Automatic spell check has been built into many browsers for years, but typos continue to plague even the most reputable websites (and print media, for that matter). Recognizing this fact, a number of services have emerged that will continuously monitor your site for spelling errors.
Spellr.us, currently in a registration-required beta, plans to offer hourly, daily, and weekly sweeps of your site, and will provide a visual snapshot of a page with errors clearly marked with strikethroughs. Their main competitor at this point is NetMechanic, which has been available for years but lacks any of the visualizations promised by Spellr.us.
This space is still in its infancy, but I can imagine that these services will be a boon to bloggers and other website publishers. The company’s current questionnaire alludes to a price range of around $50 - clearly a worthwhile investment for many sites. Keep a look out for Spellr.us in the near future.
So, when are you planning to start using them? Seriously.
Blogs, sure, but imagine the boon to retailers. Retailers have up to hundreds of thousands of product descriptions. It’s entirely impossible to manually screen them as they are imported, uploaded, written, or keyed. And there are usually enough steps involved, that errors are almost a certainty.
The dozens of records I maintain are bad enough, and I’m a spec on a flea compared to many retailers.
Terrific that Spellr can’t spell speller…
Now that is a useful Web 2.0 Company.
need to have a contest on techcrunch to see which writer has more typos overall in their blog posts…..my bet is on Duncan Riley
How does it handle comments? The noise from misspelled comments would be never ceasing.
very appropriate post.
i notice something odd about the company description posted, however…
“Spellr.us is a high quality automated web site spell check tool.
The tool is used to run once off tests as well as monthly, weekly, daily, hourly monitoring of websites. Reports will include incorrectly SPELT words as well as screenshots of…”
This is cool. English is not my mother tongue so any help to get it right is welcome.
@brian
Spelt is spelt correctly.
It simply isn’t used often in the United States.
Great idea! Useful too
I can imagine tons of use for this project.
For example, Wikipedia-content could be auto-checked, the results could be submitted, human editors could check and fix errors. (Would be terrific marketing for Spellr, if it works good.)
This would be excellent for blogs with tons of content, and sites like Mahalo that are checked for spelling mistakes often.
You should get them as a sponsor.
Jason, please forward the URL to Erick for future Liveblogging events…
Will it handle grammar as well? Or is that slated for the future? Misusing “there” “they’re” and “their”, for example, would not be something a pure spellchecker would pick up, but it’s definitely bad.
This will be good for TechCrunch!
I agree with M Kimsal’s comment. While spelling is essential for a professionally looking site, blunders in the misuse of similarly sounded words can make a site seem like an 8th grader has put it together.
Sounds like an ok tool to me, but personally, I wouldn’t pay for it. That’s why company’s pay their editors, and I use MS Word.
Just my 2 cents….
Great idea!
look at the entry on http://www.crunchbase.com/company/spellr-us
Language is misspelled as “languge”
“Spellr.us is a high quality automated web site spell check tool.
The tool is used to run once off tests as well as monthly, weekly, daily, hourly monitoring of websites. Reports will include incorrectly spelt words as well as screenshots of webpage with incorrect word highlighted. Various languge dictionaries will be available as well as ability to upload and add to custom dictionary.”
lol@1
I’d use this, put in my email hopefully its ready soon. I typo all the time
If it will allow me to upload and add to a custom dictionary, then it can really be very useful!
Will it spell check in proper English or U.S. English?
Hi All
Thank you for all the comments and for everyone who registered for the launch announcement as well as the beta program.
We are very excited to get it all up and running.
As long time fans of Techcrunch it was the obvious choice for the very first “out of stealth mode” announcement.
Beta testers please be patient we will be in touch with all of you soon.
I think some of you have been a bit rough on Techcrunch re their typos.
Keeping even a small site typo free can be a challenge let alone a site as large and dynamic as Techcrunch.
As a matter of interest I ran the first 10 pages of Techcrunch through spellr.us
There were very few typos picked up, 3 though include
firends
Found on: http://www.techcrunch.com/tech.....goes-chic/
Febuary
Found on: http://www.techcrunch.com
messsages
Found on: http://www.techcrunch.com/
So our app does indeed work! *whew*
But we have run dozens of sites through our application - and there are organisations with far bigger websites and bigger brands than Techcrunch with far more mistakes.
And yes we will have UK English and USA English dictionaries.
Greetings from central Sydney CBD!
Kevin & The Team @ Spellr.us
How does this service differ from TextTrust?