Google Docs—the beloved tool without which this site would grind to a halt—has updated its spell checker! Sure, in theory that's a "what could be more boring" scenario. But you guys, it's pretty awesome.
The updated spell checking bakes in the power of Google's "Did you mean" technology, meaning that instead of relying on a static dictionary, it uses the context of your word alongside Google's powerful "Did you mean" database to learn new words, offer spelling suggestions based on context rather than just similarity, and that it can even catch typos when the misspelled word is just the wrong dictionary word. The advantages spelled out in more detail, from the Google Docs blog:
1. Suggestions are contextual. For example, the spell checker is now smart enough to know what you mean if you type "Icland is an icland."
2. Contextual suggestions are made even if the misspelled word is in the dictionary. If you write "Let's meat tomorrow morning for coffee" you'll see a suggestion to change "meat" to "meet."
3. Suggestions are constantly evolving. As Google crawls the web, we see new words, and if those new words become popular enough they'll automatically be included in our spell checker-even pop culture terms, like Skrillex.
You may still not care, but you'd be nuts not to think this is awesome technology in action.
Update: As reader TwinIon suggests, this could be a killer feature baked into Chrome (assuming you could toggle it if you had privacy concerns).
Update 2: Looks like Google's already starting to integrate this into Chrome's dev and canary channels, which means if you're using the bleeding edge releases of Chrome, you can enable it by opening Settings, clicking the Show advanced settings link, then ticking the checkbox next to "Use a web service to help resolve spelling errors". At this point, it's not quite working in the same way the Google Docs version works, but it's a promising start.
Spell checking powered by the web | Google Docs Blog


When you're in Google Docs and want to check the definition of a word, all you need to do is type the word (or select an existing one) and perform a quick keyboard shortcut. For Windows users, that shortcut is Control+Shift+Y. For Mac users, it's Command+Shift+Y. That'll bring up the definition and provide you with the ability to look up more words if you like. It's simple and can be a really useful tool when you're writing.
From the navel-gazing department of legitimacy: The Oxford Dictionaries Online has added the term "lifehack" to "the world's most trusted dictionary" (along with
Chrome: This free dictionary extension from Google lets you view definitions from within web pages you visit. Just double-click a word to see its meaning in a pop-up bubble or get in-age translation of a foreign word.