An innovative real-estate site.

I recently came across Propsmart. This site provides you with a list of houses featured on the famous MLS along with a map (courtesy of Google Maps). It was very interesting to see this and compare it with Zillow.

Neuromarketing

On Advertising: Better ads with MRIs?
Eric Pfanner International Herald Tribune

SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2006

A television advertisement set to appear in France next week spoofs one of the memorable moments in French politics, when President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, having been defeated by his Socialist challenger, François Mitterrand, bid the nation farewell in a solemn television address in 1981. At the end of his speech, Giscard intoned a funereal "au revoir" and strode away melodramatically as the cameras lingered on his empty desk.

In the ad, an actor with the number 12 emblazoned on his shirt mimics Giscard, saying goodbye and walking away. After a few seconds of silence, a pair of wacky characters in curly wigs and 1980's-style aerobics outfits bound onto the scene, displaying the numbers 118 and 218.

They represent a new directory assistance service reached by dialing 118-218, one of several challengers to France Télécom's service, which has long been accessible via the number 12. As of April 3, that number will no longer be valid, as France joins other European countries in deregulating directory assistance.

At a time when protesters are taking to the streets of Paris over a proposed employment law and politicians are posturing before presidential elections next year, the lighthearted satire seems timely. But there are other reasons that, from a marketing perspective, the ad presses the right buttons.

The spot, the latest installment in an introductory campaign for the 118-218 service, which is owned by a subsidiary of Infonxx, a U.S.-based company, embraces ideas gleaned from scientifically studying how the brain responds to advertising messages. Marketing experts are paying increasing attention to such neuromarketing as researchers employ more sophisticated tools, including functional magnetic resonance imaging, or functional MRI.

Gemma Calvert, co-founder and managing director of Neurosense, a neuromarketing firm in Oxford, England, said science can provide insights that cannot be matched through conventional marketing research methods like focus groups. Those panels, often convened by marketers seeking feedback on new products or ad campaigns, are easily tainted by group dynamics or by leading questions, she said.

"What you really want to do is look inside the black box and find out what is actually happening in the brain," she said. "This technique gets at insights that focus groups can't begin to explain."

One disciple is Robin Wight, chairman of the London-based ad agency WCRS, which developed a British advertising campaign that served as a template for the Giscard ad and other French spots promoting 118-218. The British campaign has run since 2002, when it introduced the British equivalent of 118-218, which is reached via the number 118-118 in Britain.

The British ads, initially featuring a pair of long-distance runners in cheesy 1970s' getups - flowing wigs, droopy mustaches and high- riding shorts - have been enormously successful, helping 118-118 carve out a market share of more than 40 percent. It bypassed the former monopoly, BT, when its service under the number 192 was switched off in 2003. Though BT now offers directory assistance under the number 118-500, it still trails the newcomer.

How did 118-118 do it, and how does neuromarketing play into it? While the company's ad agencies did not run functional MRIs on consumers, they did employ ideas gleaned from such studies.

"It's not easy getting into people's minds," said Chris Moss, European chairman of the Infonxx unit that runs 118-118, 118-218 and a similar service in Italy. "People never like to learn new numbers, but you can train them to do so if you personalize the numbers. People always remember a person before they remember a number."

To make sure that consumers associated its numbers with faces, WCRS ensured that its runner behaved in an attention-grabbing - some might say annoying - manner. In the TV spots, the runners pranced around in a variety of places, escorting an aging actor bearing the 192 number into retirement.

The British campaign, planned by another agency, Naked Communications, was extended into the real world, with the 118-118 actors appearing in shopping malls and at sporting events. To jog the brain into remembering that the sequence of numbers consisted of two equal parts - 118 and 118 - the two actors appeared to be twins, another powerful mnemonic device.

The campaign eventually became a pop-culture phenomenon, with consumers doing free advertising - dressing up as the 118 runners for costume parties, for example.

