"On" internet or "In" internet?
- Thread starter Saint
- Start date
I read a lot of stuff on the internet.
Is correct.
Is correct.
Actually, neither is my choice.
I prefer to say, "I read stuff found on the Internet" or simply, "I read stuff from the Internet."
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
If you're sitting at your workstation, reading words on your screen, you are actually connected to the internet so it's better to say, "I read about that on the internet."
If you print it out and hand copies to your co-workers in a meeting, or if you come home and tell your wife something interesting you learned during the day, then it's still okay to say, "I found this on the internet," but you can also say, "I got this from the internet," or, "I printed this off of the internet." It depends on whether your emphasis is on the way you got it or on the way you're distributing it.
BTW, Dictionary.com and some other sources insist on capitalizing the word Internet, but there are other authorities who put it in lower case. In the documents I edit we don't use the capital letter.
It would be more correct to say you got it from the web, given that the Internet is merely the name given for the network that binds the computers together. Web ≠ Internet.
I know Fraggle will now say it's correct, because that's how it's used, but as a tecchie, I see a clear distinction. The Web contains the information, the Internet helps distribute it.
I know Fraggle will now say it's correct, because that's how it's used, but as a tecchie, I see a clear distinction. The Web contains the information, the Internet helps distribute it.
Internet, with a capital 'I' is the worldwide collection of servers we think of these days when we use that word.
internet, with a lower case 'i', is any set of connected servers, not necessarily connected to the former, but distributed, and connected. Not really used any more, because of the association with the former.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
We can talk that way at work, but out among the general public we'd better use terminology they understand.
"Techie" has only one C, otherwise it looks like an Italian word. One dictionary offers the alternative spelling "tekkie," but I've never encountered it.
I'm not sure that's quite correct, Phlog.
I agree that the internet is the hardware etc, but the Web is not ALL the information, but rather a subset of it that is contained in HTML format, that is accessible through "web browser" software.
My point, I guess, is that there is plenty of information on the internet that is not part of the web. Some e-mail systems, for example, are not web-based.
I would also agree that information is found ON the internet, rather than IN the internet.
If you send an e-mail, however, I could see how one could consider that to be IN the internet as it wends its merry way between the people.
As for capitalisation... was the Internet ever a trademark?
I guess one could use Internet to distinguish between the "world wide web" and a more local/private network that uses similar protocols, and I'm sure in the olden days (i.e. c.1990) there were plenty of different nets until they were brought under the standard internet protocls.
But I think the capitalisation has dropped out of usage by most, and possibly only used where such a distinction is intended?
I agree that the internet is the hardware etc, but the Web is not ALL the information, but rather a subset of it that is contained in HTML format, that is accessible through "web browser" software.
My point, I guess, is that there is plenty of information on the internet that is not part of the web. Some e-mail systems, for example, are not web-based.
I would also agree that information is found ON the internet, rather than IN the internet.
If you send an e-mail, however, I could see how one could consider that to be IN the internet as it wends its merry way between the people.
As for capitalisation... was the Internet ever a trademark?
I guess one could use Internet to distinguish between the "world wide web" and a more local/private network that uses similar protocols, and I'm sure in the olden days (i.e. c.1990) there were plenty of different nets until they were brought under the standard internet protocls.
But I think the capitalisation has dropped out of usage by most, and possibly only used where such a distinction is intended?
Euwww... how about I'd get off IN a frozen banana?You'd get off on a frozen banana!
The only one in the internet is Tron.
That of course is true, but if you get an email from someone, you say you got an email.
The real spoiler to using the term 'web' is apps, ... that use the tcp/ip protocol, but not necessarily html/web servers. Half the time they use the phone network though, before hopping onto the Internet, so we have to accept some fuzzy definitions.
From personal experience, 'techie' and 'tecchie' are both used, with a preponderance of the latter. Never seen 'tekkie' used, too similar to 'trekkie' I think.