My Spell Checker: 1984 Dictionary Certified

Sometimes it's the little things that can make or break an experience.  For instance, when I spell check "Google" using blogger, I damn well expect it not to get kicked back, you know, considering Google owns it and all. 

I decided to test a few Web 2.0-y words in both Typepad and Blogger, and found that they pretty much both suck, with a slightly-less sucking edge to Typepad.  How hard could it possibly be to fix this?  It doesn't take much time for me to ignore it, but aggregate that across the rest of the blogosphere against the four minutes it would take them to fix it...You get the picture.

 

Yes - recognized as a word, No - Not recognized

Google - Typepad (Yes) Blogger (No)  -- How ridiculous is that?!?
Technorati - Typepad (No) Blogger (No)
Yahoo - Typepad (Yes) Blogger (Yes)
Blog - Typepad (Yes) Blogger (No) -- If blog is not a real word in Blogger's book, they may have some problems...
Blogger - Typepad (No) Blogger (No) -- You've got to be kidding me.
Typepad - Typepad (Yes) Blogger (No)
YouTube - Typepad (No) Blogger (No)
Wikipedia - Typepad (No) Blogger (No)
Podcast - Typepad (No) Blogger (No)
Myspace - Typepad (No) Blogger (No)
Blogosphere - Typepad (No) Blogger (No)
RSS - Typepad (No) Blogger (No)
Firefox - Typepad (No) Blogger (No)
Widget - Typepad (Yes) Blogger (Sometimes) Blogger only recognizes this as a proper name for some reason.

Again, this isn't the end of the world, but the devil is always in the details.  When you're dealing with an audience of tech-savvy bloggers in a flooded market, a little thing like your spell checker can go a long way towards telling your story for you.  Let's hope the rest of the details say something different.

Comments

[CK]

"...but the devil is always in the details. When you're dealing with an audience of tech-savvy bloggers in a flooded market, a little thing like your spell checker can go a long way towards telling your story for you."

True 'dat. These "little things" show your dedication. Shel Israel wrote an open letter to Typepad a few months back urging them to change their spellcheck to accept the word "blogger" (duh). Guess it's not important to them.

Thanks for these great posts.

Btw, check out my blog: I've now officially put pressure on you to take a roadtrip to Austin next weekend (being that I'm flying 2,000 miles to your great state). You know, details :-).

[Roger von Oech]

Paul,

Ahhhh! Thanks for keeping an eye on things! I feel much safer at my keyboard knowing that you (and people like you) are out there protecting the blogosphere's poor-spellers from themselves. I, for one, appreciate your vigilance and salute you!

[Paul McEnany]

CK- Damnit. I'm working on it. It would be nice to get the hell out of Dallas for a couple days, so I'll let you know. You can be so persuasive!

Roger- I do my best! I still can't believe those bastards can't fix that friggin' spell checker. It makes no sense!

[Lori Magno]

Huzzah to the spelling police! The occasional typo is one thing, but some of our blogging brothers and sisters don't know a peek from a peak and which witch is what. Well at least their spell checks don't know the difference.

[Sara Eleta]

Man, I've got a lot of reading to do... catching up on the b.s... :) That's awesome.

[Paul McEnany]

Yes, you do. Welcome Miss Eleta!

And, Lori, I'm very pleased that you used the "word" Huzzah. My respect for you has grown tremendously.

[Lori Magno]

*blinks coyly* Thanks Paulie!

[jon chamberlin]

Right now i am typing this from a nearly darkened room (no lamp, only a computer screen), and so far no hudge spelling erras.

Most Web 2.0 sites will only add a word to their dictionary when a user submits info that needs that word (example: youtube). or not, maybe i am wrong, but it sure as hell seems that way.

Life would be great if spell checks and grammer checks were perfect.