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As I am cleaning up content for better search results, fixing misspelled keywords I am wondering what is the correct spelling for the word converter vs converter?

There are approx:

  • 659 matching results with "converter" .
  • 8,818 matching results with "converter".

I suspect converter is the correct spelling and feel I should correct all the posts where this has been misspelled.
Boswell and please, others... How do you spell this?

Note, if someone is searching for information and misspells a word, the search engine will only pull up the misspelled word. Their are ways around this but the general public doesn't know that as we just type and accept what shows.

Comments

dvdhawk Thu, 06/16/2016 - 20:35

Back to Webster's….

"Analog" would be an adjective used to describe sound and/or sound equipment. That's the one you want.
"Analogue" is a noun, so that's not how it's usually used around here.

And in this case, I don't think it spills over into the preferred British spelling of a word, as you would have with color vs. colour for example. Our resident English gentlemen will be sure to correct me if that's not true.

audiokid Thu, 06/16/2016 - 20:45


dvdhawk, post: 439295, member: 36047 wrote: Our resident English gentlemen will be sure to correct me if that's not true.

Dear Bos, I fear you are going to be upset. I trust I have researched analogue vs analog correctly. To my understanding analog it is now globally referred more to do with pro audio. Analogue is old school and more common with older literature.
Or:

dvdhawk, post: 439295, member: 36047 wrote: "Analog" would be an adjective used to describe sound and/or sound equipment. That's the one you want.
"Analogue" is a noun, so that's not how it's usually used around here.

Because we are entering a global engine that reads and ranks words, analogue does not show results in pro audio.
I have rewritten it. If I am proven wrong and it serves us better to change analog back to analogue, I will in a heart beat.

Forgive me Bos. I'm moving with how google is going. Not always respecting personal choices is not easy at times.

dvdhawk Thu, 06/16/2016 - 22:08

audiokid, post: 439296, member: 1 wrote: Forgive me Bos. I'm moving with how google is going. Not always respecting personal choices is not easy at times.

Brits use google too.

If you go to the Merriam-Webster site, you'll get the more American spelling first and sometimes the British alternate spelling.
If you go to the Oxford Dictionaries site and search by British & World English, you'll get the British version first.

There you will find "analogue" used as an adjective in reference to audio too, so both are perfectly acceptable.

audiokid Thu, 06/16/2016 - 22:22

dvdhawk, post: 439303, member: 36047 wrote: Brits use google too.

If you go to the Merriam-Webster site, you'll get the more American spelling first and sometimes the British alternate spelling.
If you go to the Oxford Dictionaries site and search by British & World English, you'll get the British version first.

There you will find "analogue" used as an adjective in reference to audio too, so both are perfectly acceptable.

I agree and have taken this into consideration.

As an example for web design and coding... I am forced to use USA. Even though Brits and Canadians share most of the same dictionary, I am adapting to the open source language.

I think in regards to analogue vs analog, analog has become the international acceptance to pro audio, especially from what I see in the manufacturers notes. I'm guessing manuals for the older British still use it but I have a feeling its old school. or lower ranking. Ranking is what I have to go by.

Thoughts?

dvdhawk Thu, 06/16/2016 - 22:49

Google would most likely pull up the spelling appropriate to the IP address location.

I'll be anxious to see what Boswell has to say on the subject.

FWIW, I just pulled up a pdf manual for a Focusrite Green3 and it uses "Analogue", as does a Midas manual (both British companies), and I found "Analoge" in a Sebatron manual from Australia.

paulears Fri, 06/17/2016 - 00:06

Over the years, is Brits have got far less concerned about the US mangling of certain words, and of course the various alternative words. Some are always funny. We read stories about bands on stage talking about what colour pants they should wear and we immediately wonder why anyone would be on stage with their pants on show, as to us, pants are underwear, and let's not even get into boot/trunk, hood/bonnet etc.

Analogue vs digital signifies a UK/EU source, and will be found in manufacturer documents intended for our side of the water. If I see analog, I just know it's a US source. Analog has NOT become an accepted international spelling. While not objecting to it on a forum, or instruction manual from the west side of the Atlantic, I would object strongly if used here. I also cannot use a system where a word can be mangled for one sense, and not for another. Which ever spelling you choose is fine, but stick with it. You cannot change spelling on something that has a single meaning. That is ridiculous. Nouns and adjectives with different spelling? Why?

As for bus - as its a contraction of busbar, which is the derivation of the contraction - adding a letter seems wrong. There is no international use of bussbar that I can fine, so bus would appear to be the sensible spelling.

After 40 years of steadfastly using 'aerial' instead of antenna, I gave in last year, and now use the US preference, so I'm not rooted in my history, but analog is fine. I understand it but won't use it. The worst word in this kind of discussion is far weirder in its British origin. Diarrhoea!

paulears Fri, 06/17/2016 - 00:44

We laughed recently at the response on our news to our football team (the kind of football where you don't pick it up, and use your feet) to the Leicester team - and chuckled at the attempts to pronounce it by our US friends - then just recently we had another chuckle when a news item had falling about comedy trying to pronounce Worcestershire Sauce. However, don't think us Brits can always master our own language. Place names are actually difficult for us too - we have:
Cholmondeley - pronounced "Chummy", and near me,
Happisburgh - pronounced "hayesburra" ("not even hayesburrow")
Loughborough - pronounced "luffburra" - a double kind of mangling - borough here is a small area, pronounced always as "burra", never "burrow" - whereas in the US the "burrow" pronunciation seems universal.

