If you are in the plastic business, then you have probably come across the words mold and mould. What's the difference? The only difference between the two words is the spelling! The British version of mould keeps the u while the American version of mold drops it. No matter which way you spell it, there is not a single difference in the meaning the word conveys.
Now what about Canadian companies, which word is more frequent in our version of English? Officially, Canadians use the British spelling of the word mould. But interestingly enough, Canadian businesses that operate internationally or have international satellite offices or international customers tend to use the American spelling.
A quick google search of mold and mould reveals a possible reason for why Canadian businesses dropped the 'u'.
The American spelling of mold kicks back 22,500,000 search results, compared to the British spelling of mould which resulted in 5,830,000 search results. That's a difference of over 16 million hits! Clearly, if you want your business to be easily searchable it would make sense to keep the u, because theoretically your business will have an easier chance of appearing.
That's not the full story though. When analyzing what terms users search on Google, the word mold was more than 3 times more likely to be searched than the word mould. It appears that if you want your business to be easily searchable you should drop the u because you're more likely to appear in search results!
DC Automotive Tooling Inc. is a plastic injection mold shop located in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Did you notice we use the American spelling? We try to use the language of our customers and since most people seem to be dropping the 'u' we have too!