A small feature that could save users a lot of time

Jun 7, 2010 15:03 GMT  ·  By

Spelling corrections have become the norm for search engines and for good reason. The tool comes in very handy numerous times, not necessarily for poorly spelled words, but for trickier things like complicated names and places. At the same time, another very popular tool when searching is the suggestion box, which lists popular queries that match your search. Now, Google has combined the two in a more intuitive manner.

“Since we first launched Google Suggest, we've offered spell-corrected search completions to provide you with similar search queries from other users,” Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products and User Experience at Google, wrote.

“This week we launched an update that makes Google Suggest even more intuitive and simple. If you're typing a query for which there are no search completions to offer, and yet some of your search terms do seem to be misspelled, Google Suggest will now offer a ‘Did you mean’ suggestion for your query—giving you an option to correct your spelling right away and get on with your search,” she announced.

Google Suggest has always offered corrections for the queries that matched other popular ones. This made it easier for people to correct their search terms before actually conducting the search. But if your query had no suggestions, you would not realize you’ve misspelled something until after you ended up on the results page.

Now, though, the spelling corrections are being highlighted in the Suggest box along with the well-known “did you mean” phrasing. This, Google says, eliminates a step in the process and helps users discover their mistake earlier. It also potentially saves them time and a useless search. It’s a small change, but one that points out just how Google has been able to stay ahead of the game, by constantly perfecting its product, one small step at a time. The feature is available for the main google.com homepage and will be rolled out to everyone shortly.

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The regular spelling corrections in Google Suggest
The new spelling correction feature in Google Suggest
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