In the French campaign, created by Agence V, a subsidiary of Omnicom Group's DDB division, similar tactics were employed. French regulators, having seen that the 118-118 number provided an unfair competitive advantage because of its mnemonic nature, decided not to award that sequence to any of the companies seeking to operate directory assistance.But Infonxx acquired 118-218 in a lottery and modified its campaign accordingly.

Instead of playing identical twin runners, the French actors appear slightly different - one blond, the other dark-haired - but they are similarly dressed, and constantly repeat the numbers they wear on their chests. In an effort to capitalize on the brain's positive associations with nostalgia, some of the spots in which they appear are a sendup of a 1980s' television fitness show, "Gym Tonic," which was hosted by a pair of aerobics instructors.

Wight of WCRS said the success of the campaign in Britain could have implications for many advertising problems. Many advertisers are worried about a loss of effectiveness from television advertising, for instance, as viewers increasingly use digital video recorders to fast-forward through the ads in shows. Neuromarketing research suggests that even ads seen in fast-forward mode can leave an imprint in the brain, since few consumers give advertising their undivided attention in the first place.

Are all of these mind games fair play? Or is neuromarketing an insidious way for advertisers to manipulate consumers into buying things they don't need?

Calvert said neuromarketing can aid consumers by ensuring that marketers understand what they really want.

"Because so much money is being lost in marketing, people are being called to account," she said. "This is a way to provide some of that accountability."

Eric Pfanner can be reached at adcol@iht.com.

Google has lost its way.

Google Finance is a sure sign that Google has lost its way. The service is really really bad. For instance, look what happens when I do a search on "Google Yahoo". Now, why I am getting information about Infousa and Taos Mountain, Inc.?

Something is wrong with Google. The company known for its razor-sharp focus is now becoming known for ...? Google is starting to look like Yahoo lite and that should scare people.

Two New Sites That Impress Me

After a long time, I have come across two sites that impress me- kayak and Woot. Check them out.

Google shuts off C|Net because it used information available through Google searches!

Google's Chief Is Googled, to the Company's Displeasure

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By SAUL HANSELL
Published: August 8, 2005

Google says its mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." But it does not appear to take kindly to those who use its search engine to organize and publish information about its own executives.

CNETNews.com, a technology news Web site, said last week that Google had told it that the company would not answer any questions from CNET's reporters until July 2006. The move came after CNET published an article last month that discussed how the Google search engine can uncover personal information and that raised questions about what information Google collects about its users.

The article, by Elinor Mills, a CNET staff writer, gave several examples of information about Google's chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, that could be gleaned from the search engine. These included that his shares in the company were worth $1.5 billion, that he lived in Atherton, Calif., that he was the host of a $10,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Al Gore's presidential campaign and that he was a pilot.

After the article appeared, David Krane, Google's director of public relations, called CNET editors to complain, said Jai Singh, the editor in chief of CNETNews.com. "They were unhappy about the fact we used Schmidt's private information in our story," Mr. Singh said. "Our view is what we published was all public information, and we actually used their own product to find it."

He said Mr. Krane called back to say that Google would not speak to any reporter from CNET for a year.

In an instant-message interview, Mr. Krane said, "You can put us down for a 'no comment.' "

When asked if Google had any objection to the reprinting of the information about Mr. Schmidt in this article, Mr. Krane replied that it did not.

Mr. Singh, who has worked in technology news for more than two decades, said he could not recall a similar situation. "Sometimes a company is ticked off and won't talk to a reporter for a bit," he said, "but I've never seen a company not talk to a whole news organization." SAUL HANSELL

Developers, Developers, Developers vs. Customers, Customers, Customers.

Steve Ballmer is on Channel 9- at last! Once again, he spouted his mantra- "developers, developers, developers". He said that "it was about building things".