How about Belvoir? I understand the US has an air base - Fort Belvoir? We have a castle - Belvoir Castle - which is pronounced "Beaver".
Mainwairing - is "Mannering"
To finish - how about Featherstonehaugh - it's pronounced "Fanshaw"

So next time anyone British bangs on about how the US mangle things, remind them of the ones above and ask them to justify how on earth those pronunciations come from that spelling. Nobody here understands it either.

Sean G Fri, 06/17/2016 - 02:22

Kookaburra...Parramatta....Turramurra....Wagga Wagga...Tamarama...Woomera...we have our own kind of spin on the english lanuage

The first one is a bird, the rest are all places to name just a few which derive their names from the english equivalent of aboriginal words or meanings.

pronounced cook-a-burra...Pa-ra-mat-ta...Tur-ra-mur-rah...Wog-ga Wog-ga...Tam-mar-ram-ma...Woom-erah

I think we have all butchered the english language to a degree. Even now its really getting chopped to pieces thanks to technology and text-speak which is the modern day shorthand.

Boswell Fri, 06/17/2016 - 04:12

There are two different effects here. The first is whether to correct posted words that are obvious mis-types or the result of spelling ignorance. The second is a technical one about how you set a search system up to deal with words that have more than one correct spelling.

As far as different correct spellings go, it's accepted usage over many forums that you use your own version of the language of the forum, and that alternative spellings are acceptable. I would be very upset if when I posted "analogue" the forum software changed it to "analog", but I am quite happy to type proper names such as "Analog Devices". Would a "fugue" come out as a "fug"? My real-time spelling checker puts a red wavy line under "analog" because it knows where in the world I am located. Who is the arbiter of spellings?

For searching as opposed to spelling correction, does the Xenforo search engine have any built-in way of coping with searches for alternative spellings? You need to keep "affect" and "effect" and certainly "though" and "thought" separate, but what happens with "adaptor" and "adapter"?

dvdhawk Fri, 06/17/2016 - 09:12

I think much of this, as it pertains to search engine optimization, is a non-issue (putting the 'anal' in analog if you will). Spelling brand names correctly, like Millennia, makes sense, the rest of it is very arbitrary and unneccesary. When I open up my brand new computer and turn it on, the first thing it wants to establish is my location. It loads the machine with the language and dialect of my region. Google knows by my IP address exactly what region I'm accessing their site from, and uses the appropriate language filters.

If I just go to google and type in "football" (which I think we can all agree, American football is the most inaccurately named sport there is), I get a page dominated by results pertaining to American football - with only a couple references to what the vast majority of the world would call "football". When Boswell types "analog" his spell checker flags it, when I type "analogue" my spell checker flags it. Google is extremely adaptive. Once I typed a short phrase into Google that I was reading from a printed page, and after hitting Return I found my right hand was in the wrong place on the keyboard, so what I typed was absolute gibberish and Google said, "Did you mean ____?" and got it right. It had seen enough instances of someone typing with their hands out of place, it recognized the pattern and figured it out.

SEO is a good thing, but if you exclude certain spellings and misspelled words Google is just going make assumptions based on the region the query comes from and say, "Did you mean_____?" or "Showing results for ____" anyway.

audiokid Fri, 06/17/2016 - 13:04

I'm enjoying and listening to all the comments here. Please keep it coming.:love:

To my understanding, spelling absolutely has impact on SEO. To what extent, is questionable, subjective.
Keywords are a factor in ranking throughout the globe. To what extent, is also questionable and also subjective.

Surfing results are linked to search histories as well as GEO locations. Many of us are not seeing all the content we would like to see. Google keeps track of our search history and suggests links. This doesn't mean google knows whats best for us, which is why keywords are important. As an example: My business and client websites are designed to help google index and target my client base. I know who I want or don't want. I am careful how I title and use words page per page.

When I search for content on the web, I know for a fact that I do not get the results to all the content I would like or see depending on if I use a Cellular, wifi, traveling, 100 miles east of here. Google will change these results. I'm not complaining but I am very aware of how my google profile uses my search history to target content and target ads. Its intertwined. Google does not always know I want global results for some things and "local" results for others. RO is global, my company is local. Two very different targets.

I've corrected a lot of typo's and misspelled words and see an improvement. I'm trying to keep us all closely nit in a very niche industry. We want the best of the best and I don't just me pro's. Just really good people who care and share.
I'm excited to personalize users experiences now. More fun uncharted waters. Wow is all I have to say. The web keeps getting better and better.

audiokid Fri, 06/17/2016 - 13:54

Not to make a big deal about this or at all to be trying to push a language segregation,... we are all connected globally so I am finding this all fascinating as well as, its my job to keep organizing and moving along with the times. So I am right now learning a few things. It never ends.

