Google strikes one more time, but absolutely with no advertising, as it’s for most of their products. They leave it to media. This Friday, Google launched its online dictionary. Not many know about it. So, before reading further give it a try - http://www.google.com/dictionary

Best things about it -

Undoubtedly, its interface. Light & intuitive. The way you expect Google to be. Google, somehow, always manages to pull that up. That’s the USP of their products. You don’t have to learn them, you don’t have to click on ‘Help’ tabs (do they have them?), you don’t have to search for tutorials, unlike Microsoft, you burn your nights learning their products & before you even know, they have launched new version of it, not a bit similar to the original one, huh.

To test any dictionary’s richness in explanation, I first read what it has to say about ‘would’. From my point of view, this one word is very hard to explain & needs very careful explanation. Google gives very easy & comprehensive explanation for this one. Simple language, laymen’s terms & 4-5 sentences for each usage. Try out other words, it’s pretty comprehensive.

Features -

1. Synonyms. (No! Antonyms are not available.)
2. Pronunciation keys.
3. Pronunciation. (This one is a bit tricky.)
4. Pictures for nouns.

   I like this feature. It’s helpful especially when you surfing for nouns whose textual explanation provides little information. For example, birds, plants, fruits etc.

5. Related phrases.
6. Starred Words.

   It’s pretty simple. Just click on the star before the word & you can create a list of ‘starred words’ for handy reference in future. Try it. This one is a never seen before feature.

7. Links to other web definitions.
8. Supports 27 languages.

   27 most talked languages around the world & 8 of them are Indian languages - Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, & Kannada.

And, some other information you would normally expect each dictionary to have but never care about it unless you are up for Ph D in English.

Now, some things I don’t like about it -

I could just find one. I have a serious problem with ‘translator’. Unless one has access to the script language, one can not use the translator. For example, if you want to use Hindi-to-English dictionary, you would have to use Google translator to get Hindi words & then copy-paste them to dictionary. Isn’t it better to embed translator in dictionary itself?

And, why are pronunciations not available for English-to-English interface? They are available only while using translations.

Anyway, Google is here to define internet, information & how we see things around us the “Google way”. Man, they are touching everything. OS, cell phones, Google wave & now a dictionary. What’s next? Google toilets?

Author - Alpesh Chaudhari.