You know what? It is not. It is about "customers, customers, customers". I think Google gets that and Microsoft does not. In fact, I would argue that this is going to be the fundamental difference between Google and Microsoft. Google realizes that it is about building cool apps, of course. But, not just cool apps for cool apps sake. It is about cool apps that customers will use. It is about changing how individuals interact with software and process information. Yes, developers build that stuff and you cannot have a software company without developers. But, you know what? You cannot have a software company without customers either.

The funny thing is just yelling "developers, developers, developers" does not get these guys to your side. The cool apps part is a better way of attracting developers.

In Ballmer's world, it is about selling to enterprises and then hiring developers to do the grunt work. The individual customers gets what the enterprises want and not necessarily what is in their best interest. On the other hand, in Google's world, innovation is designed for the little guy and the big guy gets to use similar stuff as well.

Which is better? Only time will tell.

Keepers of the Hive

From ESPN, no less!

By Amar Shah
Special to Page 2

With their Harry Potter spectacles, floppy black mops of hair and bookish personas, they look exactly like a younger version of me. The similarities are eerie.

Nitish Lakhanpal, Sameer Mishra, Nilesh K. Raval, Arjun R. Modi, Krunal Shaval, Aravind Arun, Saptarshi Chaudhuri, Midhat Patel and Nikhil B. Koganti are probably my adolescent doppelgangers, except they can spell "tintinnabulary," and I can merely look it up in a dictionary.

The nine who resemble me joined 264 other participants in the 78th annual Scripps Howard Spelling Bee in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday. But the group is also part of a niche demographic that has dominated the event over the past seven years. Indian-Americans are the New England Patriots of spelling bees, having won five of the last seven competitions, including newly crowned 2005 champion Anurag Kashyap of San Diego.

Although representing less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, Indian-Americans made up around 15 percent of last year's participants. This year's spelling bee continued the trend, as 31 competitors of Indian origin (according to rediff.com, an Indian news portal) vied for the coveted title of the nation's best speller. Seven of the 17 contestants from Texas were Indian-American, and Puerto Rico's lone representative was none other than Arun.

Around the globe, the Indian spelling acumen is spreading. Across the pond, Gayathri Kumar, 13, beat out 100,000 competitors to win the BBC's Hard Spell competition, England's version of the spelling bee. Indeed, it's a global affair.

As a kid, I learned all the stereotypes about my culture. We were the studious, intellectual sorts, who excelled in math and science. (A lot of good that did me. My mathematical exploits ended after I failed pre-calculus three times.) We owned convenience stores and motels, and populated medical schools with future Dr. Patels. Some truth exists in the last generalization. My dad earned a living as the Godfather of Gas, the hospitality industry is run by an Indian motel cartel, and the lady who delivered me was named Dr. Patel.

Now a slice of original Americana, the spelling bee, is our domain of excellence, but I wonder why?

I participated in my first and last spelling bee in second grade, when my teacher, Sister Noreen, asked me to spell "knowledge." I stammered and missed the word on the first letter. I started my attempt with an "n," and my future as a spelling master ended. I retired … at age 7.

Later, I learned the value of the silent "K," but my ambition to be a splendid speller gradually dissipated with my youthful dreams of a Knicks championship and a fantasy Natalie Portman wedding. The best way for me to rest my alphabetical demons and to understand the cultural quirk of Indians in the spelling bee was to track down an individual who had experienced the grueling, crazy world of bee season and conquered it.

Nupur Lala won the 1999 national spelling bee when she correctly spelled "logorrhea." She is, also, the quietly driven starlet of "Spellbound," the delightful Oscar-nominated documentary that pushed the bizarre, whimsical world of spellers into the mainstream of pop culture.

She was in class the day I called her home in Arkansas, just a few days before the 2005 spelling bee would begin. Her dad answered and took a message. Nupur called me back in 15 minutes. I sent her a small list of questions by e-mail, and the next morning I received a college thesis in my in-box. Although she claims to use only 5 percent of the words she studied, I know she's being modest. Anyone who uses words like "inculcate" and "serendipitously" in everyday life, automatically draws envy.

