Converged technology and business reporter David Akin holds forth on style considerations in writing the words Internet and Web ...

How to spell Internet and Web

 

by DavidAkin at 02:58PM (EDT) on August 16, 2004  |  Permanent Link

Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the "I" in internet. At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net. Why? The simple answer is because there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was

Wired News Online, August 16, 2004
To which I say, sure there was and still is. Why capitalize Internet? It is a proper noun and proper nouns are always capitalized. Why should it be a proper noun?

• There is only one Internet and it has special and unique characteristics that differentiate it from other electronic networks. Some other electronic networks that also have special and unique characteristics are proper nouns. E.G. CANet, Arpanet, Internet 2.
• Other electronic networks are not unique. The public switched telephone network, for example, differs in both its physical layer and communication layer from place to place. The Internet is a global network that has unique physical and technological characteristics.
• Like many proper nouns, there is no plural form. You can not speak about Internets.

FULL STORY: http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_trackback/124894