Words are words, and on the Internets there are plenty of them. Lots. But there’s also a huge amount of copying going on, with exam papers, theses, even business presentations all suffering from plagiarism in all forms. There are tools to help fight it, which scan texts for proof of copying, but we have typically found them to be too difficult to use or accessible only via registration, which is a bore.

PlagTracker is a multi-lingual text checker which clearly uses a clever algorithm to scan Google search results and deliver a fast indication of whether your pasted text has come from any online sources. It’s impressively fast, and when we tested it, we received a very accurate result in seconds.

The service is available in six languages, including German, French and Spanish, and we like the fact that it’s an instant access with no registration or money needed. Just copy paste and press the scan button. The premium version offers grammar checking, different document file uploads support, and super fast checking, all for $14.99 a month. There’s also a pay as you go mode, at $1 a scan.

Overall it’s a nice service and definitely one that you should bookmark if you’re at all involved with words, in an educational or business sense. What’s more than disturbing is the fact that the front page indicates that around 50% of the texts submitted have been copied. That’s fascinating and a little sad.