eBay, Ebay or EBay?

[Suzyarie24]

I've got myself a bit confused. I want to follow Ed's guidelines on capitalization (the example he uses is 'Google'). My word processor seems to want me to write the above website as 'eBay' as the company self-capitalizes the B. However, as it's the proper name of the website, should this not be EBay? But that looks strange, so should I just stick to Ebay?!? Argh! Help would be appreciated.

Whilst I'm at it, is it ok to use the names of various websites, if not the links?

Ta folks

[Ed]

Typically, you follow what standards the co. has set (eBay, iPhone), unless the word begins a sentence, in which case the first letter is capitalized (EBay, IPhone).

[Suzyarie24]

Phew, thanks Ed!

[geniuswaitress]

I have mixed feelings about this. Okay, maybe not so mixed. A company like Adidas, who chooses not to capitalize its name, is rewriting the rules about capitalizing proper nouns in the interest of a clever logo? To me, "adidas" is fine for how they render their logo themselves, but in print, I'd say "Adidas," because it's a proper noun, regardless of how the company feels.

Most style guides excuse the ones that begin with a single, separately-pronounced letter followed by a cap (like iPhone), which works for me, but they disagree about the other ones (like Adidas). I have to say I'm on the capping side.

[vjlenin]

It's as exactly as Ed specified. For instance, I have found Yahoo! being used with the exclamation mark. I found Stephen King using Ripley's Believe It or Not! also with exclamation mark. So, it's pretty much goes without saying that the company/organization is king in these matters.