Should “Web” be capitalized?
HomeLatest Entries
Yahoo Screws DRM Customers Randy Pausch Has Died One Page Web Site Knol is Live San Francisco Gets Its Network BackLatest Entries in
Other
Yahoo Screws DRM Customers
Randy Pausch Has Died
Abolishing Email?
Sys Admin Holds San Francisco Network Hostage
NetFlix Will Stream to the XBox 360
“Once again, we find ourselves in the middle of a language evolution process. When referring to the ‘Web,’ do we capitalize or not? Intranet Design Magazine has decreed that the first letter of the word ‘Web’ is to be capitalized ONLY when reference is made to the World Wide Web. Webs on private networks are to be referred to as ‘webs,’ with a lowercase ‘w.’”
— The Intranet FAQ,” Intranet Design Magazine (as of July 2003, this link is bad — sorry)
“Q. Should I write website (one word) or web site (two)? And should “web” be capitalized or lowercase?
A. At present, you may do what you want, but the trend is apparently toward website - one word, lowercased. When two words express a single concept, they tend to grow together, sometimes passing through a hyphenated phase. The transition from Web site (from “World Wide Web site”) to website has been quite rapid.”
— The Grammar Curmudgeon
“The transition from World Wide Web site to Web site to website seems to have progressed as rapidly as the technology itself. The development of website as a single uncapitalized word mirrors the development of other technological expressions which have tended to evolve into unhyphenated forms as they become more familiar. Thus email has recently been gaining ground over the forms E-mail and e-mail, especially in texts that are more technologically oriented. Similarly, there has been an increasing preference for closed forms like homepage, online, and printout.”
— The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Comments
Looking in the refer logs, we get a LOT of traffic to this article from people searching for information on this topic. I looked over this, and it’s just excerpts, so I want to add another two cents here (and perhaps the most obvious):
“Web” is a proper noun. It’s a shortened form of “World Wide Web.” Like “Internet” is a proper noun, but “net” just refers to a general network. Same concept. “Web” is refering to something specific.
As for “Web site” being one word or two…I say two. Why? Just looks better to me.
Out of the four ways in which it can be written, I think, ‘web site’ is definitely wrong because ‘Web’ being a proper noun (standing for World Wide Web or WWW), the ‘W’ needs to be capitalized. So, if it’s two words, it has to be ‘Web site’. Continuing with closed forms like homepage, online, and printout, ‘Website’ seems to be accepted more and more every new day. But I think the real fight is between ‘Web site’ and our fourth contender, ‘website’, as people argue that ‘website’ not being a proper noun, the ‘w’ need not be capitalized: like in “Sun being a star”. So, is ‘website’ a common noun? Not yet, at least. So, for the time being, we can stick to using ‘Web site’ which seems to be the most correct form… :)
Check out the page: http://www.stcsig.org/te/newsletter/supplement/mar2003_decpollresults.asp
That’s a good page. For the record, it’s split between “Web site” and “website.” I still maintain that “Web” is short for “World Wide Web,” a proper noun, hence the capitlization.
Check out this WordBiz.com page where 65 percent of the readers voted for website and 35 percent for Web site. The vote is still open though…
http://www.wordbiz.com/newsletter/websitespelling.html
I view the word “website” in the same way I view the words “address” and “location.”
If designing an ad for a bank. I may say ‘come see us at our new location’ or ‘come see us at our new Roadname Rd location.’ Thus it is a small step to tell customers to ‘find additional information on our website.’
I suppose others could use the same argument to say that capitalizing “Roadname” means we should split “Web” and “site.”
I find it funny that some use both “Web site” and “website” in the same ad; so that their site is a “Web site” but competitors only have “websites” in the same way that that Bible translations differentiate between “God” and “gods.” More than a little pretentious dontchathink?
I capitalize the following on my website: Web, Intranet and Internet. It is reassuring to find that at least capitalizing Web is correct.
— http://www.capehostpro.com
Another good gauge of what is most suitable is a Google search using quotes. Searching for “website” results in 1.15 billion pages, while “web site” results in “only” 927 million. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out a way to get Google to differentiate between “Internet” and “internet.”
I don’t think anyone will argue that the Web should be capitalized. However, a “website” is just a “site” on the Web. As a comparison, do we capitalize sunspot? Of course not. A sunspot, while a spot on the Sun, is not a proper noun and should not be capitalized. Another example is earthling. This is a habitant of the Earth and is not capitalized. Similarly, a website may be part of the Web, but it is not a proper noun itself.
Josh, I think you’ve got that spot-on (pardon the pun)!
Sorry, but I don’t see why “Web” should be capitalized. If you say “World Wide Web,” then that is a title, a proper name. Web is a subset of that title and doesn’t need the caps treatment. We don’t capitalize “Radio”, “Televsion”, “Phone Book”, what makes “Web” any different.