Why is no spellchecker as good as Google... even Chrome?

Russinating · 5 Dec 2012 at 09:20

I don't know if anyone finds this on a daily basis, but when I can't remember how to spell a particularly tricky word my spell checker in Thunderbird or Chrome often fails to find the right word. A quick copy and paste into Google and it always suggests the correct word first time.

For example, I was just trying to spell erroneous. I think I originally spelt it errornous. Chrome suggests: error nous, error-nous, erogenous, non-ferrous and ferrous. Yet Google... https://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&pws=0&q=errornous

How is Google better than Google?! :confused:

Antar Bolaeisk · 5 Dec 2012 at 09:47

Opera spell checker found it

cheechm · 5 Dec 2012 at 10:07

Probably has some sort of wizardry which overtime has learnt what people spell wrong and therefore will potentially give you the most common answer.

TheMightyTen · 5 Dec 2012 at 10:14

Russinating said:
....erogenous...

There's your problem, Chrome was distracted.

paradigm · 5 Dec 2012 at 10:18

How do you completely miss an entire syllable from a word though? If you had perhaps put that syllable in (even wrongly, with an "i" for example), it perhaps would have found it.

Spell check: Not a substitute for actually knowing things.

RoyMi6 · 5 Dec 2012 at 10:32

In Chome, go to Settings -> Show Advanced -> Privacy -> Use a web service to help resolve spelling errors.

This will use Google in addition to the baked in spell checker - although the google web suggestion always seems to appear at the bottom of the suggestions

Enjoy.

EDIT: FYI, built in spell checkers will use a predefined set of rules and relatively simple / quick algorithms. Understandably Google's web spell checker has a lot more horse power behind it and will likely be updated dynamically based on actions of users when mistakes are corrected and suggestions are given.

RoyMi6 · 5 Dec 2012 at 10:34

paradigm said:
Spell check: Not a substitute for actually knowing things.

Knowing things: Not a substitute for being understanding of other peoples problems.

Sorry, but combine dyslexia with a typo and you have the makings of pretty random combinations of letters on my screen.

Russinating · 5 Dec 2012 at 11:02

paradigm said:
How do you completely miss an entire syllable from a word though? If you had perhaps put that syllable in (even wrongly, with an "i" for example), it perhaps would have found it.

Spell check: Not a substitute for actually knowing things.

You've completely missed the point.

RoyMi6 said:
In Chome, go to Settings -> Show Advanced -> Privacy -> Use a web service to help resolve spelling errors.

This will use Google in addition to the baked in spell checker - although the google web suggestion always seems to appear at the bottom of the suggestions

Enjoy.

Awesome!

LordSplodge · 5 Dec 2012 at 12:23

Google has a very big database of words versus what can be stored locally in a browsers spellchecker.

Rikki · 5 Dec 2012 at 12:39

Think this is strange ... have you ever actually went to Youtube.com and THEN tried to use their search to find a video?!

Holy moly!

Another Google owned system that is chronic at doing what Google does best