Clear Ink Announces SpellWeb

Posted on March 23, 1998

Clear Ink, an independent Internet strategy, technology and design services agency, announced a new site called SpellWeb, http://www.spellweb.com/, designed to detect and compare patterns in word usage throughout the global online community.

"We became interested in how the side effects of Web usage were perhaps even more compelling than the intended purposes of seeking and sharing specific information," said Steve Nelson, Clear Ink vice president and SpellWeb developer. "By looking at the forest instead of the trees, we're able to learn more about who Web users are as a group. At the same time, it's something of a gauge of popular culture across the globe."

Based on the premise that the Web is not just a storehouse of specific information, but is also a mirror of popular opinion, SpellWeb began as a simple experiment in sifting the Web for unintended patterns. By submitting alternate word choices to Internet search services, SpellWeb reveals the alternative used more frequently by online users on their own web sites. And while not a spelling correction tool or even the ultimate judge of "proper" spelling, SpellWeb users can draw their own conclusions based on a word's relative popularity.