"I'm pretty sure user interface research has shown that it's incredibly frustrating to users when you tell a computer to do one thing and it does something else."
You honestly believe that Google is doing something that is worse for the vast majority of their users? That makes the vast majority of their users more frustrated? And that they know this is true because research has proved it?
Why would they act like that?
Most of the people in this thread keep forgetting that they're not regular users. I'm willing to bet that the average Google user (90% of the population) often mistypes. I know I do, and I'm a pretty good speller and typist.
You keep forgetting that most people can't type fast, can't spell that well, and you know what, a lot of the people typing on Google don't even know English all that well, either. For them, Google's spelling auto-correct is incredibly useful.
You're putting words in my mouth. Please don't do that.
I think it should be a given that it's frustrating when a computer doesn't do what you tell it. That doesn't mean that the cost of that frustration isn't offset by the added convenience for many users. In my case it isn't, and those (relatively frequent) times when it does frustrate me, I seriously consider switching search engines.
You honestly believe that Google is doing something that is worse for the vast majority of their users? That makes the vast majority of their users more frustrated? And that they know this is true because research has proved it?
Why would they act like that?
Most of the people in this thread keep forgetting that they're not regular users. I'm willing to bet that the average Google user (90% of the population) often mistypes. I know I do, and I'm a pretty good speller and typist.
You keep forgetting that most people can't type fast, can't spell that well, and you know what, a lot of the people typing on Google don't even know English all that well, either. For them, Google's spelling auto-correct is incredibly useful.