WhiteSmoke – Write Better. Right Now.

by Jeremy Schoemaker on May 2, 2008 · 53 comments

whitesmoke


We were approached by the company WhiteSmoke today about their All-in-One English Writing and Grammar Software, and we thought we’d give it a try and do a review.

I didn’t think such a tool would be useful for me as I don’t usually put much emphasis on grammar and spelling. So I started messing around with it, and at first was really disappointed, because I didn’t see a use for this software. Yea it worked, but where is the need for it?

But, after a few days, I realized how much I type outside of Word; emails, this blog, etc. I finally understood why so many people use it. After you type something, you just hit the “whitesmoke” button you designate on your keyboard, and it gives you suggestions on grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Obviously spelling and punctuation aren’t a high priority on this blog, but this software definitely fills a niche in the market. The quickest way to NOT be taken seriously in the business world, is to write business letters, memos, emails, etc. and use bad grammar or misspellings. Why do you think your college adviser told you to edit, re-edit and then have the career services edit your resume. If there are spelling errors or grammar errors on there, it can mean the difference between getting hired or not. It also has text enrichment, which basically in laymen terms is taking your normal text and making you seem smarter. :) Who couldn’t use that.

I was skeptical at first, but obviously the people at WhiteSmoke are very confident in their product, and after using it for a while I can see why. Nobody seems to offer a service like this out there, and I was pretty impressed once I gave it a chance. While it is an area of writing that I usually don’t focus on, I realize that it’s a vital part of blogging & marketing in general. Therefore, WhiteSmoke’s English Writing Software would be a good investment, and you would definitely get your money’s worth. The software works as advertised, and seems a lot smarter than other grammar checkers. All in all, it was nicely done. And for all of you mac folks, they currently don’t have an MacOS version, but don’t worry, there is a web based version of the software. Check em out here.

This is a Paid Review.

About the author...

– who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.

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{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }

1 JamieG May 2, 2008 at 8:10 am

The Whitesmoke software is really really nice. I have used it for a while and there is nothing like it out there

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2 penantang May 2, 2008 at 8:26 am

Sorry i dont get the point..This whitesmoke is a grammar checker or a translator software?..btw i dont like to smoke :)

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3 Jon - Art of Money May 2, 2008 at 8:39 am

Good review, the software looks interesting. Best spelling and grammar ever on a ShoeMoney post.
Wonder how long it will be before your PR is down to 3 after doing a paid review? My guess, is about 2 weeks…you’re in John Chow territory now :)

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4 ShoeMoney May 2, 2008 at 8:46 am

This review meets all Google and disclosure standards. Links are all no follow and its disclosed that it is a paid review.

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5 Tamish Mehra May 2, 2008 at 9:00 am

JohnCows Blog is next to nothing if you compare to ShoeMoney’s Blog .
I checked two times JohnCow’s Blog and its just full of affiliate links .
It teaches you not much about earning much creatively .

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6 Tamish Mehra May 2, 2008 at 9:04 am

The site should be developed a bit better especially the Get it Now button should be a bit noticeable .

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7 Tim Linden May 2, 2008 at 9:07 am

Pricing would be nice.. There is an add for $1 two extra pro versions, but it seems you must register before knowing the cost. RIGHT.

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8 Melvin May 2, 2008 at 9:26 am

A question, if you stated that a post is a pad one does it mean google wont come down hard on you?

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9 Melvin May 2, 2008 at 9:27 am

Well that’s why I study English and grammar so hard.. i’ve been a topnotcher in our section in school… just sharing ;-)

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10 Mattaw May 2, 2008 at 9:30 am

I agree your spelling is important, but doesn’t firefox have a built in tool to correct spelling, and can’t you paste things into word to correct grammar, just saves you a bit of money is all.

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11 Michael D May 2, 2008 at 9:34 am

like the idea of no followed paid reviews. I would not have known about this product and can see several instances where it would come in handy. I think more companies should consider getting their wares in front of people like this. Good job Shoemoney. Checking out their stuff.

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12 Goran Website May 2, 2008 at 9:34 am

I think that they got far too many different packages to choose from. We dont have time to determine which does what. Also I agree with Tim there are no prices now we got to start searching. We value your review, but it is paid, so…

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13 browie May 2, 2008 at 9:34 am

I don’t know, this tool seems useless. Firefox fixes most things, Word can help with the other stuff. I guess it’s O.K. if it’s web based but….

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14 Dom May 2, 2008 at 9:39 am

The software looks horrible. Most decent operating systems have grammar checking built in anyway…

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15 SEO Mash May 2, 2008 at 10:23 am

Does it help with their versus there? ;)

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16 Arthur Freydin May 2, 2008 at 10:37 am

I wonder how many potential customers they’re losing by requiring an email address before finding out pricing…

I’d be interested if I didn’t have to provide my email address before reading anything useful about the software. I don’t even know the market they’re targeting if they don’t provide pricing. Fail.

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17 Eric May 2, 2008 at 10:41 am

I dunno, the firefox spellcheck kind of sucks, and it won’t correct grammatical errors, like using has in place of have.

Word’s grammar checking is annoying, and it’d be more so if I wanted to paste everything I write into Word before posting it. I can definitely see this as being useful. I don’t know if I’d be willing to personally spend 80 bucks on a grammar check though. Maybe I would if my 1337 writing skillz weren’t so 1337.

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18 Melvin May 2, 2008 at 11:19 am

exactly.. even firefox does have one

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19 Rick May 2, 2008 at 11:35 am

I just can’t believe that people think they can sell anything when they require you to sign up before you get pricing.

I had to edit out the shoemoney affiliate landing page part to get to their home page and see pricing. By that time i was pissed enough that I never did read any of their copy.

