IN the newspaper business, galley proofs are the preliminary versions of news items meant for review by copy editors and proofreaders. In the days of handset letterpress printing, the printer would set the page into “galleys”—metal trays into which type was laid and tightened into place. A small proof press would then be used to print a copy of news items for proofreading.
The personal computer made galley proofs obsolete. And proofreading has become an all-encompassing term for checking spelling, grammar, and readability issues. Current word processing applications, like Microsoft Word, have a built-in spelling and grammar check to alert the user to errors in their documents. However, these applications are not foolproof and may fail to detect “typos”—short for typographical errors. That’s why newspapers still hire proofreaders.
Google is reportedly a product of a typographical error. Larry Page and Sergey Brin created the search engine—initially named “Back Rub” —as part of their PhD project at Stanford University. It had worked efficiently servicing the Stanford University campus for a year. But soon, the bandwidth increased as demand for web search skyrocketed.
On September 14, 1997, when the founders started brainstorming for a name of their dream company, many Stanford students were there in the room to suggest a new name for the search engine. One of the students, Sean Anderson, proposed “Googolplex”—a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. Larry shortened it “Googol,” saying the name represents the infinite amount of information on the Internet, which they were aiming to streamline. Anderson, who was on the computer rushed to check if the name is available as a domain name to register, typed “google” and made the most famous spelling mistake in the business history of the world. The founders were happy to find that “www.google.com” as a domain name was available for them to register.
Based on its trailing 12-month numbers, Google is projected to earn $278 billion in 2022. About $500 million of this income comes from “typos” or frequently misspelled site addresses. In a study, Harvard University researchers Tyler Moore and Benjamin Edelman estimate that Google could be making half a billion dollars from the practice of “typosquatting” because its network of display ads—from which it receives a share of the profits—run on these “hijacked” sites. Wikipedia says typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, is a form of cybersquatting, and possibly “brandjacking,” which relies on mistakes such as typos made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser.
In their book Comedy Writing Secrets, Mel Helitzer and Mark Shatz showed how some newspaper bloopers form serendipitous puns. From The Ootlewah Times (Tennessee):“Our paper carried the notice last week that Mr. Herman Jones is a defective in the police force. This was a typographical error. Mr. Jones, of course, is a detective in the police farce.”
From a newspaper ad: “Employment Wanted: Manure woman requires work.”
From a newspaper headline: “Human brian is still evolving, says scientist.” (The brain can’t teach the eyes to spot typos like this).
Here are typos from the article “Typo: Examples of Typographical Errors” written by Richard Nordquist for thoughtco.com:
Frozen panties
“The Typo of the Year award went to Reuters for this in 2005: ‘Quaker Maid Meats Inc. on Tuesday said it would voluntarily recall 94,400 pounds of frozen ground beef panties that may be contaminated with E.coli.’ (Read ‘patties,’ presumably.)” (Martin Cutts, Oxford Guide to Plain English, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2009)
A pricey typo
“Penguin Group Australia turns over $120 million a year from printing words but a one-word misprint has cost it dearly. The publishing company was forced to pulp and reprint 7,000 copies of Pasta Bible last week after a recipe called for ‘salt and freshly ground Black people’—instead of pepper—to be added to the spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto. The exercise will cost Penguin $20,000, the head of publishing, Bob Sessions, said. At $3,300 a letter, it’s a pricey typo.” (Rachel Olding, “Penguin Reprints Book, Peppered With an Error, Wants It Taken With Grain of Salt.” The Sydney Morning Herald, April 17, 2010)
And the worst typo ever? Probably The Times’s write-up of the opening of Waterloo Bridge by the Prince Regent on June 18, 1817, when, due to a stray vowel, the report claimed that ‘The Royal party then pissed over the bridge.’ The entire composing-room staff was (reportedly) sacked the next day.” (John Walsh, “btw.” The Independent, July 26, 2008)
Billboards are large outdoor advertising structures. As these giant installations typically found in high-traffic areas use big fonts, one would assume they are free of typos. Turns out they are not, as these funny billboard mistakes from bmediagroup.com demonstrate:
Eccept the Challenge
I’M hoping this was the result of “let our students change the marquee” day. If not then this elementary school has probably very few future spelling bee champions.
A Mistake on Purpose
One has to wonder whether the banner on the bottom was added after the fact or whether this was done intentionally. We missed it the first time too.
These sneaky errors should remind us that proofreading our work is incredibly important. In the age of social media, typos could go viral and bring an awful lot of unwanted publicity.