Google is trying to change the English language
Google is one of the most trusted services in the world and when it tells me that my spellings are wrong I normally blindly accept the correction like most of the UK population. The problem is that Google is a US company and they have a different way of spelling lots of words.
Try searching for marginalisation or search engine optimisation and you can see that Google isn’t just offering a correction they are displaying search results for the Americanised search term rather than the English one. Totally unacceptable.
If Google continues to correct our spellings how long before people start to become Americanised?
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3, a Leeds SEO & Digital Agency specialising in SEO, Web Design, Development & Social Media.
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There has been a debate over this since 2004 http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/23414-2-30.htm & tons of other discussion elsewhere http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=google+uk+spelling+%E2%80%99optimisation%E2%80%99+vs+%E2%80%99optimization%E2%80%99&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq= .. I don’t think Google ever cares over this anymore? Hmm!
Hi,
Interesting post. I came across an article which was similar in query (slightly different: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6967071/Google-denies-censoring-anti-Islam-search-suggestions.html), the argument Google put forward was that it suggests pages that are on the web, as there are alot more US web authors, that would logically mean there are alot of US type spelling out there.
The above link didn’t work proper! Here’s it again..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6967071/Google-denies-censoring-anti-Islam-search-suggestions.html
It doesn’t matter to me whether we use American or British spelling, but if we’re all speaking the same language and using the same Internet, we should probably start using the same dictionary. Same with the metric system. I think the U.S. should just adopt it already.
-American Writer
Hi Patrick,
I actually came from abroad and now live and work in the UK. What I have learned so far, is that most foreign people I met, speak English in American accent and write English in American spelling. Including myself at first.
Reason? Hollywood. We have so many American films rather than English films on our TV channels. And in our schools and institution, Microsoft applications (such as Windows & Office), are always being set up in American English.
I think it is unavoidable, unless there are more English products and companies go global and influence foreign countries in all aspect (culture, education, etc.)
Nice post !
Andryo
Although I would agree with the sentiment (I prefer the s spelling rather z spelling for these sorts of words), in this example and others like it the English spelling can be either optimisation or optimization, so whilst it may be wrong to autocorrect, it is also not completely true to say that the English spelling is optimisation.
I hadn’t noticed it doing this, but I suppose the alternative is worse in that it could just be very pedantic with the results it returned. Tried it just now with “colour theory” and it happily returns results with both spellings of colour, the American one and the correct one
While I do agree it is stupid that Google is trying to correct the spelling of search engine optimisation, I don’t agree that the Z usage is an Americanism as people have suggested on Twitter.
There are a couple of pages discussing it here:
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutspelling/ize?view=uk
http://www.metadyne.co.uk/ize.html
I do realise I am being deliberately awkward here, especially considering I am dyslexic and to be quite frank I don’t give a damn in the first place.
However, if anything, it would appear that Google are trying to correct our bad English rather than force Americanisms on us
Watch everyone point out all my spelling and grammar mistakes now
P.s Sorry I posted the same comment on hobo-web.co.uk, he had almost the same blog post.
Ah yes this old classic! It’s not just Google doing this… as a developer the code we write is in American English (or at least, it should be if you follow best practices ) so I end up writing american words like ‘favorite’ or ‘color’ by mistake
But to be honest, it doesn’t bother me. If English wasn’t such a flexable language it wouldn’t be the most popular one.
It’s not just Google, it’s the foundations of the web. I’ve been typing center instead of centre for years thanks to Americanised HTML spec.
Had people been spelling it correctly (optimization) then google wouldn’t have to do this!
I remember when I first started noticing the differences with the British spelling of some words and thought people just didn’t have spell check!
Melissa,
Good point about the metric system for the U.S. but is still largely unadopted here in England (and the rest of the U.K). I grew up in the seventies and we were using both systems then but we don’t seem to have progressed much. Regressed in some ways as plumbers will tell you that you buy three quarter inch pipe but only by the metre.
You know, if those Brits would only learn how to spell their own language, we wouldn’t have this sort of problem.
There is no U in COLOR. Weirdos.
We’ll have to converge sooner or later. I reckon the Indians will have the last word on this.
I would agree to spell like an American if they’d agree top stop measuring things with a dead Kings thumb and his servants foot.
