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It's Just the 'internet' Now?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the check-with-saint-martin dept.

This morning Wired News announced that 'web', 'net', and 'internet' will no longer be capitalized in their stories. Is this the next logical step after ditching 'e-mail' in favor of 'email' , or should the global computer network still be treated with a proper name? For more discussion, see Wikipedia, The Chicago Manual, and an article profiling Joseph Turow's de-capitalization efforts.

7 of 710 comments (clear)

  1. not quite the same as 'television' yet by jdallien · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It doesn't bother me either way, captialized or not, but I think the comparision to television and phonograph isn't quite correct at this point. As of right now, we only have one Internet, hence referring to it as "the Internet", whereas there are many televisions, etc. To me the captialization comes more from using it like a proper name more than like a brand name. Somewhere down the road maybe there will be many networks called internets and it would make more sense to use it just as a normal noun.

    Or we could just not worry about it and get to work on the more pressing problems... should Microsoft be spelled with a $?

  2. The reason by Order · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There never was a reason to capitalize "Internet"?!
    Or perhaps Wired News simply don't know what they're talking about?
    The "internet" is any set of networks connected with routers. The "Internet" is the largest such network, that uses TCP/IP.

    From FOLDOC:

    Internet
    internet

    --

    I am a genius; therefore, you suck.
  3. Worldwide Web by techstar25 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Another one that always bothered me..."worldwide" is one word. So it should be Worldwide Web...as in ww.slashdot.org and not www.

  4. Some cap changes by davidsyes · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I almost NEVER proper-case microsoft (lower-casing/deprecation intentional). Sometimes, to get around honoring uppercasing for ms, I just use the initial msie, ms excel, NT4.0, win XP or W2K SP#... This way, it looks like a minor omission.

    Hmm, I guess ms will try to use meta tags and other technology to "clean up" documents, especially those that have "microsoft" (lower-casing/deprecation intentional) in them. Or, didn't they try that, only to be blasted for over-reaching into peoples' documents?

    When will we get people to correctly use:

    -"log on" as a verb and "logon" as the noun?

    -"insecure" for emotional states of mind

    -"non-secure" regarding the nature of the Internet. The Internet cannot be "insecure", since it is not a sentient/organic/thinking thing.

    When I was aboardship/aboard ship, and was Petty Officer of the Watch, I/we answered the landline/land line as "Quarterdeck, USS Flint. Petty Officer Syes Speaking. This is a non-secure line; how may I help you sir, or ma'am?"

    Phone lines are never insecure, so why the Internet? I think it was because a bunch of marketers took over the security message aspect of the Internet. Or, some engineers who are FANTASTIC programmers just happened to select the wrong word from the dictionary and it "stuck".

    Even "unsecure" might seem better that "insecure".

    =========
    Hmmm... I just ran a "dictionary.com" search on "insecure" and got these:

    1. Not sure or certain; doubtful: unemployed and facing an insecure future.
    2. Inadequately guarded or protected; unsafe: A shortage of military police made the air base insecure.
    3. Not firm or fixed; unsteady: an insecure foothold.
    4. Lacking stability; troubled: an insecure relationship.
    5. Lacking self-confidence; plagued by anxiety: had always felt insecure at parties.

    ========

    Well, to me, number 2 sounds stupid, as if someone POST-COLDWAR got caught up in the "insecure Internet" description thing.

    I guess I'll have to go to pre-Internet boom dictionaries to find out if "insecure" back then was described as in item #2 above...

    David Syes

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  5. More importantly... by cafebabe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can we now ban apostrophes in "CPU's", "MP3's", etc.? It just kills me that even The New York Times (which is normally a stickler for grammar) has adopted that bastardized punctuation as their standard.

    --
    When violence rules the world outside / And the headlines make me want to cry / It's not the time to just keep quiet
  6. Re:Next move... by JabberWokky · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Thus the fairly interesting tracking of usage. For instance, some works refer to the south (as in the American south), while others refer to the South, which gives it a stronger identity. The same thing can occasionally be seen for the west/the West. It certainly gives the voice of the author or publication a stance on how they view the region.

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  7. Re:Next move... by trentfoley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    An interesting point that I have considered many times.

    Those that want to keep "God" in the U.S. pledge, etc., claim that "God" is a generic term for a spiritual, not religious concept; and, therefore, does not endorse any specific religion. Bill O'Reilly holds this belief, as do many conservatives.

    Those that want to remove "God" from the U.S. pledge, etc., claim that "God" is the proper name for the Judeo-Christian supreme being and represents an endorsement by the U.S. government of a specific religion. Which is, of course, unconstitutional.

    My suggestion to mend this dilema has always been to uncapitalize "God" thereby removing the association with the Judeo-Christian supreme being. Hell, I'd even be for making it plural... One nation, under gods, indivisible...

    My unrealistic suggestion is to change "God" to "the laws of physics".