What the WILF?

This is a bit old, but (via Alex), I just read about wilfing. Though it reminds me a bit of both MILF (rudeness ahead) and filk (dorkiness ahead), it’s unrelated to either. From The Guardian:

It is the virtual equivalent of window-shopping, and a lot of us seem to be spending a lot of time doing it. “Wilfing” – or surfing the web without any real purpose – has become a new national pastime, according to a survey out today.

Although a newly-identified habit, more than two-thirds of the 33.7 million internet users in the UK admit to at least the occasional “wilf” (a term derived from the phrase “what was I looking for?”), while browsing the internet.

Window shopping? The closer metaphor must be channel surfing. Frankly, the article’s pretty ridiculous, as they’re reporting on a survey about web surfing. The very term ‘surfing’ implies a certain serendipity, doesn’t it?

Anyhow, I’m definitely guilty of wilfing. Often when I go to my favourite wilfing hole, I think of that famous song by the late Kurt Cobain: “here I am now, entertain me.”

Speaking of rockers, you could do worse than spend fifteen minutes watching this amusing short about the 27th Spinal Tap reunion. The link to the video is buried about halfway down the page.