The first question I posed was why are there so many Indian-American contestants in the spelling bee.

"The tradition of education in Indian households is a very strong one, and children are encouraged to test their academic boundaries and to strive to fulfill their potential from when they are very young," Nupur wrote back. "A distinct advantage ceded to Indian children is that the first wave of Indian immigrants who came to this country went to schools where the primary language of instruction was English. Most Indian spellers are children of these parents, and it helps to have a coach at home who can read words to you at any time."

Parental help is one thing. Parental pressure is another.

Neil Kadakia, the other Indian kid portrayed in "Spellbound," had a father whom A.O. Scott from the New York Times described as the "closest thing in the movie to a classic stage parent, pushing his son through a regimen of tutors, drills and meditation." Neil spelled 7,000 to 8,000 words a day as his father drilled him like some Vince Lombardi drunk on the dictionary. Neil also had the burden of a relative who paid 1,000 people in India to chant his name. Also, his dad pledged to provide 5,000 hungry people a free meal if Neil won. He didn't.

Last year, Akshay Baddiga collapsed while spelling "alopecoid." He got up and recovered to spell the word correctly. His brother Praytush won the competition in 2002, and Akshay finished as runner-up in 2004. Talk about pressure.

MORE SPELLING BEE MADNESS
Page 2 is all over the 2005 Scripps Howard Spelling Bee, including our first-ever fantasy draft from among the 273 participants. Plus, we've got Darren Rovell's guide to picking the Spelling Bee winner, and Sportoon's take on the competition.

I asked Nupur's mom, Meena, about the way she handled Nupur's spelling career. "Most parents were not as pushy as the Kadakias – maybe one or two," Meena said in a phone interview. "Most were happy for just getting to the nationals."

Nupur said her parents encouraged her to read by filling the house with books.

"My parents were always supportive of my spelling bee endeavors," Nupur wrote. "My parents did always remind me though that my schoolwork was first priority and then spelling bees. I clearly recall being close to tears after missing 80 percent of a word list, and my mother reminding me, 'Nupur, there's more to life than spelling bees. Don't sweat it so much.' My dad didn't even want me to compete again, thinking that I should perhaps try something new or that the pressure was too much."

Nupur says athletics are not given a high priority in Indian culture, making it unlikely Indian parents would teach their children the mid-range jumper or how to hit a curveball. They hit the books, not the weights.

"Indian parents see this as a prime opportunity for their children to learn the benefits of competition in an arena where it's not necessarily the fastest or biggest kid who will be the winner and where nothing but sheer hard work will bring you success," Nupur said.

Three-time Spelling Bee participant and this year's runner-up, 11-year-old Samir Patel feels the same way. "I used to want to play football," said the 4-foot-8 Patel in a Knight-Ridder interview. "But look at me. I am way too short to play in the pros."

It has been 20 years since the first Indian-American, Balu Natarajan, won the national spelling bee. Natarajan is now the team physician for the Chicago Fire of the MLS.

Nupur Lala is an incoming junior at the University of Michigan. At 20, she doesn't know what path she wants to take. She's torn between economics and microbiology. But she left me with this bit of wisdom:

"When one delves into the English language, there are so many repeating patterns and a few derivations that underlie so many of the same words. Many spellers have inculcated in them a strong love of reading and language, and this is a trait that crosses all boundaries of ethnicity and nationality at the National Bee."

Nupur and her mom planned to watch this year's competition. And after Marshall Winchester went down on the word "sarang" in the 11th round, the National Spelling Bee became an all-Indian Final Four, featuring Rajiv Tarigopula, Aliya Deri, Anurag Kashyap, who also wore glasses, and Samir Patel.

The four contestants spelled again and again until the 14th round when Rajiv stumbled on "odyllic." And then there were three, the first time ever that three contestants went past the 15th round. The next rounds were a battle of word supremacy, and Samir Patel enjoyed the revelry of competition. He brimmed with confidence and seemed to play with the judges when they asked him to spell "onnychopagy.' He knew the meaning before they did, asking the judges with almost a coy wink. The word meant the habit of nailbiting.

