The World’s Most Expensive Typos
When you think of typos, you think of grammar and poor middle school grades. It’s hard to imagine that in this day and age a typo of any serious consequence can make it through the cracks, with spell-check being an automatic feature in most email services and office software. However, some typos in recent years have made it into the news, albeit sometimes under unusual circumstances. The typo, it seems, will likely never go away completely because its very existence is a reflection of the human element in everyday life. It usually also seems like the consequences of some of these more influential typos result in some people winning some people losing. Is it karma or luck? Here are some of the more expensive and prominently featured typos and errors in the last decade or so.
New York City’s Million Dollar Typo
A New York City Department of Education bookkeeping error resulted in double spending in the city’s transportation fund. This misspelling turned out to be a word that contained an extra letter and was not readable by the accounting software in use. It was revealed by City Comptroller William Thompson during an audit in June 2006, that this mistake 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.
Canada’s 2 Million Dollar Comma Typo
In August 2006, a missed comma may have become the most costly piece of punctuation in Canadian history. A court ordered Rogers Communications Inc. to pay an extra $2.13 million to use utility poles in the Maritimes after the placement of a comma in a contract permitted the deal’s cancellation. Rogers thought it had a five year deal with Aliant, Inc to construct thousands of Rogers’ cables across utility poles throughout the Maritimes for an annual rate of $9.60/per pole. However, in 2005, one year after the contract was signed, Aliant, Inc, armed with the rules of grammar and punctuation, cancelled the contract and notified Rogers that the rate was increasing to $28.05.
The construction of a single sentence in the 14 page contract allowed the entire deal to be scrapped with only one year’s notice, the company argued. Rogers rebutted they never would have signed a contract to use roughly 91,000 utility poles that could be cancelled on such short notice. “This is clearly not what the parties intended,” Rogers said in a letter to the CRTC. But the CRTC disagreed. And the consequences are significant. The company will likely end up paying $2.13 million more than expected based on rough calculations. “Based on the rules of punctuation,” the comma in question “allows for the termination of the [contract] at any time, without cause, upon one year’s written notice,” the regulator said.
Typo awards $50 Million in prizes instead of $1000.
In July 2007 A Roswell, New Mexico-based car dealership sent out 50,000 scratch-off ads each as $1000.00 winners. Touting a grand prize of $1,000 (which was to be 1 in 50,000), these cards were incorrectly printed by an Atlanta-based Force Events Direct Marketing Co. The result was 50,000 crazed locals who thought they had each won the grand prize, calling the dealership to cash-in. Realizing that a $50,000,000 pay-off was neither intended or realistic, this unnamed dealership has offered to hand out $5 Wal-Mart gift cards in exchange for the misprinted scratchers, which equaled a paltry $250,000. Additionally, Force Events held a $5,000 drawing for anyone with a ticket, in an attempt to quell the immediate dissatisfaction of the townspeople, as well as a series of 20 other drawings – each with a $1,000 prize.
Davilar: The $175 Million Chilean Typo
In 1994, then-copper trader Juan Pablo Davila was working for a Chilean government-owned Codelco Company, when a serious typo while trading online resulted in buying failing stocks instead of selling. During the nascent stages of Internet trading, this blunder was made worse by, when realizing his mistake; Davila went on a frenzy of buying and selling. The resultant loss of his actions caused the market such disruption, that by the end of it all, he had lost his company – and consequently, his country – roughly $175 million. At the time, this was equal to .5% of the country’s entire GNP. Thereupon, his name became a verb: a “Davilar” is now a screw up of royal proportions.
Fat Fingers Typo Cost Japanese Bank $340 Million
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. Just think how lucky you would have been to purchase a few pieces of this stock! Attributed to “fat-finger” syndrome, which is stock trader slang for making large blunders, the trader’s name has not been made public (likely for security purposes). When Mizuho contacted the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the latter cited a glitch in its system that made this trade irrevocable. Discussions have occurred with the possibility of Mizuho and the TSE some how sharing the loss, but still no agreement has been reached.
Google Was A Typo
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. It also goes to show that not all typos result in lives being ruined and/or financial turmoil, way to go Sean Anderson (although he now works for Microsoft).
Now find your own ebay typos and see how typos can save you money.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
who would of thought that Google started as a typo!?
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Canadian article, first paragraph – singed should be signed. just saying.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:01 am
Typo – ‘However, in 2005, one year after the contract was singed, ‘. I think you mean ’signed’.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:30 am
I don’t think google really belongs on the list… how was it an expensive typo at all?
