Google Docs Spell Checker – Is it trustable ?

Google recently implemented a “smart” spell checker into their Google Doc system. This smart spell checker is what Google currently uses for their Google search. Anytime a user misspells a word when performing a Google search, Google generates a “Did you mean” response with the correct spelling. This helps users find results for their exact needs.

What Separates Google Smart Spell Checker From Other Writing Programs?

What separates Google smart spell checker from those found in other writing programs is that it uses the Internet to populate its word database and doesn’t rely solely on a dictionary. What this means is that when Google spiders crawl a website, they notate words, names and phrases that are extremely popular. These words are then added to a queue of words that Google uses for their spell checking.

The Benefits Of Creating A Spell Checker

The benefits of creating a spell checker this way is that it allows for constant updating without needing a system upgrade. This way, when a word becomes extremely popular very quickly, it can be added to the mix right away. (This is why the word “blog” doesn’t get flagged by Google spell checker like it does by Word.) Google also allows for popular phrases and proper nouns to be included in their list. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg would not get flagged as being misspelled.

Advance Google Spell Checker

The smart advancements of Google spell checker also locates more grammatical errors than most other programs, making it more than just a spell checker. For example, many spell checkers will solely look for words that are misspelled and not decipher whether or not they are being used correctly in a sentence. While Google spell checker will not catch 100% of these errors, it will find many more than others.

Can I Trust Google Docs Spell Checker ?

Even though the Google Doc spell checker is far more advanced than other programs out there, it is still not 100% perfect. The library in the Google spell checker may contain more words and phrases, but it will not account for names or words that are not used often on the Internet.

For example, if a new word makes its way onto the scene (think of when “webinar” or “vlog” made their debut), Google will flag this word as being incorrect since this new word hasn’t spread yet. Once it does, though, it will be added to the Google queue quicker than any other spell check software.

You can trust the Google Doc spell checker to do a basic run through for you, but in order to ensure that your written piece is error-free, you will need to stick to a hard edit of your own. Always proofread your own work or have someone else proofread it for you before submitting it.

Though it may be dubbed as the “smart” spell checker, it’s not perfect. You will catch more errors using the Google spell checker than with any other program, and though it comes close, it will not catch every misspelling or grammatical error in work.

Using a combination of Google spell checker and a hard proofing done by yourself will ensure all misspellings and grammatical errors are corrected.