Friday, July 30, 2010

Google With Direct Dictionary Result

Perhaps bad news for the traffic of dictionary sites, which often don’t show the actual word definition in the search engine snippets: Google now has a onebox of their own immediately offering the definition(s) for certain words you’re searching for. Try enter e.g. pleasant into Google.com and the top will read: “pleas·ant/ˈplezənt/Adjective ... 1. Giving a sense of happy satisfaction or enjoyment. ... 2. (of a person or their manner) Friendly and considerate; likable.”

Not too long ago, Google used to link words to Answers.com in the right hand side; before that, Dictionary.com. They later switched to their own definitions page, but then had that link removed completely (it was somewhat useful to check if you were writing a word correctly, though). Now a dictionary is back for certain words – I suppose words people often want to look up in a dictionary, per Google’s usage stats – and more immediate, too. Note entering e.g. define:pleasant still works, too, and triggers a bit of a more extensive page.

[Thanks Drtimofey!]

Google With Direct Dictio ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (6+6)

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