Lowercase style

17 Aug 2004

For years Wired Style was the guide for anyone writing about “new media.” In the early days of the internet the venerable Chicago Manual of Style and Strunk & White’s Elements of Style had nothing to say about new words and phrases like internet, World Wide Web, and email so Wired Style became the standard. Like thousands of others, I capitalized Web and Internet because Wired said that’s how to do it. (The current edition of The Chicago Manual of Style covers internet publishing extensively).

Today Wired News has decided that this is no longer to be done. They say that “a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. That it transformed human communication is beyond dispute. But no more so than moveable type did in its day. Or the radio. Or television.”

Just as I followed Wired Style, I shall follow this new style. Should you see me improperly capitalizing these words, please rap my knuckles with a yardstick.

Deane
August 18, 2004 2:29 PM

I have had a posting on my site about whether or not Web should be capitalized for two years now:

http://www.gadgetopia.com/2002/10/01/ShouldWebBeCapitalized.html

It still gets a dozen hits a day.

I always believed that since it was a proper noun, it needed to be capitalized. But I guess Wired has refuted that argument.


Your comments:

Text only, no HTML. URLs will automatically be converted to links. Your email address is required, but it will not be displayed on the site.

Name:

Not your company or your SEO link. Comments without a real name will be deleted as spam.

Email: (not displayed)

If you don't feel comfortable giving me your real email address, don't expect me to feel comfortable publishing your comment.

Website (optional):

Follow me on Twitter

Lijit Search

Best Of

  • Embrace the medium The Web is different than print, television, or any other medium. To be successful, designers must embrace those differences.
  • Comment Spam Manifesto Spammers are hereby put on notice. Your comments are not welcome. If the purpose behind your comment is to advertise yourself, your Web site, or a product that you are affiliated with, that comment is spam and will not be tolerated. We will hit you where it hurts by attacking your source of income.
  • Writing Realistic Job Descriptions Publish a job listing like this one and you are virtually guaranteeing that you won't get qualified applicants for the position.
  • Pitching Bloggers Forget what you learned in your PR classes. Start acting like a human instead of a marketer, and the humans behind the blogs will respond.
  • Google on the desktop Google picks up Picasa, giving them an important foothold on people's PCs.
  • More of the best »

Recently Read

Get More

Subscribe | Archives

Recently

Ideas, Risk, and Investors (Jan 1)
Over at SacStarts, I have piece up discussing a common question I get from entrepreneurs....
VoiceXML for web developers (Dec 17)
Building voice applications isn't hard at all. Any web developer can do it.
De-skunking a dog (Oct 27)
How to clean up your pet after a skunk attack.
Pressure sales via Twitter (Oct 16)
Sticking an ad in my face when we first meet is a good way to lose my interest.
Loma Prieta, 20 years later (Oct 13)
Looking at the earthquake from October 17, 1989
Red light cameras don't work (Oct 13)
Cameras installed to catch people running red lights aren't about traffic safety at all.
Jack-o-lantern pumpkin carving patterns (Oct 12)
It's a tradition, what can I say?
SEO realities (Oct 12)
The real search engine optimization. Works every time.

Subscribe to this site's feed.

Elsewhere

IMified
Build instant messaging applications. (My company)
SacStarts
The Sacramento technology startup community.
Pinewood Freak
Pinewood Derby tips and tricks

Contact

Adam Kalsey

Mobile: 916.600.2497

Email: adam AT kalsey.com

AIM or Skype: akalsey

Resume

PGP Key

©1999-2010 Adam Kalsey.
Content management by Movable Type.