Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Typobuddy.com Reveals Great Deals on Ebay & Craigslist
We're all guilty of the occasional slip of the finger, and John Lieberman, CEO of Typobuddy, realized that each typo has the potential to become an amazing asset or a devastating liability. As a result, Lieberman developed typobuddy.com, where you can search for items that you may have overlooked due to a spelling error by the merchant.
According to the site, some of the most commonly misspelled brand names are:
I decided to test the site for myself, and I entered" Nike" into the search engine, which produced 200 typo results for ebay. On the first page, 12 of the 17 items had no bids. Also, I was slightly amused by the fact that one of the items was a game-worn University of North Carolina football jersey, labeled "Genuine NKE UNC Tarheel Football Team Jersey #73, Sz 46. (The only reason I laughed is because I'm a life-long fan of UNC's rival- Duke.)
In addition to the search engine, Lieberman also devoted an entire blog to misspellings. If you think you're having a stressful day at work, consider some of the errors that cost these companies thousands or millions of dollars.
A New York City Department of Education bookkeeping error resulted in
double spending in the city's transportation fund.... resulted in $2.8 million being spent in what was only supposed to be $1.4 million earmarked for transportation. The city had to make up the difference.In September 2006, A trader at Mizuho Securities accidentally sold 610,000 shares in J-Com Co. (a job recruiting company) for 1 yen a piece, instead of 1 share at 610,000 yen. Unable to cancel the order Mizuho Securities has lost roughly $340 million as a result.
Other typos resulted in better fortune.
A Student at Stanford University, Sean Anderson accidentally helped Larry Page come up with the name and spelling of Google. While Page and Anderson were in Page’s office, the two were attempting to come up for a name for the would-be search behemoth. Sean had suggested verbally the word googolplex, spurning Page to shorten it to googol. Anderson then went to check the availability of the word, accidentally spelling it Google in an internet domain name registry. Available it was, and the company has decided to go with this spelling ever since. Whether or not the company has succeeded because of the name is subject to some speculation, it is very interesting to see what has become of a basic spelling error.
John Lieberman and his site Typobuddy.com proves that one man's loss can truly be another man's gain and that a unique perspective can convert misfortune into a new opportunity.
Posted By Matt O'Hern at 04:38 PM
Permanent Link: Typobuddy.com Reveals Great Deals on Ebay & Craigslist
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