Midjourney is alemwjsl
An SEO researcher stumbled upon a baffling anomaly: Midjourney was receiving significant paid search traffic for "alemwjsl," a seemingly meaningless string. This deep dive unravels the mystery, revealing it's the result of typing "Midjourney" on a Korean keyboard set to English input mode. The discovery highlights the astonishing, often opaque, intelligence of modern search algorithms and human-computer interaction quirks, captivating HN with its blend of technical sleuthing and linguistic insight.
The Lowdown
An SEO researcher, while investigating Midjourney's marketing strategy, discovered a peculiar phenomenon: the AI image generator was receiving a significant volume of paid search traffic from South Korea for an alphanumeric string, "alemwjsl," that appeared to be gibberish. This unexpected finding led the author down a rabbit hole of investigation, using various tools and even a surprisingly unhelpful ChatGPT.
- The author initially found it odd that Midjourney, known for organic reach, was bidding on keywords, especially in non-English-speaking countries.
- Upon closer inspection, many of the Korean keywords were variants of "Midjourney" itself, which is generally considered inefficient for paid ads.
- The string "alemwjsl" stood out due to its high search volume (2000 searches/month) despite appearing meaningless.
- ChatGPT struggled to identify the meaning, initially suggesting it was a placeholder or typo.
- The author's persistence, combined with learning the definition of "transliteration," led to the revelation: "alemwjsl" is what you get when you type "Midjourney" on a Korean keyboard set to English input mode (QWERTY layout).
- This means Google's algorithms are advanced enough to recognize and serve relevant results for common input method errors, effectively "translating" accidental keyboard layouts.
The author concludes by expressing a mix of shock, impression, and fear at the profound and often inscrutable understanding that algorithms possess, sometimes surpassing their creators' explicit design.
The Gossip
Keyboard Catastrophes & Cross-Cultural Queries
Many commenters confirmed this keyboard-layout-induced "typo" phenomenon is widespread beyond Korean. Examples included French speakers accidentally typing "frqnce" instead of "france" due to Q/A key differences, Greek users typing "υοθτθβε" for "YouTube," and Japanese users having similar transliteration quirks. The discussion highlighted how common it is for users to forget to switch input methods, especially in bilingual contexts, and how these unique character sequences often become de facto "words" understood by locals. Some also noted how this concept is even used intentionally for censorship or comedic effect by streamers.
Algorithmic Acumen: Google's Intelligent Inference
The discussion often revolved around the impressive capability of search engines to understand and correct these complex input errors. Commenters debated whether this was a hardcoded feature for common layout mismatches or an emergent property of sophisticated learning algorithms. Explanations ranged from simple query correction mappings based on user behavior (e.g., query1 -> no clicks, then query2 -> clicks on target, implying q1 is a synonym for q2), to co-clicked query analysis, and more advanced neural network approaches. The consensus was that Google's algorithms possess a deep, often implicit, understanding of user intent and linguistic quirks.
Branded Bidding's Blurring Business
One commenter challenged the author's assertion that bidding on branded keywords is "not that great." They argued that in today's search landscape, where ads often obscure organic results and competitors can bid on trademarks, companies are almost forced to bid on their own brand keywords to prevent rivals from siphoning off traffic, turning it into an "extortion scheme" by Google.
Transliteration Troubles: A Lexical Lapse
A minor, yet amusing, side discussion emerged from the author's candid admission of not knowing the term "transliteration" prior to this investigation. Some commenters expressed surprise that the word was unfamiliar to someone in a technical field, while others defended the author, noting that it's not a universally common word, especially for monolingual English speakers, and appreciated the honesty.