I found this interesting just now. Keyword searches below show what the global world ranks.

google analog > 238 million results.
google analogue > 57 million results

analog mixing > 16 million results
analogue mixing > 1 million results

analog summing >545 thousand results
analogue summing > 416 thousand results

analog gear > 35 million results
analogue gear > 612 thousand results

:) Please report what results you get in your country? Particularity
analog gear > ?
analogue gear > ?

paulears Tue, 06/21/2016 - 00:26

analog gear 41,200,000
analogue gear 601,000

Our UK figure quite near yours - seriously though, it does mean that when searching, I need to keep this in mind. It probably helps the search if I want to buy something - filtering out the US results, which often pop up if you search for a product with the word price.

Despite Google being clever, it isn't quite clever enough, yet.

dvdhawk Tue, 06/21/2016 - 20:47

Occasionally, deliberately misspelling words can work to your advantage.

We have a regional website around here that has extensive classified ads. It's a pretty good place to shop for just about anything, but it is especially good for finding locally owned vehicles of all kinds. So let's say I wanted to search for someone nearby selling a 4-wheeler that I could use for plowing snow. Everyone will find the same results if we all search the keywords that include "winch" and "plow". The observant bargain hunter will have noticed that sadly there are almost always a few sellers who don't know the difference betwen a "winch" and a "wench", so those ads will see a lot less traffic and have the seller thinking he's asking too much for his quad with a "factory wench and plow." Or maybe he DOES have a young woman of questionable virtue raising and lower his plow.... I don't know.

Sean G Tue, 06/21/2016 - 21:25

dvdhawk, post: 439414, member: 36047 wrote: Occasionally, deliberately misspelling words can work to your advantage.

We have a regional website around here that has extensive classified ads. It's a pretty good place to shop for just about anything, but it is especially good for finding locally owned vehicles of all kinds. So let's say I wanted to search for someone nearby selling a 4-wheeler that I could use for plowing snow. Everyone will find the same results if we all search the keywords that include "winch" and "plow". The observant bargain hunter will have noticed that sadly there are almost always a few sellers who don't know the difference betwen a "winch" and a "wench", so those ads will see a lot less traffic and have the seller thinking he's asking too much for his quad with a "factory wench and plow." Or maybe he DOES have a young woman of questionable virtue raising and lower his plow.... I don't know.

I think there are some really funny typos at times...really makes you wonder if anyone really proof reads anything anymore before it goes to print.

Even dropping one letter can change the whole context of a message...

This is one that made me chuckle...its good to know a former US President and the University of Texas had the welfare of our short and curlies at heart...

But at least they owned up to it...

paulears Wed, 06/22/2016 - 00:34

Another new one for the UK/US conversion list - snow plow rather than our snow plough. We also have different words for tenses - "He dived into the water", rather than "He dove". Dove apparently is officially OK her, but I have never heard anyone use it. We also have odd plurals that don't change. I think we all say "some sheep" or "a sheep" - but we don't do it with some other words - in particular, hover craft. We never say hovercrafts when we mean more than one, we just have 30 hovercraft. My Mac spellchecker which is supposed to be UK spelling, doesn't have 'hovercrafts' as a wrong spelling, which it should!

dvdhawk Wed, 06/22/2016 - 05:33

I received a check from a school related organization last week, on which the word "elementary" was missing the R.

I opened the envelope, just glanced at the check, and set it aside. Then about ten seconds later my subconscious mind realized there was something out of place, and made me look at it again to see exactly what that was. It's difficult to imagine that none of the people who have to sign these checks (two signatures per check) have had that corrected.

Sean G Wed, 06/22/2016 - 15:26

I know we are moving a little off-topic, my apologies to Chris audiokid for doing so...but another thing that is a bug bear for me is auto correct on the smartphone.

An example was when a friend of mine who also is into antiques like myself told me she was purchasing an antique HMV gramophone, and was eagerly awaiting its arrival.

A few days later I sent her a text asking "Hows' the new gramophone?..."

Without realising what auto correct had changed the text to, I pressed send and sent off the message.

Apparently, auto correct had changed the message to read "How's the new transvestite?..."

I only realised when I got a hilarious reply saying the new transvestite was very doing well...they were both sitting around listening to old 78's from the 1930's and 1940's on the new gramophone.

- now auto correct is turned off on the smartphone for obvious reasons.

audiokid Wed, 06/22/2016 - 15:39

paulears, post: 439397, member: 47782 wrote: analog gear 41,200,000
analogue gear 601,000

Our UK figure quite near yours - seriously though, it does mean that when searching, I need to keep this in mind. It probably helps the search if I want to buy something - filtering out the US results, which often pop up if you search for a product with the word price.

Despite Google being clever, it isn't quite clever enough, yet.

Thanks Paul. Good to know.

It does mean a lot though. As an example, if I was marketing gear or promoting information about sound for the UK, I most definitely would use analogue and never look back.