What a waste of potential customers.

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20 Sean May 2, 2008 at 12:07 pm

thanks for the disclosure

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21 Web Marketeer May 2, 2008 at 12:55 pm

Sounds like a handy writing tool, but the question remains whether people will want to pay for it. The manual proofreading process can be very laborious, especially if one is trying to work through a lot of poorly written content, so I can see personal value there.

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22 Chetan May 2, 2008 at 12:57 pm

No, google is just against any paid links, whether you mention it or not.

Btw, as the links are no-followed, Google has nothing to hurt or do with this blog’s rankings :)

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23 Chetan May 2, 2008 at 12:59 pm

Yep, Macbooks also have it built in, but for those which doesn’t have it already installed, the software isn’t at all bad.

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24 Chetan May 2, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Internet explorer doesn’t have the built in tool.

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25 Chetan May 2, 2008 at 1:02 pm

Grammar and spell checker basically.

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26 Paul May 2, 2008 at 2:03 pm

I definitely need this but I wouldn’t pay for this service. Maybe they can sell it to Micro or Mac to replace spell checker.

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27 Eric May 2, 2008 at 3:21 pm

For anyone curious, the software ranges from about $80 to $125.

I just entered a fake email. I figure if a business wants fake emails, then they can behave like this (hiding prices):P

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28 Paul May 2, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Why do you think they are interested in fake email addresses?

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29 Tim L. Walker May 2, 2008 at 7:16 pm

Yeah, I was turned off by the lack of pricing available until you gave them contact info… there’s not enough (or easily findable) examples of it working. I’m not going to drop $80 on a product I can’t really see exactly what it does. Thanks for the review, though, Jeremy.

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30 penantang May 2, 2008 at 8:02 pm

I think ms.word is a good one enough..

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31 Terry Tay May 2, 2008 at 9:10 pm

Even I could use help with spelling and grammar errors at times, but you know…

Eye dew knot trussed my spell chequer two find awl my miss steaks. ;-)

~Terry

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32 Lumpy May 2, 2008 at 9:48 pm

Smokin…..

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33 purposeinc May 3, 2008 at 2:05 am

ROF!

The grammar rocked, but it made me kinda sad and a little teary eyed. It was sort of like hearing Rocky speak with the Queens English.

Even after 10 years of college, my speech patterns are still a mix of East Coast Jew meets East L.A. hoodlum.

I am going to read the next post, and I just pray that Shoegramma returns!

I may just have to buy that product.
dk

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34 Shaan May 3, 2008 at 2:19 am

Well i would love to try this software for my grammer but asking the e-mail, is making this site spammy looking…and already there are many softwares available for the very same thing….So they should come with some nice idea to get customers.

Regards
Shaan Haider

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35 Moldova May 3, 2008 at 3:10 am

Looks like the All-in-One English Writing and Grammar Software is very good.

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36 David Marx May 3, 2008 at 12:24 pm

That’s funny, was wondering why the paid review bit was so explicitely cited

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37 Robin May 3, 2008 at 2:40 pm

it’s really really a good software :) now i make less mistakes :)

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38 Chetan May 4, 2008 at 8:27 am

Hah now seeing a few supporters for this software :)

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39 Website Reveiws May 4, 2008 at 10:45 am

I am not sure about this product. I would love to try it out, but not being able to find information with out registering scares me! Glad to see you are making money shoe!

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40 Prosperity Writer May 4, 2008 at 10:47 am

good for the non english speaking webmasters

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41 Joanne May 4, 2008 at 11:03 am

Not only is the software not up to standard in comparison with other tools, their support is horrible.

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42 Terry Tay May 4, 2008 at 10:29 pm

That is strange they would want an email first. I guess they want to build their email list I suppose.
~Terry

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43 David Marx May 5, 2008 at 3:38 am

Judging from the general response to, and my personal experience of, the WhiteSmoke offering it would seem that they need some general pointers as to how to convert their traffic via on page issues, along with splashing out on paid reviews and the like.

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44 Ip lookup May 5, 2008 at 9:35 pm

Good tool for the ESL folks on the internet or for people who blog before they have their morning coffee.

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45 TEGS May 6, 2008 at 5:52 pm

BAD SPELLERS OF THE WORLD
UNTIE!

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46 Paul May 7, 2008 at 11:44 pm

Hi Everyone,

My name is Paul, from WhiteSmoke. Thanks for all the comments, and thanks to Shoemoney for the review. I just wanted to clear up an issue – even though the landing page that is linked to in the article does not have a price, you can easily navigate to the homepage, and then visit the products page. Each product page clearly states the price.

However, we run very regular promotions, and the offer of the promotion will not be seen until you enter the shopping area.

WhiteSmoke really is much much more than a spell checker, or the grammar checking in Word, and hence we thought a Shoemoney review could get some more exposure through to internet marketers who can clearly benefit from the product. If anyone has any more questions, feel free to ask and I will be happy to respond.

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47 Eva White May 10, 2008 at 11:55 pm

Well if you dont charge to spell check and grammar check what are your products?

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48 Eva White May 10, 2008 at 11:56 pm

I guess I should just follow the link and find out.

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49 Flaming Arrow May 14, 2008 at 4:22 pm

Dayum, us Mac guys always get the short end of the stick!

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50 theknot wedding August 14, 2010 at 1:39 am

Writing software has its own shortcomings.

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51 Patricia Wallace March 17, 2011 at 10:20 am

its helps me more to do my English home work, for it help me to correct my grammar in a sentence. :)

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52 Patricia Wallace March 17, 2011 at 10:23 am

wow! it was so great, for it always so useful in my homework, especially in my english subject. :)

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