Google adds grammar to Search – with artificial intelligence
Google’s search engine has recently introduced a grammar checker feature – the functionality has been available since at least last month, but only now has 9to5Google noticed it, and Google itself warns that “grammar checker accuracy is not guaranteed, especially for incomplete sentences.” And yes, “artificial intelligence systems” are responsible for this function (which ones are unknown).
Google’s grammar checker feature will tell you if a phrase or sentence has grammatical or spelling errors and how to correct them, but it is currently available only in English. Judging by the official description, the feature doesn’t always work – only if Search determines that the user wants to check grammar (the developers don’t specify how the algorithms determine this). Google also recommends adding the words “grammar checker” to your query to increase your chances of success.
Google also asks that you keep in mind that the systems do not check grammar in content that could potentially violate the general rules of Google Search or the rules regarding the grammar-enhanced features of Google Search.
It is not known when exactly Google added the LanguageTool analog to Search, but it has been working for at least a few weeks now. At least, that’s how long ago the corresponding page with its description appeared on the Google support site.
The vast majority of search queries do not care about grammar, but it seems that Google is determined to change this and make this tool popular – apparently, in the hope that users of messengers and social networks will check lexical and grammatical correctness more often right in Google Search. And the more queries you have, the better you are for Google’s business.
As mentioned above, the feature is currently only available for requests in English. As is often the case, Google will eventually expand the list of supported languages – just imagine where this will lead to the discussion of Ukrainian localization in games, which is a topic that has been bothering many people (and leave those Baldur’s Gate 3 localizers alone).
