The folks responsible for the entries in the Associated Press Stylebook have announced that the word “Internet” will no longer be uppercased, thus breaking my heart and making some of our writers very happy.
The AP Stylebook, which many newspapers and websites (one word? really?) use to guide their style efforts, defines Internet as “a decentralized, worldwide network of computers that can communicate with each other.” It’s a pretty big definition and has warranted the glory of a capital I. But no more. And that’s not all. The AP Stylebook has also decided to lowercase “Web.”
We will lowercase internet effective June 1, when the 2016 Stylebook launches. #ACES2016 pic.twitter.com/nGz63zc5YP
— APStylebook (@APStylebook) April 2, 2016
The changes, which were not announced on April Fools’ Day, are to take effect on June 1 when the 2016 edition of the style guide is released. Then, and only then, will “Internet” join other inexplicable changes the style guide has made in the recent past, including “more than” versus “over” and “underway” versus “under way,” both of which still vex me.
At least it still thinks “literally” means literally and not “figuratively.”
