The nice thing about having a dictionary in your computer is that you can just type a word in, and it gives you the definition; but what if you spelled it wrong? With a book-version of the dictionary, you could search for it, but with the computer dictionary, it refuses to help you because it’s so offended that you didn’t know how to spell the word. In the immortal words of Rick Santorum (saying something quite dumb): “What a snob!”*
Oh, but that’s what’s so great about Google! I used to type in what I wanted to search for, only to have Google simply assume I misspelled something just because it’s not on the top of their list: what a jerk! (In fact: what a snob!) It’s not that I spelled it wrong, Google (that could never happen! Okay, well, maybe sometimes…), it’s just that you’re too ignorant to know what I’m searching for! (Loser!) So, who’s the uncool ignoramus now, eh Google? But all this pointless pettiness aside, which is of course all Google’s fault for its patronizing attitude, dripping with sarcasm as it asks, trying to embarrass me: “Did you mean: (whatever I searched for, but somehow spelled differently)?”, there is a great feature (albeit I’m sure unintentional) to this asking me if I meant something else thing! What’s that? Well, its…
That’s right! Google’s intended slight can be turned against it to actually help us sometimes! (I’m rubber and you’re glue, Google; and whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you! Nayh, nyah!) How’s this, you may ask? Well, it’s like this: Let’s say, just for the sake of argument (since I’m sure neither you nor I ever have any typos, etc.) that you want to find out the difinition of a word (hey, cut it out, Google! You know I typed “definition”! Stop trying to embarrass me!), but you spelled it wrong into the computer dictionary: Well, the dictionary will say there’s no such word, and it won’t help you with a suggestion. Well, then simply type it into Google, and it will try to embarrass you by giving you the correct spelling, but Ha!, it has fallen into your trap! Because yes, you actually wanted Google to snidely correct you for a change! But being too stupid to realize this, Google has unknowingly helped you! Ha Ha!
See? So you can trick Google into helping you sometimes: It’s true! (It is a little-known fact that Google is #1 because people enjoy being contradicted by technology! It’s true!)
* Here’s Rick Santorum’s “What a snob!” comment, just in the off-chance you missed it:
