Patent ID: 7672927

Claim:
A method for generating a list of candidate alternative spellings, comprising: finding, among a plurality of pages, a first page that contains, in a body of the first page, a link whose anchor text contains a first spelling that is also contained in a query that was entered by a user, wherein said link links to a second page; comparing the first spelling with the spelling of terms within said second page in order to identify spellings that are similar to, but not exactly the same as, said first spelling, wherein the spelling of the terms is in the same language as the first spelling; adding, to a list of candidate alternative spellings of said first spelling, one or more spellings within said second page that are spelled similar to, but not exactly the same as, said first spelling; generating a filtered list at least in part by filtering said list of candidate alternative spellings based on a comparison of (a) a first frequency of occurrences of said first spelling in said plurality of pages to (b) a second frequency of occurrences, in said plurality of pages, of a second spelling from said list of candidate alternative spellings; conducting a search based on a query in which said first spelling has been replaced by a spelling from said filtered list but wherein query terms other than said first spelling remain as entered by said user; and presenting, to said user, one or more results of said search; wherein the steps of comparing, adding, and generating are performed by one or more computing devices.