Re: Web vs. web?

["Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- BEST -dot- COM>]

At 2:03 PM -0800 4/1/98, Susan Kocher wrote:
>Has a consensus been reached in our profession regarding the way to
>use "web" or "Web" to refer to the World Wide Web, to webs in general?
>Or how about internet/Internet?
>[...]
>So, what say you, fellow whirlers? We want to come up with a policy that
>is simple to implement for writers and editors. Leaving ALL of the
>references to "Web" as they are above seems unsatisfactory; and yet
>changing them all to "web" seems equally wrong.

My rule of thumb: when it's a proper noun, use the capital (or the acronym
WWW):
      -- publish reports to [or better, "on"] the Web
      -- publish reports to the WWW
      -- extend SAS Software to the Web
      -- extend SAS Software to the WWW

and when it's used as an adjective, omit the capitalization:
     -- build interactive web applications
     -- create dynamic web reports
     Experience with HTML, web servers, and general web technology
     is helpful. For additional details about SAS web technology, check
     out our web page at http://www....html

This seems to me to be both sensible and conformant with common usage.

>And while we're at it, does there seem
>to be general agreement that "internet" is now such a generic term that
>it should be treated as such, i.e. not be capitalized?

If you do that, then what new term will you coin for what's currently
referred to as an internet? The words "Internet" and "internet" do not mean
the same thing.

--
jeanne a. e. devoto ~ jaed -at- best -dot- com
http://www.best.com/~jaed/
Morning people may be respected, but night people are feared.