v. when an initial search for
information on a specific topic branches off in multiple directions in a seemingly endless chain of information on several topics that are usually unrelated to your original search.
often used in reference to Wikipedia, where budding curiosity and
strategically placed hotlinks can quickly bud into an orgy of
interesting but useless articles that you will quickly forget the details of and do a pisspoor job referencing later to friends.
A guy at work made
reference to "Learning by Osmosis" which I pretended to find funny when
everyone else laughed. When I returned to my desk I Googled "Osmosis"... which took me to "
Osmosis Jones" which had a link to "Box Office Bombs" which took me to "Sahara" which lost $121,000,000 gross. I didn't learn anything about Osmosis; it was a total wiki-wiki-gang-bang