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:32 am
1 yen a piece, instead of 1 share at 610,000 yet.
should read:
1 yen a piece, instead of 1 share at 610,000 yen.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:15 am
“instead of 1 share at 610,000 yet.” should be Yen not yet. Also, what was the word in NYC typo? It would be nice to see the actual typos. What was the sentence in Canada’s blunder with the comma??
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 am
You also put “yet” instead of “yen” in the first sentence of the “fat finger” post. You should watch out for people who are interested in typos… we can be quite annoying:)
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Contest Live: (1st reply)
“Who would of thought…” ought to be “Who would *have* thought…
Just saying.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
“In August 2006, a missed comma may have become the most costly piece of piece of punctuation in Canadian history.”
Extra “piece of” in there. When writing an article about typos/spelling/grammar, make sure you thoroughly check said article first.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
wrong wrong wrong. Google is ‘Google’ because of copyright law. You cannot copyright a number. Googol is a number with one hundred zeroes. It would be like having a site called Four.com and then suing people for using Four as their own.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Maybe they put typo’s in this post to make you tards waste your time finding them. Just to show how easily one letter can make a huge difference… which it does.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Great article, thanks. At the end of the following sentence, you surely meant “yen” in place of “yet.”
“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 yet.”
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
the typos aer on purpoes
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
“Fat Finger” isn’t stock trader slang. It’s a general data entry term for a typo, especially ones in which the entry specialist hit a key next to the one that they intended to press.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
In re: “for 1 yen a piece…”
Actually, instead of the two word phrase “a piece”, the single word “apiece” should have been used.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I love how everyone is pointing out all of the typos in the article. If I had to guess I would saw that they were all on purpose.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:59 pm
IRONY!
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Sean had suggested verbally the word “googolplex”, spurning Page to shorten it to “googol”.
Hopefully Page’s feelings weren’t too hurt by this spurning.
(Do I get a prize?)
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
There are also a number of spelling, grammar, and transcription errors in the U.S. Constitution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typo_in_the_United_States_Constitution).
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Seeing as everyone else is doing it
In the “Canada’s 2 Million Dollar Comma Typo” you doubled up on ‘Piece of’
the most costly piece of piece of punctuation
Interesting stuff tho, would like to see the actual typo’s in a few
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Bombardier’s first invention, the well known Ski-Doo, was actually spelled: Ski-Dog. But the designer who painted the lettering on the prototype wrote ‘Ski-Doo’. The name was kept, and brought fortune to the company.
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
‘Thereupon, his name became a verb: a “Davilar” is now a screw up of royal proportions.’
Heh, if “a Davilar” is “a screw up of royal proportions,” then his name became a noun.
If his name became a verb, then “to Davilar” means “to screw up royally.”
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I’m surprised nobody picked up on “when realizing his mistake; Davila went on a frenzy” – what’s with the semicolon instead of a comma? You know, multi-million dollar contracts have turned on a mere comma.
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
You may want to check your source for the google typo. It was indeed a typo, but I read that it was due to an investor running late to a meeting. Page and Brin met with him to explain the idea and he responded “How about I just write you a check?” writing out a check for $100,000 to “Google”, his guess at its spelling.
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I’m surprised one of the most famous wasn’t mentioned. Widely quoted, the $18 million Mariner I’s spacecraft’s self-destruct feature was invoked due to a missing hyphen.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0913FA3C5E147B93CAAB178CD85F468685F9
Technically it wasn’t a hyphen – an overbar in a scientific formula according to Wikipedia – but virtually all public accounts called it a hyphen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_I
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Check out gooseGrade.com, a new site we’re launching this week. It lets your readers find and correct things like typos for you.
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I know of a woman that went to of a job fair and handed out between 50 and 100 resumes. Her “objective” was to find a job at a Public Relations firm. She apparently left out the “L” in public relations. Spell check didn’t catch the mistake.
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
OK I think we have now corrected all of our own typos and misspellings! We can always count on our fans to point out our own typos! Thanks so much!
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:51 pm
spurned -> spurred
Rather a lot of errors for an article about typos…
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Google typo? Hmm, interesting.
September 24th, 2008 at 5:01 am
The UK signed a lease agreement for the island of Hong Kong. The details on the lease said 99 years. So Hong Kong reverted back to Chinese rule.
The lease should have read 999 years.