In the 18th round Aliya Deri, who loved Indian dance, misspelled "trouvaille." The crowd applauded her efforts with a standing ovation. The exuberant Samir was given the word "Roscian," and in stunning upset missed it when he used an extra "s" instead of "c." It was Anurag's turn, and the bespectacted, braced word wonder from San Diego, spelled 'appoggiatura', which meant a tone to support an essential note of a melody.

It was the harmonious word of victory.

Amar Shah works as a production assistant for ESPN's SportsCenter.

Puzzles from IIT,Bombay Alumni Newsletter.

I just saw this on the IIT, Bombay Alumni Newsletter. Aaah. It sure reminds me of my 4 years there.

Before you start, listen to what the editor has to say- "Editor’s Note: We solved these puzzles in 15 minutes flat." OK. Good luck and off you go.

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Ants everywhere!
You have a rod of length L, and n ants are placed at positions t1,t2,t3.. tn=L which are at equal intervals from the left end of the rod. All ants can move with the same speed. Ants may begin to move in any direction, but if two ants collide they will reverse directions. What is the maximum time re-quired for all ants to fall off the rod?

Transportation problem
Looks confusing but hey it really isn’t that bad. Every pair of cities in a country is linked by exactly one of the three modes of transport, namely, road, rail or air. All the three modes of transport are used in the country. No city in the country is served by all the three modes and also no three cities are linked pair wise by the same mode of transport. Determine the maximum number of cities in the country.

Number Puzzle
This is just another number puzzle which generally feels like magic, but is really only logic. Choose a number. If even, make it half. If its one more than a multiple of four, multiply it by three and add one. If its one less than a multiple of four, multiply it by three and subtract one. Whats the minimum number you will reach by a successive application of this rule? Justify.

(THIS LOOKS LIKE A CONJECTURE TO ME- NOT A PUZZLE) Playing with squares and cubes
If a number is a square of an integer, and also the difference between cubes of two
consecutive integers, then the square root of this number can be expressed as a sum
of squares of two consecutive integers. For eg. 169 = 512 - 343, so 13 = 4 + 9

Bill Gates says "irregardless"

My dear colleague, Prof. Karen Brown, reports-

In an NPR interview this morning, Bill Gates said the word "irregardless." Clearly, with this sort of direction from the top, it is no wonder Microsoft is producing the kinds of problems Sandeep has discovered with the grammar check function in MS Word.

The New Statesman has posted a wonderful story about my GrammarCheck adventure.

How to improve Jane Austen: Observations on the grammar check. By William Skidelsky

William Skidelsky

What many people have long suspected has been confirmed: Microsoft's grammar check is indeed virtually useless. Sandeep Krishnamurthy, a professor at the University of Washington, tested hundreds of examples of bad writing. Among the sentences deemed grammatical were: "Marketing are bad for brand big and small", "Gates do good marketing job in Microsoft" and "I am agree with what the article say".



Krishnamurthy began his investigations when a student turned in a "poorly written report" that had been judged error-free. For some students, Microsoft's tool appears to have acquired an absolute authority: if a piece of writing passes the check, then it must be OK.



Microsoft argues that the grammar checker is intended as a writing aid rather than a catch-all, and that it is "designed to catch the kinds of errors that ordinary users make in normal writing situations". Yet if it cannot determine something as basic as whether a verb agrees, it is hard to see how it can perform even this function.



I tested the check using Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The first sentence - "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife" - might have read slightly differently if Microsoft Word had existed in Austen's day. Apparently, the comma after "acknowledged" is ungrammatical. Equally unacceptable is the first sentence of Emma: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly 21 years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." Here, the check recommends replacing the infinitive "vex" with "vexes". Henry James's prose is famously complex, and sure enough, the third sentence of The Europeans - which describes "a lady who stood looking out of one of the windows of the best hotel in the ancient city of Boston" - is wrong on account of the word "lady" being "gender-specific". "Woman" or "person" is advised.



