband and he noticed the person asking even had the same initials as me. Yup, turns out it was me... A whole year ago. I had no recollection of asking the question and they never contacted me to say they'd published a response! – Bekahland Dec 2 '15 at 14:26
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    a "questional" recursion? – ermanen Dec 2 '15 at 16:01
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As mentioned above the idea of Recursion is clearly involved. Your question has become recursively Googled or Googled recursively. Google has wisely blocked your input to the items popularity.

I say wisely to mean automatically and without any thought at all. It's important to give our overlords credit for even the smallest simulation of effort if we are to keep them from turning on us completely and grinding us to dust.

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  • Technically, it's Stack Exchange, not Google, that blocks me from upvoting my Surfoboros. – CigarDoug Dec 5 '15 at 17:00
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I think it's poetic justice I answer my own question, in this particular case. Thanks to Hugh for pointing me in the right direction. If Ouroboros (various spellings) is a snake eating it's own tail, I officially coin the term Surfoboros for finding your own lost question online.

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