The loss is probably in the trillions.
September 24th, 2008 at 6:41 am
There is also the deliberate ybacuo versus ybbacuo typo, quite famous for material scientists. Google it if you want more details.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Mark Says:
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Maybe they put typo’s in this post…
Typos – no apostrophe
September 24th, 2008 at 8:51 am
How is Google’s misspelling one of ‘the worlds most expensive typos’?
September 24th, 2008 at 9:26 am
I thought ‘google’ was a contraction of ‘go ogle’.
It is in any case recommendable to choose one’s product’s name close to regular spelling and pronunciation. Thus, ‘google’ can easily be used as an inflected verb such as ‘gargle – gargled – gargling’.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Not quite, admin.
“… a screw up of royal proportions” should read “… a screw-up of royal proportions”.
September 24th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
“Who would of thought..?” That’s not a typo, that’s fundamental illiteracy. It’s amazing how many people confuse “of” with “have”, though. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
As I recall, the Canadian story was actually a translation problem. Since the contract was originally written in French and then translated into English. The comma came about because a misunderstanding of which word was primary in the French original.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
My boyfriend and I stayed up all night one night trying to figure out where they came up with the name Google. He’s never going to let me live it down that he was spot on.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Mark, September 23, 2:44 P.M. “Typo’s” should be “typos”. Why would you use the possessive form?
September 24th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
ummm… in the Google story, ’spurned’ should be ’spurred’. Pedants unite. (Dyslexics untie)
September 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Dale’s Law: Anytime you write at length about typos you will include a typo.
The Aftrlife
September 25th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Suppose for a minute that you want to buy a satellite receiver. Go to Ebay and type sat* rec* and see how many different ways people spell satellite or receiver. I laugh out loud at how many people mispelled one of the words or BOTH! But, those are the DEAL$!
September 26th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Judy, Read it again… Mark was actually correcting the misuse of apostrophe there.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:38 am
My mistake, Judy.. Wordsmith corrected Mark there. I thought it was Mark’s correction of someone else’s error.
Whoa, do I need to get a life!
September 27th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Then web 2.0 came along, and nobody could tell the difference.
September 27th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Google is actually a number. 1 followed by 100 zeros.
September 28th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Here’s a little more explanation about the Rogers comma error, from the Globe and Mail article mentioned earlier: “The validity of the contract and the millions of dollars at stake all came down to one point — the second comma in the sentence.
Had it not been there, the right to cancel wouldn’t have applied to the first five years of the contract and Rogers would be protected from the higher rates it now faces.”
September 30th, 2008 at 1:07 am
This would be really cool, if you showed the actual typos. Also you have lots of typos. Lazy.
September 30th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Don’t forget Oprah’s name was a typo too. It was suppose to be Orpah from the bible but someone at the hospital she was born switched the letters accidentally. Would Orpah been as successful with a harder to say name?
October 1st, 2008 at 5:20 pm
eye luv the post; very interesting: can”t belief all of thees peopel are so quick to corect though!! Jon syas: “My mistake, Judy.. Wordsmith corrected Mark there. I thought it was Mark’s correction of someone else’s error. Whoa, do I need to get a life!” Good advice, Jon. good advice. p.S. Should’nt it be John? CRAP! I have become one of the masses!!!
October 16th, 2008 at 7:27 am
“I laugh out loud at how many people mispelled one of the words …” Just to inform everyone, since we are talking typos here, that ‘misspelled’ is the most misspelled word in the English language. Simply a fun tidbit that floats though my cranium with all the other random stuff.
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:59 am
Of course, what a great site and informative posts, I will add backlink – bookmark this site? Regards,
September 26th, 2009 at 4:10 am
wish I could get paid a dime for every incorrectly placed quote mark and period at the end of a “quote.”
September 26th, 2009 at 5:12 am
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. Just think how lucky you would have been to purchase a few pieces of this stock! Attributed to “fat-finger” syndrome, which is stock trader slang for making large blunders, the trader’s name has not been made public (likely for security purposes). When Mizuho contacted the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the latter cited a glitch in its system that made this trade irrevocable. Discussions have occurred with the possibility of Mizuho and the TSE some how sharing the loss, but still no agreement has been reached.
“some how” should be somehow.
October 9th, 2009 at 8:39 am
While Page and Anderson were in Page’s office, the two were attempting to come up ” for” ( Should this be (with ) ? a name for the would-be search behemoth.