Gugle, Intagram, Wasap, Feisbuk ... Although they are extremely popular services, the truth is that people are not so clear how they are written. In Spanish-speaking countries, these names tend to be substituted by the word's own phonetics. From Facebook, Feisbuk. From Google, Gugel. From WhatsApp, Watsap. And so with other more or less popular services. Be careful, not something I say. We have ventured to search for several of the names with the greatest presence on the Internet to know the search intentions of users in Spain. The result may surprise you.
Gugle, Gogle, Gugel… How do you spell?
No, this is not a joke. There are people who search for terms like the ones we just saw on Google. Yes, on Google.
There are dozens of variations of the original word: Gogle, Gugle, Guggel, Gugel… So much so that the company itself has decided to register the domain of gogle.com and gogle.es to help users find their search engine. And it does not seem to be a coincidence.
We have tried to find these addresses with domains from Portugal and Mexico (gogle.pt and gogle.mx) and the browser has thrown us a 404 error. Come on, the only culprits are the Spanish.
Has anyone said Gugle Max Power?
Google Max? Has the company introduced a new service? Nothing is further from reality. This phonetic transcription refers to Google Maps, Google's mapping service.
Along with this transcript there are others such as Google Max or Gogle Max , although they are somewhat less frequent. It is still curious, despite everything.
What is Peipal?
Is it a Chinese social network? Or the name of a village in Nepal? No, it is the phonetic transcription of PayPal, and in Spain, one of the most searched terms in Google. And when I talk about most searched, it is because the word was searched more than a million and a half times last April, with a trend of 1.13 million monthly searches from May of last year to now. The term 'paipal' is also quite common, although not as common as its transcription.
Surely it is written Feisbuk
Mark Zuckerberg's social network also generates confusion among the Spanish public, or at least that is what Google shows us. Feisbuk is the most searched word along with the name of the social network . And for testing, a button.
The company has registered the domain feisbuk.es in Spain . Not feisbuk.com or feisbuk.mx, no. feisbuk.es. You do not believe me? Write the address in your browser and you will see where it leads you. Exact! To your Facebook profile.
Zum, video calling or greeting app from the Sims?
Zum zum can be a greeting from the popular Maxis game or the phonetics of Zoom, the program for making video conferences. Coincidentally, there is already a program with this name (Zum) for Windows. It is a virtual bar with several shortcuts that we can customize to our liking.
Boy send me a Wasap when you get there
The most popular messaging application in Spain also generates uncertainty among the Spanish public. In this case, the terms related to WhatsApp are as numerous as they are disparate. For example, Wasapp, Wazap, Wasap, or Wazzap .
Such has been its acceptance among the general public that the RAE has accepted the term 'Wasap' in a book dedicated to digital writers. In fact, the book itself says that it is better to write it like 'guasap' or some other variation of the word. Some indecents have already taken advantage of this confusion by registering the domain wasap.com and hosting fake pages within it.
The RAE tells you to write a tweet instead of a tweet
So is. Already in 2013 the Academy of the Spanish Language itself warned of the name of the social network and its jargon through a tweet on its official Twitter account.
#RAEconsultas The plural of «tweet» is «tweets».
- RAE (@RAEinforma) February 7, 2013
Today people are still looking for the name of the social network with errors. As for the rest of terms related to Twitter, it is better to replace 'tweet' with 'tweet', according to the Academy. For example, retweet, tweets or tweet .
Gemeil or Gemelier?
How do you stay if I tell you that Gemeil was searched more than 130,000 times in the last month of April in Spain? No, Gemeil has nothing to do with the well-known singer duo, but with Google's email service.
We have tried to replicate the search on Mangools, a platform dedicated to analyzing keywords and search intentions, and the trend for the word 'twin' leaves us with a whopping 80,000 queries on Google from May 2019 to April 2020 . That is, more than 80,000 people search the word 'twin' monthly.
Spotifai, the new music streaming service
Neither Spotify nor Espotify. The new trend is Spotifai. This curious transcript of the popular streaming music service accumulates a monthly average of 777,000 monthly consultations on Google in Spain .
During the last month, this number rose to one million consultations, probably due to the coronavirus quarantine. Curiously, the domain is not registered. So if you are looking for a business opportunity, you already know what you have to do.
Chiaomi or Chioami?
The first more popular than the second. In total, these two words add up to more than a million and a half monthly consultations in Spain alone. The original term is Xiaomi, the popular Chinese mobile and gadget brand. There are also some variations of the original word, as is the case with Xioami . Although this may be due more to a simple typing error than to a confusion with the brand.
Aifon 6, the Chinese clone of the iPhone 6
Aifonsi Aifon is not a new mobile brand, but the wrong attempt to find iPhone on Google. And it does not appear to be an isolated case. The variations of this word that we have found in the search engine are numerous, almost as many as there are iPhone models on the market. Aifon 7, Aifon 6s, Aifon x ...
In total, all these terms add up to millions of monthly searches in Spain alone . In fact, the search engine itself shows us results related to the apple phone instead of correcting the search. There is even an online iPhone accessories store with this name!