Thursday, October 2, 2008

I didn't want to say that but I guess I am now!

Auto-complete. What a giant piece of crap this feature can be. Sometimes you may want AC turned on, for instance when you're using your web browser and you're typing in the address of a certain website that you frequently visit. Well, if you are doing that then why not just make the site a bookmark, or better yet, just drag and drop the address icon into you're bookmarks tool bar? Even though in this place it can be useful, AC is still not a necessity for practical people. Microsoft word using AC can sometimes change the entire meaning of a sentence you were typing and we all know that for that program AC is a horrible mistake. Keyword fields where you enter keywords is also a very bad place to use AC because on some browsers and computers it always puts in the word that's in the drop down AC list. You type your one word let's say "print", and after you put the comma after it the AC decides that since the last word in the drop down list of AC words was "fine print" it's going to put that in the field regardless of the fact that you didn't chose that word nor did you want to. You try time and time and again to input it only to find out that the only way to put your word is by letting AC put in the word that it wants to have and then going back and deleting the part that you don't want. What a hassle that is. Now, since I've been relentlessly riding AC let me give the only example of where it's actually a good feature, well, maybe two.

Google searches: I love AC when it comes down to doing a search on google, because it's very smart in the fact that it narrows down what your looking for with specifics that are frequently searched for. Let's do one in our browser right now shall we? Press and hold control and T to open a new tab (or command and t if using a mac )and load the google main page. We want to end up searching for "It's over 9000!" If AC isn't on for the homepage use the search tool bar in the top right corner of your browser. You'll notice that as soon as you type in "It's o" you get the listing for "It's over 9000!" in the drop down AC list. That's what I call handy and convenient. Now you can simply hit the down arrow three times instead of typing in eight extra characters. Google AC FTW!

Cell Phone T9 Texting: This is the best thing that's ever happened to the mobile texting universe (besides the little keyboard if you can do that ). This is the easiest way to input words without having to go through the hassle of choosing a letter and then waiting for it to input, and taking like 10 minutes just to text a simple sentence. T9 Texting ROCKS, but it's still easier just to call somebody so minus 10 points to T9 texting (LOL FAIL!).

Well, there you have it people, let's get a final conclusion on this whole AC issue.

Auto-Complete: Works well if used correctly. Final Score: 7/10

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