Are Dictionaries Obsolete?
Posted in Technology on 08. Sep, 2009
That’s the question posed by an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal:
Do we still need dictionaries in the age of Google?
Dictionaries are, after all, giant databases of words compiled by lexicographers who investigate word usages and meanings.
These days, however, Google is our database of meaning. Want to know how to spell assiduous? Type it incorrectly and Google will reply, in its kind-hearted way: “Did you mean: assiduous”? Why yes, Google, I did.
Google then spits out a bunch of links to Web definitions for assiduous. Without clicking on any of them, the two-sentence summaries below each link give me enough to get a sense of the word: “hard working,” and “diligent.”
And here I was thinking assiduous meant something else…guess I need to find new adjectives!
My first impression is that yes, Google seems destined to kill off dictionaries (like everything else). Why pull out a book when a two-second search is all you need? It’s not like you’re trying to read a novel on your computer screen. Of course, I’d be tempted to say that dictionaries have the benefit of being portable, but I finally got my iPhone 3GS this summer—so there goes that argument. Speaking of which, anyone know of any good dictionary apps?
Tell me if I’m off base here, but I just can’t see any way they can survive.
So long, dictionary. At least the paper kind.
-tg
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