Even apparently straightforward sentences fall foul. "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure"- the opening of Camus's L'Etranger - should have "or" replaced by "alternatively" or "on the other hand". And as for the most famous opening sentence of all, Anna Karenina's "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way", Microsoft thinks this is "too wordy", and suggests deleting "all".

Democratizing Innovation.

Prof. Eric Von Hippel of MIT has written an excellent book titled- "Democratizing Innovation". You can print off a free copy here. I highly recommend it.

Look into this.

You may like these two links- Freakonomics, The Culturally Customized Web Site.

A colleague wishes me happy birthday.

One of the joys of my recent Grammar Check adventures is that I hear from delightful people with beautiful minds. Today, I heard from Gael Cooper, Professor of Public Relations and Director, Scripps Howard Center for Media Studies at the University of Southern Indiana. She wishes me happy birthday in this way-

Hippo bird day, two ewes!

Hippy berth die too use!

Hap pee bread due deer San Deep,

Hump pea bun deal tooth hue!!!!

[Yes, Microsoft Word's Grammar Check thinks it is just fine.]

Story featured on "Chronicle of Higher Education"

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on my efforts. It has a fun title- "Microsoft Word Grammar Checker Are No Good, Scholar Conclude" (yes- Grammar Check does not detect the flaws in this sentence). Unfortunately, registration is required since this is classified as "premium content".

My Grammar Check Page on Google

My Grammar Check page has emerged as one of the top ranking pages on many Google searches. I provide some data below to support this assertion. The number is the rank on the search results page and the expression within parentheses is the relevant search term.

#5(grammar check)
#6("grammar check")
#2(Microsoft Sandeep)
#4 (Microsoft Word grammar)
#2 (Microsoft Word Grammar Check)

The linguists react.

This was posted by John Lawler from the University of Michigan on a list for linguists-

I see three points in it that I think are of interest to
linguists worldwide.

First, we could all use a better grammar-checker program, and the ultimate
intent of the 'crusade' is to stimulate linguistic research and
development, so this seems like good news for linguists and linguistics,
which is fairly unusual here as well.

Second, we can see from the surprise being shown by the American public and
the media that everybody actually *did* expect the MS Grammar Checker to
(ahem) 'Check Grammar'. This endemic ignorance is emphatically *not* good
news for linguists or linguistics. It's downright appalling.

Third, how come it's a business professor instead of a linguist?

Costco Testing Quick-Check

From Tim Razeltoff(Abarim Business Computers)

Costco Testing Quick-Check

Costco is either experimenting or has begun to institute a form of quick-check in its stores. Costco floor supervisors are usually near the cash registers to respond quickly to questions or problems. They also spend a lot of time just observing and not really doing much. Costco has figured out a way to make the time of those floor supervisors more productive.



Yesterday at the Aurora Village store I noticed that 2 of the floor supervisors were carrying hand-held scanners. They moved into the customer lines, scanning carts that had a smaller number of items. They would scan the customer's Costco card and the purchases in the cart. When the customer got to the cashier they only needed to give the cashier the Costco card to scan and the bill rang up immediately. Items never needed to be taken from the cart and the process was done in seconds.



It looks like Costco has found a way to speed the lines, make better use of personnel resources, make the store more efficient, and probably reduce costs - all with current personnel.



I don't know whether this is an experiment or whether Costco is already implementing this new program. I also don't know whether the scanners are from Intermec or some other company.

My latest thoughts on Grammar Check

Written communication is on the rise, thanks to the reality of the virtual organization. Today, all of us write extensively to communicate with co-workers and colleagues on topics ranging from the mundane (e.g., setting up meeting times, sharing anecdotes) to the serious (e.g., online discussions on the future of a product, online decision making). The online environment is mostly textual and therefore, people are frequently judged entirely on their writing. Poor writing is equated with low abilities and could lead to a serious loss of reputation or status- especially when there is an absence of face-to-face interaction.

