RE: Meg vs. MB vs. M

["Darren Barefoot" <darren -at- darrenbarefoot -dot- com>]

John is correct about considering what your customers use. That said,
I'm pretty sure that they use MB in print. I rarely, if ever, see 'Meg'
used to describe anything but a cute actress who specializes in romantic
comedies. I hear it spoken more often than see it written down, but even
then most of my peers (who are in software) say 'megabytes'.

Here's some clumsy evidence to support my opinion:

The Google search for 'MB megabyte' gets you 167,000 results.
(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=mb+megabytes&btn
G=Google+Search)

The Google search for 'meg megabyte' gets you 21,000 results.
(http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&c2
coff=1&q=meg+megabytes&btnG=Google+Search)

The trend is even more pronounced if you just search for 'MB' and 'Meg'.
Mind you, the former is also the acronym for Manitoba, and, as
discussed, the latter is a popular woman's name. Another good comparison
is 'MB hard drive' (3,690,000 results) with 'meg hard drive' (244,000
results).

One related caveat: Despite what the third result of the 'MB megabyte'
search indicates (http://fullfeaturedhosting.com/main.html), you should
not use 'MB's' or even 'MBs' to describe more than one megabyte. It's
the same as any other measurement: 50 metres is '50 m'. Thanks. DB.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-techwr-l-124377 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com 
> [mailto:bounce-techwr-l-124377 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com] On Behalf 
> Of sarahv -at- edt -dot- com
> Sent: January 27, 2004 2:44 PM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Meg vs. MB vs. M
> 
> 
> 
> I've recently butted heads with the marketing person at my 
> very small company over the use of the term "meg." 

<snip>

> 
> I did check the archives, and I didn't see anything relating 
> to "million"-ish. The Microsoft Style Guide only says not to 
> use meg for megabyte, and the Sun Style Guide doesn't mention 
> it at all . . .
> 
> Sarah
>