Spell check got me

Today, it's The Chief's Corner lite. Last week, I got an email from Google. I almost hit the delete key, but then I realized that it was either a very clever use of content-mining to insert personalized content automatically, or a real human being had actually sent it. I think it's the former, but here's how it started:

"Hello Chief Casady,

We here at Google News noticed that you were in the news recently, in some articles about the recent study from the Urban Institute suggesting a new wave of crime related to iPods and similar devices. We would like to invite you to participate in a feature we created, Comments By People In The News, that allows you and other people in the news to post unedited statements on Google News alongside the articles in which you appear."

I checked out Google News, and noticed that all sorts of people mentioned in news stories--including many public officials--were posting invited comments, so I figured what the heck, I'd try it out by just summarizing my earlier blog post on the same topic, and sending it in as a comment.

I heeded the warning contained in the email:

"...we do not edit comments in any way, even for grammar, spelling, etc. So please send us your comment exactly as you want it published."

After carefully composing, I mashed the send button, and Outlook immediately recognized every occurrence of "iPod" as a spelling error, suggesting alternatives. I quickly clicked through the message hitting "ignore", but the very last one got me, and I inadvertently clicked "change". The result is in the next to the last sentence.

Clearly, crime waves are not caused by iPods, nor by bipods, rather by bipeds.