March 31, 2005

Google, champing at the bit

Nathan Vaillette reports in e-mail on  3/31/05, re my posting "Chomping at the font", that...

When searching for "champing at the bit":

   - google.de asks
       Meinten Sie: "camping at the bit"
   - google.fr suggests
       Essayez avec cette orthographe : "chomping at the bit"
   - google.es opines
       Quizas quiso decir "champaign at the bit"
   - google.it theorizes
       Forse cercavi: "champion at the bit"

   However, google.com is willing to believe that's what you mean.

"Champaign"?  As in Champaign-Urbana?  I was hoping for champagne, at least from google.fr.  Meanwhile, in Italy, it seems, we are the champions.

[And now (4/1/05) the report from Finland:  Pekka Karjalainen e-mails to say that (unsurprisingly, to me, anyway) neither google.fi nor google.se offered anything at all for the odd "chomping at the font", but when he tried google.de, he got "chomping at the front".  German Google seems willing to give most anything a try.]

zwicky at-sign csli period stanford period edu

Posted by Arnold Zwicky at March 31, 2005 01:49 PM