"Did you mean?"



  • I typed a few characters into google to see if my internet was up (bad weather). I got this result. Go figure.

     

     

    I remember once seeing an Error'd that showed something similiar, except it was a nonsensical Google ad.



  • Google's spelling corrections are based on what it sees people searching for. If 10'000 people search for "chatt0rz" and you then search for "chatterz", then it will suggest "chatt0rz" because that's what everyone else was searching for. It's an inaccurate way to do spelling correction, because it implies that everyone else can spell correctly, and of course they are likely to be no better or worse than you. However, you are searching for Web pages written by regular people, so... Where it really irritates me is when it chooses to "correct" words that are perfectly correct en-[dialectA], and offers an en-[dialectB] spelling simply because more people have used that.

    As for fgdfgdfgdf, it looks like people prefer to search for that than for fgfgddfgfgddf.



  • I pity the old lady who wants to buy a phonograph for her husband for Christmas so he can play all his old records...

    >phonograph

    Did you mean to search for "pornography"?

    Trust me, it will happen, someday...



  • @ekolis said:

    Trust me, it will happen, someday...

    I don't trust you.



  • @ekolis said:

    Did you mean to search for "pornography"?
    In some cases it searches for the "correction" by default instead of what you asked for, so it could even do:
    "Searching for pornography - search instead for phonograph"



  • @TarquinWJ said:

    It's an inaccurate way to do spelling correction,
     

    That's because it's not spelling correction. Google does not claim that it is.



  • Think of it this way: It's unlikely that xkcd will ever be considered a word in any spelling dictionary, but is it something that you would want to be able to find even if you spelled it wrong?



  • @Ben L. said:

    Think of it this way: It's unlikely that xkcd will ever be considered a word in any spelling dictionary, but is it something that you would want to be able to find even if you spelled it wrong?

    No.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    No.

    Did you mean "Yes?"

     

     



  • @TarquinWJ said:

    @ekolis said:
    Did you mean to search for "pornography"?
    In some cases it searches for the "correction" by default instead of what you asked for, so it could even do:
    "Searching for pornography - search instead for phonograph"
     

    I hate it when it does this, particularly when I'm searching for a brand name or a word in a foreign language.  No, Google, I wanted to search for what I typed in the search box.  That's why I typed it.  If I wanted to search for something else, I would type something else.

    I wish more programs had a little box you could check that said "I know what I'm doing.  Do exactly what I say, no questions asked.  I accept full responsibility for the consequences of checking this box, and will not sue you when it inevitably turns out that I did not, in fact, have the faintest idea what I was doing."



  •  @Iago said:

    I hate it when it does this, particularly when I'm searching for a brand name or a word in a foreign language.  No, Google, I wanted to search for what I typed in the search box.  That's why I typed it.  If I wanted to search for something else, I would type something else.

     I found if you have an odd word that autocorrects, it will work if you put it "in quotes like this." Its a pain though, Ill admit.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Aimee the Great said:

     I found if you have an odd word that autocorrects, it will work if you put it "in quotes like this." Its a pain though, Ill admit.
    Trouble with that is, unless you know in advance it's going to do that, you already have the link to search for what you typed in rather than what Google thinks you meant.



  • Update:

    They're onto you!


  • SON OF A GODDAMN WHORE WHAT IS WRONG WITH COMMUNITY SERVER




  • It's not to correct spelling, it's to give better searches and thus better search results.  



  • In an attempt to reduce the insanity of CS, the forum's backend is now being run through Twitter. Short posts only. ...Testing... It seems to dump pretty much randomly. Keep hitting the post button until you get through!





  • I tried to post some rambling gibberish and CS crapped itself.

     



  • @RTapeLoadingError said:

    I tried to post some rambling gibberish and CS crapped itself.
     

    Go read General Discussion.


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