o2b.net : Tim Murtaugh

The essay on “email” has been gratifyingly well received. A number of readers have asked my opinion on the “website” issue as well — Is it two words or one? Is “web” capitalized? It took me a while to get around to writing this because, to be honest, I couldn’t figure out what my opinion was. But, after a short conversation with a friend who used to work for the New York Times, I now have an opinion.

To save you the trouble of skipping to the end, my choice is “web site”.

“Web” v. “web”: How It Is Now

Most publications, printed or electronic, have a style guide. A style guide is a document that, among other things, tells journalists the linguistic and grammatical conventions of the publication for which they are writing. Style guides ensure that all the writers write with a common voice.

Included in these guides are the rules for the spelling of words (whisky v. whiskey, for example, both of which are correct), when to underline, how human body parts can be referred to, and so on. These days, they all have rules for the web and other technologies. A quick search determines the styles for a few major news sites:

• MSNBC.com: Web
• CNN.com: Web
• NYTimes.com: Web
• Yahoo! News: Web
• LATimes.com: Web
• WSJ.com: Web
• IHT.com: Web
• CNET.com: Web

They all use the same style, but this is not all that surprising as most major style guides are based on the “Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual”. Why do they capitalize it? In journalistic circles, “Web” is considered a proper noun, like “New York”. Why? Because it is considered a place, also like “New York”.

“Web” v. “web”: My Arguments

The web is becoming a larger and larger part of our every day lives. The web is quickly replacing the telephone or the newspaper for information gathering for many, many people.

Considering the pervasive nature of it, I don’t think “web” should be a proper noun. The web is not some giant geek-ville anymore, it is becoming a generic entity, and should be referred to as such. Keeping in mind that the web is still thought of as a place, it should be treated like other generic place nouns, such as “city” or “state”.

• “I’m in a city, the city is New York.”
• “I’m visiting a web site, the site is CNN.com.”

Note: The Oxford English Dictionary included “web” among the list of new words added to the 2001 edition.

“Website” v. “Web Site”: How It Is Now

In this matter, the news sites are just as consistent.

• MSNBC.com: Web site
• CNN.com: Web site
• NYTimes.com: Web site
• Yahoo! News: Web site
• LATimes.com: Web site
• WSJ.com: Web site
• IHT.com: Web site
• CNET.com: Web site

“Website” v. “Web Site”: My Arguments

The journalists and I both disagree with common usage.

Chat, email and instant messaging have imparted a need to communicate at a faster pace. Our messages go out more quickly if we don’t have to hit the shift key or space bar as frequently.

I think that such informality, on a grand scale, is counter-productive. The point of communication is to get ideas from one brain to the next. The more informal language gets, the more difficult that may become.

If “the web” is a place, then a “site” is a thing in the place, like a “New York hotel”. Plus, sites aren’t the only things associated with the web, there are “servers”, “pages”, “developers”, and so on.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 20th, 2002 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Essays, Copywriting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.