Net users find spelling 'Restaurant' hard to swallow - 30 March 2005
Restaurant is off the menu for thousands of Internet users, according to research conducted by Yell.com, the UK’s leading local search engine. The research highlights the most commonly misspelled or mistyped words when searching Yell.com for shops and services.‘Restaurant’ currently tops Yell.com’s misspellings list after being incorrectly entered into the homepage search box more than 76,500 times last month. UK Internet users have tried their luck with a variety of spellings including ‘restrant,’ ‘restraunt,’ ‘restarant’.
More than half of people (54%) searching for a bed for the night have difficulty spelling accommodation (‘accomodation,’ accommadation’) and some really do need their eyes tested when it comes to searches for optician (‘optisian’, ‘optitian’).
Eddie Cheng, president of Yell.com, said: “When you need details of a business and service quickly we realise words aren’t always spelt accurately. This is not always down to bad spelling but also typing errors. Yell.com now recognises and understands common misspellings and typos, including business and service types and locations. So whether it’s a ‘restrant’ or a ‘flourist’ you’re looking for, Yell.com makes it easier for users to find what they need.”
Just outside the top ten were words describing academic institutions and related services including university (‘univercity’), college (‘collage’) and library (‘library’), and people who had lost their spark had some difficulty spelling electrician (‘electritian’).
Similarly, were users searching for an ingredient for baking or somewhere to shop for flowers when they typed in ‘flourist’? Or was it painful bunions that distracted people from correctly spelling chiropodist (‘chiropidist’)? Whatever users search for, Yell.com helps them find the business or service that best suits their requirements.
