Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Google Is Smarter than You
Just now, I happened to be searching for "tree dog programmer" on Google (don't ask why). Of the first 10 hits it gives, only 2 actually contain the word "tree"; the other 8 match the word "three" instead. Is it too much to ask to assume people can actually type common words correctly, or can correct their mistakes after noticing the problem? Apparently so (note that this "intelligent" spelling correction can be disabled by surrounding the individual word in quotes).
Another interesting example (I don't have one handy now) is when I look for some rare term, usually getting only a few hits. So then Google suggests "Did you mean: <something else>", and it turns out that this suggested "correction" doesn't actually match anything.
Another interesting example (I don't have one handy now) is when I look for some rare term, usually getting only a few hits. So then Google suggests "Did you mean: <something else>", and it turns out that this suggested "correction" doesn't actually match anything.
Labels: artificial stupidity, rant
