Wired has announced that they will no longer capitalize Internet, Web and Net in their stories, stating “there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was.”
Capitalization, or rather, the lack thereof, of these specific words has been a pet peeve of mine for a while. Frankly, I think Wired has it wrong. Their reasons appear to be soundly justified, as they label the Internet as “another medium for delivering and receiving information”. But they seem to have forgotten one key point, the Internet is a proper noun. Unlike television, radio, newspaper…or hell even intranet (A private network, typically secured for a specific company or group) there are not multiple copies or versions of it. The Internet has been hard to categorize from the get go, it is both a medium for information dissemination and a location or destination. The ‘Web’, is no different. Their choice to capitalize ‘World Wide Web’ illustrates the point all the more.
While I thoroughly respect Wired, they have made a poor journalistic decision, based on a misunderstanding of the words and their definitions.
Though it is good to see that they still follow proper conventions by hyphenating the shortened form of electronic mail: e-mail.
4 comments so far… Jump into the discussion and tell us what you think.
I’m going along with with Wired. Improper usage of the word “there” turned me off to the article almost before I began.
As printed:
“I think Wired has it wrong. There reasons appear to be soundly justified,”
Should be “their”
What was that about “misunderstanding of the words and their definitions.”
Next caller please.
Thank you for pointing out the improper use of the word there. I have corrected my mistake. Ironically, proper usage of there/their/they’re is one of my grammar pet peeves.
With that said, I fail to see how my typo leads you to follow the revised writing style guidelines that Wired has put into place. Dismissing the content of the post, because of a single spelling mistake is poor form and shows an utter disregard for the discussion at hand and the willingness to consider the points made by both sides.
I truly hope, now that I have corrected my my mistake, that you will be able to finish reading this entry and the original article, allowing you to contribute an opinion related to the subject.
Actually, you have it wrong.
There is not a single internet, but a multitude of internets, all forming even larger internets.
The word is short for internetwork. Any time you connect two or more networks, you create an internet. When you connect two or more internets, you just have a larger internet. “The” internet is merely the amalgamation of numerous smaller internets.
Just a thought… compare it to the noun “wind”.
It is not capitalized, there can be many, interconnected, etc… I know this is an old conversation, maybe someone reads my post… :)