Despite competition from WordPerfect and OpenOffice, Microsoft Word is the dominant word processing software worldwide. It is everywhere. Users now use Word on multiple operating systems (different versions of Windows, Mac). It is the default word processor for e-mail writing for many. On college campuses worldwide , it is the tool de jure for writing reports, term papers, Masters theses and Ph.D dissertations. Its sheer pervasiveness brings with it a minimum level of responsibility. Therefore, Microsoft must take it upon itself to introduce features that enhance the user’s ability to write and strive to set the correct user expectations.

Grammar Check gives writers easy access to grammatical rules. The feature is easy to locate and even easier to run. The message to users is this- “Help is one click away”. As a result, in a world filled with deadlines and other time pressures, many are likely to run a Grammar Check on their documents “just to be sure”.

What do users expect when they run this check? I think they expect “minimum grammatical competence”. I define this as the absence of glaring grammatical errors. My point is that users are mistaken in making this assumption. You can run Grammar Check and still have terrible writing (not just “so-so” writing). Imagine the thousands of reports, e-mails, term papers, blog postings and memoranda that were sent out by users who wrongly assumed that Grammar Check would have caught their worst errors. These individuals would be surprised to learn that in some cases their writing was not just average, it was terrible.

Grammar Check gives users a feeling of comfort. This aura of invincibility that surrounds the users of this feature can be very damaging. Users who rely on it regularly (the 20% in your poll) may not be writing at the level they think they are writing at.

Grammar Check does not check the grammar of poor writers. Faced with the worst sort of writing, it freezes like a deer in the headlights. As a result, those who need the most guidance do not get any. I have emphasized ESL writers in this context. Children who are learning to write are a similar group that may expect an unusally high level of performance from Grammar Check. K-12 educators must be wary about the limitations of this feature on Word.

At this point, I think Grammar Check must either be renamed as “Grammar Analyzer” or something else that connotes a lower level of scrutiny. The Help file must be changed to reflect true performance. A warning message such as “Use at your own peril” or something along those lines must be included. The phrase “comprehensive analysis of text” must be removed.

I refuse to accept the point of view of many techies that we have to wait for perfect AI for us to move forward. We can take innovative and new approaches to this problem. On the Slashdot thread, there are already hints and ideas for new ways of building a Grammar Check.

The problem is not that we are relying on technology to help us with grammar. I am not asking Microsoft to withdraw their Grammar Check feature. I believe that a software program can help us improve our grammar. My message to all players in the marketplace is to create a better product- a plateau that is well within our reach.

Finally, I have been shocked by the comments of some techies that I am expecting too much from them. I know that is not the case. I hope future products have grammar analyzers that detect poor writing and help all of us write better.

The story about the story.

I made two national TV appearances on Wednesday- on CNN's "Daybreak" program and MSNBC's "Connected Coast-to-Coast" with Ron Reagan and Patricia Crowley. In addition, I was on King5 News (the Seattle-area NBC affiliate) and KOMO 1000 News (a Seattle radio station). I have received several e-mails and my web page has received more than 63000 hits on three days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). The blogosphere is abuzz with this story.

Major news coverage.

I received more than 40,000 hits on my home page yesterday due to major news coverage on my observations on Grammar Check. A Slashdot thread on the topic helped the cause.

This was my favorite post in the thread-

Hulk work hard on Grammar Checker for Microsoft! Program many long hours. Very hard to type with huge green hands and puny little keys! Many times get angry and smash keyboard. Many keyboards broken. Hulk also get help with grammar from Yoda. Yoda very wise. Maybe not best work in world, but Hulk take pride in work. Why puny University of Washington professor criticize hard work of Hulk? Criticism hurt Hulk's feelings. Hulk angry! HULK SMASH!