Constant Content

In case you hadn't heard, the new AP Style Book will include a notable change: Web site will now be website. I'm curious if they'll recommend lowercase Internet?

I'm glad of the change to website as I have a couple clients that specifically ask for "website." Others don't care, so with those, I just go with the AP style because I can always say that "it's proper AP style" if asked about it. Now, "website" will be proper and I won't have to keep track of which clients prefer which version. Unless of course someone says they prefer "Web site" to "website."

By the way, I heard about the change on the Internet, so it must be true. LOL!

It's true, and I'm glad! Unfortunately, IMO, the word "Web" is still capitalized when it's a single word. For example, "Web page" is still a two-word construction with "Web" capitalized, but website, webinar, webmaster, and some others are lowercase.

Personally, I hope the 2011 AP Stylebook makes the switch to "email" (instead of "e-mail"), "internet" instead of "Internet", "webpage" instead of "Web page", and just drops the caps for "web" in general. While we're at it, I'd like to see "mousepad" instead of "mouse pad".

Peggy

I was pretty happy about this, too. I have one regular client who insists on "Website" and "Internet". He's the only one so it's kind of a pain.

I hope Internet is lower-cased soon, like television. It is so pervasive in everyday life, it really doesn't need the capital letter like it is a special noun. I understand when the Internet and web sites first came out, they were specialty terminology. I'm giving computer lessons to an 80 year old woman from my church and she knows what the Internet is and a website. Just more proof it's not just highly technical people or super geeks using the words.

I believe it's also true to say that the Web technically refers to the software (HTML etc.) whereas the Internet (or Net) refers to the hardware.