I really liked the Google define: function. Just type in define:dog and you'd get some useful information about it, quickly and easily. Simple for people to remember as well. However, as pointed out by @_joleen_ this morning it's not available. What you get instead is:
Who thought that was a good idea? Seriously? When is removing functionality a good thing? So now what you have to do is type in your term, get the results, and THEN click on More search tools, then click on Dictionary and get your result. How is that considered a better approach? Let's hope that Big G has just screwed up a little bit, and that define: will return. It'll probably just before, or after we get reports about pigs flying.
It's still working for me. For "dog" and "schema" at the very least.
Posted by: Justin Unrau | April 23, 2011 at 12:24 PM
skip the colon. "define dog" works great.
I guess this is an implementation that will suit users not as tech-savvy as you better. :)
Posted by: wille | April 23, 2011 at 12:40 PM
But if you just type the term, it almost always comes up with the definition first in the results.
Posted by: Kenley Neufeld | April 23, 2011 at 02:27 PM
Odd, it's working for me. I tried define:dog define:dragon and define:beatles
Posted by: Rogan | April 23, 2011 at 02:44 PM
Stranger and stranger. I have no luck with define without the : either.
Posted by: Phil Bradley | April 23, 2011 at 04:27 PM
Swap the "q" parameter in the URL for "query".
This is broken: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3A%20dog
But this works: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&query=define%3A%20dog
I believe that Google are possibly changing around the user interface a little...
Posted by: Rebecca Black | April 23, 2011 at 06:19 PM
Maybe that's why they removed it because when you leave the colon out the first result is always a definition anyway. I just liked that it showed you a range of different definitions without you having to click through to the site :-(
Posted by: Joanne Pilkington | April 23, 2011 at 08:56 PM
Still no luck here either (google.com.au). Nothing works - ie. with or without the :
:(
Posted by: Therese Kenny | April 24, 2011 at 08:46 AM
OK, I tried define mimetics without the colon and got A definition followed by some things which looked like what I would have got from yesterday's define: mimetics but to get the layout I'm used to and have worked with for months (years?) then I have to go through the convoluted other search results, dictionary!
Not happy!
Posted by: Hazel Edmunds | April 24, 2011 at 07:20 PM
Hi Phil,
Looks like a bug. One of the other GCTs has pointed out this discussion on the Google support forums:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=44df165c3e51de50&hl=en
And
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web+Search/thread?tid=4328bba7c0315755&hl=en
Fingers crossed for a quick solution...
Cheers,
Therese
Posted by: Therese Kenny | April 25, 2011 at 01:48 AM
Works for me too on www.google.co.uk. I made a typo and typed in 'define:god'. Still worked though....
Posted by: Lawrence Jones | April 27, 2011 at 04:08 PM
workarounds:
- once you have clicked on "dictionary" and you obtained a first list of definitions, you can go on with the function typing other words in the search field.
- if you are a firefox user and added the "add to search bar" module (= extension), you can right-click on the same search field above the definition list and thus add the google define function to your list of search engines. from there you will access directly the function saving even the trouble of typing "define:" before the word.
Posted by: ĵeromo | May 17, 2011 at 03:47 PM