4.21.2010

Web site, website and other items you've never cared about

There were some big announcements made last week. Big enough I made sure to tweet about them. And I think you and I both know I only tweet about very important, pertinent things.


It's not likely to mean anything to you, but the announcement regarding the newest edition of the Associated Press Stylebook is a bit like, well, a bit like an announcement that communication professionals everywhere would get excited about. Yeah, just like that.

The AP Stylebook is called the "journalist's bible," and rightfully so. It gives guidelines on word usage, appropriate writing methods and just about everything in between. Most of the world doesn't even know about AP Style, nor care, but for those who do it's pretty important. It can mean the difference between Seven PM and 7 p.m., fundraiser and fund-raiser and "more than" or "over" (7 p.m.; fund-raiser; "more than" always refers to amounts and "over" to spacial relationships).

You see, for years journalists and writers alike have bickered about words. That's what us communications people do. We communicate. About how much we hate words we use to communicate. It's completely rational, I know. Anyway, we bicker, and there's been one word in particular that a lot of people have been on the fence about: Web site. Or is it Website, or maybe even website?

That's the problem right there. It's a simple difference but those differences are why I think I may be going gray (grey, gray?!) early. Originally Web site was the proper usage for a page on the World Wide Web. But time changes language and no one calls it the World Wide Web anymore, leaving many feeling like they were using an outdated version of the word. So for quite some time there have been rogue writers changing their usage of the word to a one-word, lowercase version and it seems as though it finally caught enough attention to make a change. And applause around the world ensued.

2 comments:

Erin said...

Mmm...communications. This reminds me of the word "bootylicious." An absolutely essential word for our dictionary today...

P.S. Are you stoked to graduate?? I'm peeing...everywhere. I can't wait.

Nicole said...

Oh goodness, I am so. Excited. To. Graduate. I can't wait.