Auto Correct Weirdness - Did You Mean?

What is the significance of the Autocorrect function?

[HayMeadows]

Example: A search for 'California Realtor' or 'Puyallup Realtor' returns a did you mean 'keyword realty'.

Why does this happen? Obviously realtor is an extremely popular term.

[rfgdxm1]

In that case, since this is what you meant, ignore it. ;)

[JayC]

Obviously realtor is an extremely popular term.

Sure. But "realty" is considerably more popular, appearing on 4.5 million pages compared to 3.2 million for "realtor." That is, a dufference of 1.3 million, or 40.6% more popular.

So it seems reasonable to suggest that you might want to look at results for that term.

Look at it that way: not as an "autocorrection," which implies that you misspelled the word you're looking for, but as a suggested query that uses a similar, and more popular, term.

[HayMeadows]

I believe this is not Google's intent of auto correct. 'Florida Realty' and 'Montana Realty' do not get this message.

Realty may have more results but realtor gets searched for more often (IMHO) - its at least more applicable to my clients site.

[rfgdxm1]

>I believe this is not Google's intent of auto correct. 'Florida Realty' and 'Montana Realty' do not get this message.

Because "realty" is more common than "Realtor".

>Realty may have more results but realtor gets searched for more often (IMHO) - its at least more applicable to my clients site.

Google doesn't do what it does to please your client. If the person intended to search "Realtor", then they will just ignore the suggestion.

[borad]

According to the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool, "realtor" is indeed searched for twice as often as "realty".

Yes, I know they mean pretty much the same thing, but I agree with the original poster that this should not be labelled as a typo. Given Google don't do stemming, it sticks out badly.

[seasalt]

realty vs. Realtor

No expert here but Realtor is a trademarked "brand" name given out only to members of the National Association of Realtors - realty is a common noun used by anyone incorporated as such. There frequently is confusion about this by the general public. This auto correct may have been brought about by this confusion.

seasalt

[rfgdxm1]

Right. It is just asking if you'd rather search with the other term. It isn't saying that the first search is an error.

[CCowboy]

Seasalt is correct Realtor is a Trademarked term and describes members of a local assocaiation selling real-estate or realty.

[HayMeadows]

Gotta say....its not just my client that would take issue with this 'auto correct' feature. Realtors as a whole should care about this oversite.

[CCowboy]

HayMeadows

There are people other than Realtors who are licensed to sell real-estate. If Google were to decide to only list the term "Realtor", it would result in an anti-trust action.

[HayMeadows]

We are talking about Google's Auto Correct feature CCowboy.

[rfgdxm1]

It isn't auto-correct. It just *suggests* an alternative. It doesn't use "keyword realty" instead of "keyword Realtor" without asking.

[HayMeadows]

Good pont.....oops point. Obvious misspelling :-)

[CCowboy]

Never Mind...

[edited by: CCowboy at 7:00 am (utc) on May 3, 2003]

[HayMeadows]

Not at all what I was trying to say there. Sorry to confuse you.

[CCowboy]

cool

[WebManager]

I always assumed the suggestion was based on keywords submitted by users of Google Adwords