bläg

Blog

My friend Arno mentioned that Microsoft’s spellcheck dictionary doesn’t contain the word “blog”, so I looked it up using Tiger’s Dictionary app and found out that (according to this dictionary definition example) blogs are actually “run by twenty-something Americans with at least an unhealthy interest in computers”. Ah, that explains it.

Also, I vote for “bläg”, the phonetic spelling of “blog”, as the new word of choice to describe this medium (no disrespect to Peter Merholz of course). I think that the umlaut would give it that extra edge that it needs to survive in our buzzword compliant world.

UPDATE 1: It has been mentioned on our comments as well as those on CNET’s Apple Blog that the source of Apple’s dictionary definitions come from the New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd Edition. So if you are a non-American blogger who is not in your twenties and have a healthy interest in the internet, don’t flame Apple for their definition examples since they didn’t write them.

UPDATE 2: Ok, both the widget (click the “i”) and dictionary application (under preferences) give credit to the Oxford American Dictionaries. Regardless, I want to know how I can get a job writing dictionary definition examples.

UPDATE 3: For some reason, it seems like a bunch of people are up in arms about this post. Maybe I can help clear things up a bit. I know that this was a definition example, not an actual definition. I thought it was a funny example and I was being sarcastic. I guess some people need little smiley face emoticons to recognize sarcasm, but that’s not really my thing.

Scott Beale
Scott Beale

Scott Beale founded Laughing Squid in 1995 in San Francisco and is currently based in New York City. When not running the blog, Scott can be found posting on Bluesky and sharing photos on Instagram.