Another source of spelling errors -- keyboard layouts.
Because "q" is next to "w", shaq.abc.com becomes www.shaw.abc.com.
Why is the misspelled URL popular only with a "www"? My hypothesis is that someone who types the "www" first is significantly more likely -- due to inertia -- to type a "w" instead of a "q" in "shaq."
It feels trivial to talk about misspelling a name when the person has died. Still, given the focus of my blog, I'll do it for the second time in the past few days. (Here's my previous post on the subject.)
The #1 search yesterday on Google Hot Trends was chris benoit.
There were dozens of related searches. Among them was #26, chris benwah.
This isn't a case of elision. Rather, it's an instance where a foreign-language surname was misheard.
Perfectly reasonable mistakes in both situations. And both of them are worth noting -- for purposes of predicting what people will search for and understanding what people mean when they search for something.
To illustrate a gap in coverage on Google Trends, let's focus on a current Hot Trend search: kate middleton. If you click the link, you'll see the search volume for June 24. If you then search for kate middleton on the regular Google Trends, you'll find a "Trend History" that ends on February 21.
What about February 22 to June 23?
Google is able to produce almost-real-time data for hot searches. So, why not data for the past few months?
For many top-rising searches, there won't be much prior data. But for a periodically popular query such as "Kate Middleton," there would be.
The #1 search on Google Hot Trends is rod beck.
The #11 search is rob beck.
In the grand scheme of things, the misspelling of Rod Beck's name is not nearly as significant as the sad event itself. But still, I think it's worth noting that the misspelling is so common.
I believe that this is an example of elision. I wonder whether there's any other example of this phenomenon on Hot Trends? I recall a misspelled name a couple of weeks ago ... I'll have to check when I have time ....
Earlier today, "Murphy Brown" was a Related Search to a Hot Trend concerning Mel B. and Eddie Murphy. I did a double-take ... and then realized that Eddie Murphy + Melanie Brown = Murphy Brown! :-)
Candace Bergen must be laughing ....
If you are searching for wreckedexotics.com2 (currently #35 on Hot Trends), you can enter it in your browser's address bar without the "2" at the end, and you'll be all right.
For some reason, an article on Yahoo! Finance included a stray "2", thus causing this confusion.
I'm pleased to welcome the hundreds of people who've read this blog recently. (Or it may just be dozens of people, visiting dozens of pages. Unfortunately, I didn't have Google Analytics code on the blog until today.)
I'd be very interested in your ideas about what this blog should cover in the upcoming months. Feel free to post your thoughts as a comment to this post.