@otto
Are you having a laugh? We created the language and there has always been a U in colour!
It seems the change has been rolled back, blogged about it this morning. Hopefully it’ll stay like this.
Nice design btw Patrick, is this still Thesis or is it your own work?
Google seems to have fixed this now.
Starstruck this is our own design now, looks good I reckon. Obviously I didn’t do the actual design!
Patrick – it’s fixed the ise/ize thing for SEO, but I’ve found some other words it’s serving up different results for, such as stationary and stationery etc. I think the evidence is pointing to what it shows being based on user behaviour in some way: http://www.malcolmcoles.co.uk/blog/googles-spelling-problems-are-worse-than-we-thought/ (I’ve stuck some google insight search volume graphs in that post).
I agree it can be frustrating at times.
Just found this blog, most interesting comments especially from Malcolmcoles with his stationary and stationery, the first spelling meaning fixed, or not moving and the second being writing paper and envelopes…. I learnt these distinct spellings with a very strict teacher at school many years ago. I see that some of the younger population insist on spelling definitely as definately and so on etc. (ect?) have also heard the word moisturization (isation?) recently – it’s not in my dictionary, it sounds like a ‘Bush-ism’. I love spell check and also love to add properly spelt words to my ‘dictionary’.
Well what i think it shows the related searches and the correction is something which is searched mostly in google. Because while searching many people don’t know the correct spelling so they write whatever they wanna write because they know google will show them if they are wrong.
Why can’t they just do it so it works in google.co.uk? It can’t be that hard surely.
ps. I’m not Americanized yet dude – that’s totally bogus!
I think that Google should just blend the 2 sets of results together, which could then be filtered per region in the normal way. What would be wrong with that?
On the general English language spelling debate – I’m in favour of any trend that simplifies spelling so that our kids don’t have to waste so many of their precious educational years worrying about something so completely insignificant! There are lots of stupid and random historic reasons why we spell words the way we do and it only serves to burden an otherwise flexible and adaptable world language.
This is only my opinion, but I don’t see why British spelling should become more Americanised. We are losing our identity enough as it is without the spelling (that we have used for generations) being adapted to what becomes more convenient for globalisation.
I’m sick of entering search terms and seeing stuff like “Did you mean hemophilia?” come up. It has two A’s for crying out loud! Their version is correct in the US and mine is correct here, I wish they’d just leave it at that and accept both versions.
Google should not forced Americanised version. Even when type this on my browser, it is suggesting Americanized in place of Americanised
Thats funny…
Nice article, I don't see why the English Language should be becoming Americanised, and surely if you're using google.co.uk it should definitely be British English? Also the American spelling is just wrong, its very infuriating when you install something like itunes and it asks you what language and the only option is American (English), errr no! We should not be the bracketed party here!
Google doesn’t correct my spelling anymore, simply offering an option to search under the alternative spelling. Now if it would only quit correcting my grammar with ungrammatical ‘corrections’!
You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
The -ize spelling isn’t the American way of spelling. In British English, you can use either -ize or -ise. The -ize version, however, is the version prefered by Oxford University Press and is always listed as the correct spelling, with -ise as an alternative.
Hi Patrick, I’m afraid I’ve bowed to this one, specifically because Google spells its tool Website Optimizer.
It took a lot of arguments but eventually we settled on Site Optimizer as our main domain, and we have had a mixed response from the UK crowd, mainly alonth the lines of:
“Its the US spelling on a UK Domain!”
Time will tell if its a help or a hindrance I guess..
This is only my opinion, but I think you’ve made an extremely poor decision. If I say to someone on the phone “I was thinking of using site optimiser dot co dot uk” whoever on the other end is going to type in the UK spelling and you’ve just spent brand building money sending traffic to a domain you don’t even own…
I also own a UK spelling site (searchengineoptimisation.org) without owning the Z, but given I own the correct spelling I am more than willing to give up the dyslexics and stupid, to ensure I rank well for “search engine optimisation”
I don’t think a wrongly spelled word in your business name gives off a good impression at all. There is only a downside, with very little to gain from doing it. Not like there is going to be much search traffic for “site optimizer” in UK I’m guessing…
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