Google Scribe Updated, But Automatic Text Completion Still More Fun Than Functional

When Google released Google Scribe, ReadWriteWeb’s Mike Melanson called the text completion tool “Mad Libs-esque,” noting the possibilities not just for keystroke-savings but for some good laughs as well. The tool works much like Google Suggest, auto-completing as you type.

Although Google Scribe promises to save you time and make writing easier, there were some hiccups with the service when it was initially launched. However Google Labs has just released a newly updated version that has a lot more polish and utility.

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Google Scribe now looks a lot more like a word processing app as it has a toolbar for formatting and as it now has some basic support for checking spelling and punctuation. It will also highlight words and phrases that it believes are incorrectly used.

The focus of the new tool is still on the auto-completion, something that makes typing into the app rather mesmerizing as you can watch it try to surmise what you’re planning on typing next. Hitting the space bar or the right arrow key will auto-complete a word, so this could be a time-saver – provided you don’t spend your time procrastinating just playing around with it, of course.

In addition to offering text completion – and text completion in 12 languages to boot – Google Scribe will also automatically turn your hyperlinks into text. If you paste or type a link into the document, Google Scribe will set the appropriate link text.

You can also download a Chrome extension so that you can use Google Scribe’s autocomplete on any Web page or form. But the best use-case for this tool would probably be if it were available on mobile devices, where the smaller keyboard makes typing a real challenge.

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