Chrome and its Spellcheck -- How Hard Would This Be To Implement

Question

From a programmer's perspective.

The dictionary in chrome, Google's "own" browser, does not have the same dictionary as their search engine. Countless times I have right clicked on a poorly misspelled word only to have no correct spelling appear. I Google the word and almost 100% of the time it knows what I was trying to type. :)

I realize there are probably very good reasons for this, but why can't Chrome simply Google for a word when you right click on it when it can't find a correct spelling.

I am sometimes a bad speller and it would be really nice if the spell check in Chrome at least utilized Google's landmark product to provide more accurate word spelling lookups.

How hard must this be to implement or are there other reasons you think they are not?

Answer 1

The difficulty depends on how Google has their spelling suggestion system set up, but it shouldn't be that hard. However, I don't think this question is appropriate for Stack Overflow, as it's not a programming question, just a subjective discussion question.

Answer 2

I don't know for sure, but I will hazard a guess.

The spellcheck system used by the search engine is based on analysis of billions of queries to see what people search for and how they correct their searches when the search engine doesn't correct it for them. To do the same for Chrome, Google would have to collect data on everything you type for analysis. Obviously this is going to throw up tons of privacy issues. Even if they only send back malformed words to the Google server and send back suggestions, it is potentially a privacy mindfield as well. Seeing how Google seems so prone to such accusations and complaints, I'm quite sure they'll just leave spellcheck as it is.

Just my two cents.

Answer 3

Nothing to do with the OP, but Chrome's spell-checker doesn't have the word "Google" in it. It suggests Goggle, Googly, Go ogle, Go-ogle and Goodly. Sad stuff.