If I import a news article into Readlang the word count is different vs if I read it using the browser add-on.
For example it might show as 450 when imported, but if I read using the add-on it only adds 350.
Is there any reason for this?
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The problem is that Readlang doesn’t know how many words you actually read. It can’t assume you read every word of every webpage you use the Web Reader on since many people will just skim-read or read a small part of a webpage before navigating to a new one. So it just tries to make a best guess.
While reading imported or uploaded articles within the Readlang reader page, Readlang uses the consistency of your page turns to guess whether you have read the whole page which will then contribute to the word count.
When using the Web Reader on a news/blog/other web page, Readlang can’t do quite as good a job at estimating how many words you actually read. What it does is every time you translate a word/phrase it will look at the time it took and the number of words that there are between that translation and your previous one, compare it to your typical reading speed, and then make an estimate of how many words you actually read based on that. Right now the fact that it tracks only when you translate words is a problem and means it will consistently under-estimate words read in the Web Reader.
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