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1) Results with the American spelling - the British spelling is nowhere (ok almost nowhere)
2) Did you mean "american spelling" - no I searched on the UK site!
Frankly - I find this quite offensive.
Anyone else see this across the versions of google - different words?
I know this did not use to be the case - anyone know when it switched?
I wonder what GG has to say about it?
Many of you will already know that the English language took two separate paths when the Pilgrim fathers landed in north America. The American writer, Bill Bryson, addresses this subject in his excellent book, "Made in America".
"Why did the Americans save such good old English words as skedaddle and chitterlings and chore, but not fortnight or heath? Why did they keep the irregular British pronunciations in words like colonel and hearth, but go down our own way in with lieutenant and schedule and clerk? Why in short is American English the way it is?"
My own theory is that this has nothing to do with America or the UK per se (latin). At the time of the colonisation (colonization) communication between the two nations was primitive so then as now, language continued to evolve but it did so separately, at least until the introduction of modern media and communications in the 20th century, since when it has begun to once again merge into a single language. It is not uncommon to see people from the UK using American spelling. It doesn't really matter, does it?
I mean we are quite happy to use words like cigarette and cul de sac, which are French.
It was always a great way to regionalise (regionalize) your SEO efforts.
Why do Americans spell it LAZER when it stands for Light Accelerated (by the) Stimulation (of) Electronic Radiation. Do you just want to be different?
For what it's worth, some words I spell the american way, and some I spell the Aussie way (I know a lot more Aussies than I do Brits).
I was never in favor if any sorts of stemming in Google, and I really wish they would get rid of it, or really discount it in a major way.
If I am searching on a specific spelling such as the singular, I do not want the plural having the same ranking. If you are going to stem, multiply the score of anything that is not an exact match by 0.5, so that I can see the *really* highly ranked pages that are not an exact match, but not those that are close in score, but have the wrong version of the word.
The same goes for "incorrect" spellings. Make a suggestion that I fix my spelling, but don't fix it for me.
About 9 months ago - and yes, it is a pain in the butt!
If you are searching in the UK why do we keep getting listings with American spellings included and "did you mean..." as if we are thick? If you search in France in French, they don't show English sites after doing a translation from French to English (either American or Queen's).
(There's apparently more people who speak english as a second language than as a first).
And international english has a very strong leaning towards americani*ed spellings.
They are just as illogical and history-ridden as british spellings. But they are more widely spread.
It's a fact of life, use it to your advantage.
As the song says, I say 'lettuce', you say 'lett-too-chay'"
It is not uncommon to see people from the UK using American spelling. It doesn't really matter, does it?
I think it does. They're mixing languages: American English and British/Australian English. I'm happy to use <center> and I'm not offended by Google asking me if maybe I'm an illiterate American but I'm blowed if I'm going to optimize my sites.
but I'm blowed if I'm going to optimize my sites
Seriously, we should all be speaking the language of heaven:
[google.com...]
Tony
My tuppence (two-penny) worth:Why do Americans spell it LAZER when it stands for Light Accelerated (by the) Stimulation (of) Electronic Radiation. Do you just want to be different
LASER is acutally Light Amplification by Stimulated Emmission of Radiation.
In other news, I'm British so I use British spellings. I expect Google (and everything else) to recognise this.
Although I believe the OED prefers -ize to -ise these days. Soon they'll be having us put an 'e' on the end of potato...
Jon.
I'm not offended by Google asking me if maybe I'm an illiterate American but I'm blowed if I'm going to optimize my sites.
Shouldn't that be optimiSe Patrick?
Boom! Boom!
People here in England dont even talk the same as each other anyway. For instance all the folks down south who feel it necessary to stick extras 'r's all over the place (e.g. grarss instead of gra-ss, parss instead of pa-ss, parth instead of pa-th etc..) Give me American language over that anyday!
My opinion entirely - but for a market of 60 million in the UK a regional dictionary shouldn't be out of the question - then they wouldn't have to suggest I fix my spelling - especially when they go to the trouble of translating the whole site to the language of heaven for Tom Jones above ;)
I get the same sort of feeling as when I use windows and get the scan disk message that suggests I "shutdown my computer properly" when the shoddy OS has just crashed for the 5th time in an hour, except I don't feel like hitting something ;)
I know I use 98 - I'm not going to upgrade when all I use is fireworks and IE.
No, I didn't! I speak english!
Actually, taking that argument, it should be the other way around. Worldwide, more people have English English as an official language than there are people in the US :)
Take India for example!
Because Google's management are 'thick'. Google is too busy blocking everyone's web sites over here in the US to be concerned about little things like language. Adwords is the only thing important to them now.
Anyone else see this across the versions of google - different words?
I believe Google takes the word searched for most often (optimization - ugh, it pains me to write it) and suggests it - simply because it is searched for most often. I think...
ugh, it pains me to write it.
Same here, but I think Google is right to be helpful and I don't take it personally. I sometimes misspell words (who doesn't?) or find my search might be better done another way. They would be even more right if they also suggested "optimise" for a search on "optimize".
They would be even more right if they also suggested "optimise" for a search on "optimize".
That's *exactly* what they should do. In fact, it would be even more helpful if they asked, 'Did you mean "optimize" (US English)' and 'Did you mean "optimise" (British English)'.
Else don't make any spelling suggestions for these types of variants.
BTW while playing around with this I did a search for "fortnight" and at the top of the results was the Google calculator that shared with me the fact that 1 fortnight = 14 days.
I thought that this was a bit American so I did a search for "week" and I was also informed that 1 week = 7 days. Well thank you Google!
This is surely taking the new tools to the limit. But then again perhaps there are a few PC literate people out there who do not yet know that there are seven days in a week?
P.S. In the gospel according to Google 1 month = 30.4368499 days.
