China Bing Dictionary makes learning English fun

There are some odd words in English, especially those originating from other languages, that are not pronounced the way they are written (wonder if there is a word for these kind of words). Mispronouncing such words could make you a laughing stock.

Unlike some other online dictionaries that just read out the pronunciation, Bing Dictionary for China also has karaoke-style videos for some 10 million sample sentences.

According to PCWorld, Matt Scott, the project lead for Bing Dictionary is the model for the videos currently online. And no, he has not actually spoken all those 10 million sample sentences

"Rather than repeatedly tape a person speaking the different sample sentences over and over again, Microsoft has found a way to synthesize the sounds and artificially mouth the facial movements of the model speaking in the videos.


It works by capturing shots of all the different pronunciations the model can express in a five-hour process that maps the person's lips, Scott said. The technology then finds the best match between the lips and what word the programmers want the model to say, creating an accurate lip synch. The end result is a video of the model mouthing the words of the sample sentence while a computerized voice reads it out loud."

I hope Bing brings this feature to other countries as well.

Also see:
HOW TO pronounce foreign names
WordWeb - the desktop English teacher

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HOW TO sarcastically tell someone to google for their answer

Before Google became popular, it was common to see the expression RTFM (or in polite terms, Read The Fine Manual) used in internet forums if a poster asked a question without doing any homework. These days it is more common to see messages directing such users to Google or Bing instead of the manual.

LMGTFY.com (the word LMGTFY represents the initial letters of "let me google that for you") is one among a bunch of sites that sarcastically explains how to use Google. It lets a responder create a shortened URL for a saved search query for a question that a poster may have posed without putting any effort to solve it by himself.

The popular Q&A site, StackOverflow discourages impatient responders from posting LMGTFY-like links.

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HOW TO find readability level of search results & books

Google's “Instant Preview” lets you visually preview a search result page before you actually visit a page. A new advanced search filter called Readability level now lets you predetermine whether the result pages you want to see Basic, Intermediate or Advanced. I could not find details on what methodology Google uses to judge the readability level.

Amazon.com has been carrying a Text Stats feature in the "Inside This Book" section of most book-detail pages since a long time that can help you gauge the readability level of books.

They are calculated based on the following rating techniques  -

• The Fog Index was developed by Robert Gunning. It indicates the number of years of formal education required to read and understand a passage of text.
• The Flesch Index, developed in 1940 by Dr. Rudolph Flesch, is another indicator of reading ease. The score returned is based on a 100 point scale, with 100 being easiest to read. Scores between 90 and 100 are appropriate for 5th and 6th graders, while a college degree is considered necessary to understand text with a score between 0 and 30.
• The Flesch-Kincaid Index is a refinement to the Flesch Index that tries to relate the score to a U.S. grade level. For example, text with a Flesch-Kincaid score of 10.1 would be considered suitable for someone with a 10th grade or higher reading level.

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Google Custom Search can let your prioritize results

You can use the site: operator to make Google restrict the search results to only websites originating from a specified domain. However, there may be times when you want Google to prioritize results so that those from your favorite websites will automatically appear before results from other sites (which then appear below).

Google's personalized search feature of star-ring results requires manual intervention but Custom Search can automate the process of always moving results from your favorite sites to the top.

Also see:
Google Guide

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Rate your SEO skills with these Quizzes

Did you know, for high-volume search phrases, the Search Engines usually will NOT differentiate between singular and plural versions of a term? Check it for yourself by seeing the search results on these phrases - cell phone vs. cell phones. I was under the impression, until I took the SEOmoz quiz, that this was a case of stemming & there should be differentiation.

Here is my compilation of all the interesting SEO Quizzes I have found (work in progress) -

• SEO Expert Quiz - the 75 questions there will take about 30 minutes. The answers to a few questions are debatable but the quiz is educative nevertheless.
• SEO Professional's Litmus Test - 11 Search Engine Optimization Questions & Answers  for newbies.
• Google WebMaster Quiz - 40 Q&A based on issues commonly seen on the Google Webmaster Help Forum.
• StackExchange Pro Webmasters - although not really a quiz, you can follow the hottest Q&A that have got the most votes

Trivia: PageRank is actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page

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See what Google is suggesting - II

I don't how Google's auto suggest algorithm works exactly but if it shows the most queried results matching the initial keywords without filtering those with negative connotations, its a time to worry, especially for parents & teachers. What impact can it have on teenagers & younger kids?

SafeSearch screens only for sites that contain explicit sexual content leaving other sensitive topics.

Displaying an auto-suggestion like "how to hack gmail password" when a teenager begins typing "how to" is sure to misdirect innocent minds & put ideas into their head. Autocomplete is on by default & disabling this under Preferences is the alternative for those who are concerned.

Thank God, a suggestion like "how to make a bomb" (returns 81,700,000 results in 0.05 seconds, BTW) doesn't feature in the suggestion list...yet.

Also see:
See what Google is suggesting
Look what Google Goggles visual search can do

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Some lesser known Google tricks

Crowdsourced answers to questions on "Hidden features of  product/service X" on the StackOverflow family of sites, make for interesting reading. I picked a few tips & trivia I didn't know earlier, from a similar thread on Google Search -

1. The calculator feature in Google understands not just numbers but also words. This query would still return the correct answer -
(five plus seven) divided by six

2. Searching for "population germany" will display a chart as the first result -

(Note though that Wolfram Alpha can do more complex mathematical calculations & give more detailed answers for search terms like population germany. )

3. The results for define:camouflage are different from en:en camouflage. The latter returns a dictionary-style definition of camouflage

4. Searching for anagram gives an interesting "did you mean?" suggestion, and a query for ASCII Art also has an unexpected effect.

5. Another poster informs that inserting the letter 'l.' before 'google.com' in the URL of Google or any subdomain and get to the same site, e.g.:
video.l.google.com
mail.l.google.com

This way, you can still watch videos even if your filter blocks video.google.com

6. The Google Labs feature Experimental search makes Google keyboard-friendly.

Related:
Bing + Wolfram | Alpha = Cool
.

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