18. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the second set of items does not include one or more terms of the search query.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising steps of: receiving a search query that includes a first spelling of a term; generating a second spelling of the term; accessing a first set of items that are associated with the first spelling of the term; accessing a second set of items that are associated with the second spelling of the term; performing a comparison between the first set to the second set at least in part by determining a degree to which items in the first set overlap with items in the second set; determining how to respond to the search query based, at least in part, on the comparison; determining a relative ranking of the items in the first set of items, indicating how strongly a particular item in the first set is associated with a user-provided spelling of the term as compared to the remainder of the items in the first set; determining a relative ranking of the items in the second set of items, indicating how strongly a particular item in the second set is associated with an alternative spelling of the term as compared to the remainder of the items in the second set; identifying a plurality of overlap items that are included in both the first set of items and the second set of items; increasing a degree to which the items in the first set correlate to items in the second set based on a determination that a first item in the plurality of overlap items has a relative ranking above a first threshold; and decreasing the degree to which the items in the first set correlate to items in the second set based on a determination that a second item in the plurality of overlap items has a relative ranking below a second threshold; wherein the steps are performed by one or more computing devices.