Red Kalinka Forum

How come I find so many websites and translators (including e.g. Google) writing e instead of ё? Is this a keyboard issue? What is it like for Russian speakers, do they perceive it as a mistake or are they thinking "well, doesn't matter anyway"?

E.g. тёмный vs. темный

Hello Boris!
No, we do not perceive it as a mistake, indeed I will be surprised if I notice ё in one of the books I read. Usually ё is used in books for children or those who learn Russian and in cases when it is not obvious how to pronounce a specific word (geografic or proper names). In other cases this letter is optional.
As for me, I like ё and usually write it in e-mails but in instant messages it's really more simple and faster to ignore these two points

Hi Mari,

thanks

So I understand that leaving the dots away has become common, but probably solely due to laziness (when writing by hand) or technical challenges (when using keyboards, either on a computer or touch keyboards on mobile devices etc., as none of them seem to have ё as a single-key letter on genuine Russian keyboards).