Method of spell-checking search queries

A system comprising:

• one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a search query that includes a query term;
• identifying, from a corpus of documents, text patterns that each include the query term occurring adjacent to one or more other query terms;
• determining a first quantity of occurrences of the text patterns that each include the query term occurring adjacent to the one or more other terms, in the corpus of documents;
• determining a second quantity of occurrences of text patterns that each include a heterographic homophone of the query term occurring adjacent to the one or more other terms, in the corpus of documents;
• and
• determining, by one or more computers, whether to revise the received search query to include the heterographic homophone of the query term, based on comparing the first quantity and the second quantity.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a search query that includes a query term;
• identifying, from a corpus of documents, text patterns that each include the query term occurring adjacent to one or more other query terms;
• determining a first quantity of occurrences of the text patterns that each include the query term occurring adjacent to the one or more other terms, in the corpus of documents;
• determining a second quantity of occurrences of text patterns that each include a heterographic homophone of the query term occurring adjacent to the one or more other terms, in the corpus of documents;
• and
• determining, by one or more computers, whether to revise the received search query to include the heterographic homophone of the query term, based on comparing the first quantity and the second quantity.