Note to the Press: It’s ‘Weblog’, One Damn Word! By michael | August 19th, 2004
[rant]This has been bugging the sh!t out of me for weeks now, ever since all the media coverage over the convention bloggers. Why is it so difficult for the mainstream media to understand that ‘weblog’ is one word? It’s not “web log” or even worse “web blog” as I just saw in a NY Times Headline:
“Web Blog” is just ignorant and redundant. I put it right up there with “SAT Test” and “ATM Machine”. Argh!!!!
Kottke broke this down over a year ago but obviously the press wasn’t listening. Maybe Tom or George can tell me whose ass needs to be kicked to stop the madness? [/rant]
The reporters aren’t retarded, Associated Press style is retarded. It bugged the crap out of me when I wrote for newspapers. AP Style says “website” is “Web site,” which is probably where “Web log” came from. “Web Blog” is stupid any way you look at it though.
The problem is that news orgs are loath to join two words into a single word until usage becomes so widespread that there’s no other choice.
“Web” came first as an abbreviation for World Wide Web. “Web site” came after that, presumably because “site” is a word, not a suffix, like, say “ism.”
“Web log” extrapolates the logic of “Web site.” And you have the same problem with “log” being a word, not a suffix.
Other side of the coin is that a “weblog” is a well-defined noun that can carry its own definition and spelling.
This is obvious to all bloggers but irrelevant to the 98 percent of the world unconnected to blogs. Hang in there, this all shall pass.
I’d've come sooner, but I’ve been beating my head against my cubicle wall for the last two days over “internet,” “web” and “net.”
That’s a trip. I was wondering why my spell-checker always wants to capitalize ‘internet’. Also, did you notice that they misspelled, and neglected to capitalize ‘Movable Type’.
Hilarious!