As the Grammar Goddess points out, it's arbitrary. We don't usually capitalize "earth," even when referring to the whole planet. But we capitalize "John," even though there are lots of different Johns. So maybe it makes sense not to capitalize "internet." I kinda like it capitalized, though. It sounds ominous, important, like the Borg.

--Dave

...like the Borg
or Cher.

sb
Blog

<channel value="Tristram Shandy">

As an Expert in Capitalization and other various Matters Grammatical, and after having engaged in prolonged Consideration and Exploration of the Relevant Pages in sundry Manuals and Handbooks, it is my Confession that I have a mild Preference for the Uncapitalized Versions of both Internet and Web.

</channel>

cgb

i'm all for it. obviously, the internet is not the formal name of a region, like the united states, etc. you should really only capitalize stuff to distinguish it as a formal name of some sort.

signed,

MATT BARTON

internet and web. just because i like to write in small caps ;)

Before the there was the Internet, the term internet already existed. It was a networking term that meant "a network of networks." The capitalization was a tradition started by geeks who wanted to clearly differentiate that The Internet was merely a specific name for a particular, albeit dominant, internet.

The understanding of the original meaning of "internet" is obscure (and getting more obscure all the time). Still, I think the distinction is worth making.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that the Internet is a de facto brand identity. Consider for a second that there is an Internet2. That brings the nature of our current Internet into proper relief. It's a specific internet.

the Cher?

Bradley (who perfers lower case because MS Word spell check keeps capitalizing it)

and Bradley (who likes his new wifi setup at home)

as you might guess, i've been reading techrhet
;)