back to article Google opens alphabetti spaghetti with refined spelling in search

Google has tweaked its search engine to speed up queries for users who are prone to spelling mishaps. Mountain View said on Friday that it had made three enhancements to help web surfers input their searches more quickly and easily. It has plumped up the automatic correction of misspelled search words to include 31 languages …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Pretty soon...

    ...Google will know what you are ABOUT to search for...

    1. Skrrp
      Troll

      </title>

      They already know that. It's donkey midget porn, duh.

    2. I didn't do IT.
      Joke

      About to search for...

      Pr0n torrents, obviously?

  2. Nat Pryce
    Welcome

    Must be awkward for frequent travellers

    ...unless they override the heuristics when the user is logged in and they know the user's location.

  3. mwk

    God help you

    if you're trying to find something that's deliberately misspelt.

    1. heyrick Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Looking for something to NOT be corrected

      I remember some adverts from the '80s about the "InPhone". I think this was when BT finally introduced the plug/socket we all know today. So I wanted to look it up.

      Bloody Google kept providing links to anything to do with the iPhone...

  4. TeeCee Gold badge
    Joke

    Hmmm.....

    I think that Mr Dunkey who runs the Saxophone store is going to be slightly pissed off........

    1. Lockwood

      Confused

      Why, when so many people would find some Funky Sox as a result

  5. Craig 12

    One step back?

    In the new listings style that is being rolled out, you can't click the word you googled and go to spellings/definitions/usage :(

    'fewer shopping sites' is a decent option tho :)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    how about "NOT!"

    Please Google, give us a URL that won't have any of the suggestion crap. I hate losing more than an inch of screen real-estate just because you think I can't spell. how about http://smarter.than.google.com

  7. robhogg
    FAIL

    Please don't.

    Just... don't. Or at least give us the opportunity to turn the auto-correction off.

    I tend to search for things with slightly unusual spellings. I often also use French or Spanish search terms. I already get irked by Google asking "did you mean...", or even (on one occasion) deciding that I actually didn't mean to search for "sp_dbcc_faultreport indid", and giving me the results for "sp_dbcc_faultreport india"!

    This sounds like it will lead to more of the same. In return for making something easier to use for newbies, we are going to end up with something that is of less use to power users.

    1. Havin_it

      With you

      Absolutely with you on this. I never understood why Google didn't have a modifier (a la "site:somedomain.com" and so forth) to yield only an exact string match. It would be so useful for hunting down software error-messages and the like - usually this works to some extent with phrase matching, but often it doesn't.

      An engine that did this would get a big portion of my queries.

      1. KenBW2

        Erm, like this?

        http://www.google.com/search?q=%22searches+like+this%22

      2. Steve X

        exact match

        Put a '+' character in front of the word, i.e. +satelite which will not return entries for the correctly spelt "satellite"

        Sadly this doesn't work for phrases, i.e. +"comunications satelite", where the + is attached only to the first word.

    2. Pete 6
      Troll

      Newbies to what?

      The English language?

  8. Tom 38
    Stop

    Obscure spellings? Please

    Try being a Perl programmer with google. Lets find out what the variables $?, $^, $> and $< mean with google..

  9. perlcat
    Coat

    Why would they call it 'refined search'?

    Why not "vulgar search", "iliturutt surch" or "Google's latest attempt to make the internet even more stupid".

    Getting my coat in disgust.

  10. perlcat
    Coat

    another naming suggestion

    illiterate alliterations.

  11. Walking Turtle
    Headmaster

    I yam wot I yam...

    ...an' I knows wot I means t'be goin' fer wen I types it. Iffen I Googles sumpin' Spelt Funny, believe me, it's a-purpose and no typo eror. :)

    Beer all around an' Oi'll get me coat. ;)

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