Posts Tagged ‘style’

Adding some style to your Internet words

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Yahoo Style Guide

I just got the new The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World (about half of which is online for free).

The first thing I wanted to check was the word usage section to see how things have changed since the most recent Microsoft style guide: Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, Third Edition (2004). Below are some differences in the specific spelling of words (though Microsoft wouldn’t necessarily change these items in a future fourth edition of their guide).

Comparison of Internet Terms
Microsoft Manual of Style
(2004)
The Yahoo! Style Guide
(2010)
1 GB (use a space) 1GB (no space)
e-mail (in general, like mail)
an e-mail message (like a letter)

to send an e-mail message

email
an email/emails or
an email message
to email
the Web
Web page, Web site
webmaster, webcam, webcast
the Web
webpage, website
webmaster, webcam, webcast

I always thought the Web site/webmaster spelling contrast was a silly inconsistency; I’m glad Yahoo agrees.