Extreme hunger or dental pain seems to affect our spelling and typing when searching for businesses and services online, according to new research from Yell.com.

Data experts at the online service from Yellow Pages, who analyse the search habits of its millions of users, found one in ten people (13 per cent)* searching for ‘orthodontists’ misspelled or mistyped it while 12 per cent of people got ‘restaurants’ wrong as 23 variations of the word were entered into the search engine during August 2008.

Other words that cause us problems include ‘Chinese’ as 10 per cent entered variations such as chineese or chinise and ‘satellite’, which eight per cent spelt as either ‘satalite’ or ‘satelite’. Seven per cent of people were also unsure of ‘electrician’, while four per cent stumbled with ‘chiropodist’.

With nine million people using Yell.com a month to search for a complete range of both national and local businesses and services, its programmed thesaurus recognises the common misspellings or typing errors and replaces them with the most likely alternatives.

Clodagh Ward, consumer development director at Yell, says: “We know that in the digital world people are used to intuitive programmes automatically correcting any small typos. If you’re manic at the office and hastily trying to find a place to eat for a Friday night out, for example, you need a built-in thesaurus to understand what you mean and get you back on track – which is what we always hope to do.”

Term	Volume	Misspellings (most common in bold)
1. Orthodontist	13%	Orthodontics, orthadontist, orthodentist
2. Restaurant	10%	Resturants, restauraunt, restauraunts, restaurent, restaurents, resterant, resterants, resteraunt, resteraunts, restrant, restrants, restraunt, restraunts, restruant, restruants, restuarant, restuarants, resturant, resturaunt, resturaunts, restarant, restarants, restaraunt, restaraunts
3. Chinese	8%	Chineese, Chines, chinease, chineses, chinesse, chinise
4. Satellite	7%	Satelite, satalite
5. Electrician	4%	Electrican, electicians, electrcian, electrian, electrians, electritian, electricans, electritians, electrition, electritions
6. Chiropodist	2%	Chiropidist, chiropadist, chirpodist, chropodist
=7 Recruitment	2%	Recruitment , recrutment
=7 Recruitment agencies	2%	N/A
= 7 Solicitors	2%	Solictors, solcitors, soliciters, solicotors, solisitors

* Yell.com analysts looked at the top ten misspellings made in August 2008

For further information about this press release, please contact the Yell Press Office.

Yell
Yell is a leading international directories business operating in classified advertising markets in the UK, US, Spain and Latin America through printed, online and telephone-based media. Yell’s principal brands include: in the UK, Yellow Pages, Yell.com and Yellow Pages 118 24 7; in the US, Yellow Book and Yellowbook.com; and in Spain, Paginas Amarillas and PaginasAmarillas.es. All these brands are trademarks.

Yell.com
Launched in 1996, Yell.com is a leading local search engine and major online advertising medium for UK businesses. Yell.com provides users with a direct route to finding a business or service online using keyword, type of business, or company name and location as search criteria. Users can review relevant search results and quickly determine the right business for their needs.

Yell.com’s database of over two million UK business listings including 209,000 searchable advertisers (March 2008) can be accessed via the web site (www.yell.com) and mobile channels including JAVA™ and WAP services. www.yell.com provides several useful features such as zoom-enabled maps with directions, closest car parks and a personal Yell.com address book facility to keep a record of regularly used businesses.

Yell.com is part of Yell, a leading international directories business operating in classified advertising markets in the UK, US, Spain and Latin America through printed, online and telephone-based media. Yell’s principal brands include: in the UK, Yellow Pages, Yell.com and Yellow Pages 118 24 7; in the US, Yellow Book and Yellowbook.com; and in Spain, Paginas Amarillas and PaginasAmarillas.es. All these brands are trademarks.

Yell's online image library, containing product shots and logos can be found at: www.yellgroup.com/images