AP News, February 20th, 2007
It's old news that e-mail and texting expressions like "LOL" and "OMG" have made inroads into language. Beyond the new slang, though, Internet companies and Web sites have formed a particular grammatical and graphic style of their own.
A quick perusal of http://www.go2web20.net, a directory of over 800 Web 2.0 services, immediately reveals patterns in the language and look of the new Internet. This geek chic, you might say, oozes digital hipness.
First, capitalization is not cool. Some of the Internet's biggest products aren't so grown-up that they need caps _ from iTunes to the social bookmarking site digg.com. This downsizing likely comes from the style of Web addresses, which are customarily in lowercase.
Second, spelling correctly is boring. A myriad of sites spell phonetically, like: moblr (a mobile-linked community), phling! (a music community), blogr (a service for making your own Web page) or skrbl (a "Web whiteboard").
Some sites string words together (Gotuit Media) and some space them out (Del.icio.us). And then there are seemingly hundreds of sites and applications that try to invent a new word or expression, among them: ikbis, joost, flikzor, abazab, zoodango, Umundo, deligio and Woomp! Create a new word, and the domain name is bound to be available.
Most new sites come with a logo of some kind _ brightly colored, whimsical designs: an idea bubble for the rendezvous coordinating mixd.yahoo.com; a microphone for an L in ksolo.com, an online karaoke site; a smiley face in front of friendster.com, the social networking playground.
The designs will often remind you of a newly invented board game, but, above all, they seem new in style and verbiage _ and thus appear vaguely futuristic.
If you're interested in tracking whatever new influences the Internet is having on language, there are several sites that dig deep into that topic and other matters of linguistics.
The Language Log (http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/myl/languagelog/) is a popular blog on language created by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman and Geoffrey Pullum, a linguist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Global Language Monitor at http://www.languagemonitor.com also tracks english.
___
VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around"
Justin Timberlake's new music video for "What Goes Around" might be the most ridiculous thing to hit pop music since R.Kelly decided to trap himself in the closet. Watched by over a million people on YouTube, the movie-style production begins with pretentious credits for a music video: "written by Nick Cassavetes" and "directed and photographed by Samuel Bayer." Scarlett Johansson co-stars as JT's double-crossing love. Her payback? Death by car accident. I hope you're taking notes, Cameron Diaz.
___
DOWNLOAD THIS: Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion"
Garrison Keillor's esteemed, long-running radio variety show is finally making a digital transition. "Prairie Home Companion" will soon be added to XM's satellite radio lineup, but more importantly, Keillor is now available in podcast form. The entire two-hour show, unfortunately, isn't on iTunes, but Keillor's weekly monologue _ the centerpiece of the weekly program _ can now be downloaded for free. His musings from Lake Wobegon may seem a little out-of-place on a fancy device such as an iPod, but they're nevertheless funny, earnest and illuminating.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE _ What's your favorite Web site? E-mail AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle at fcoyle(at)ap.org
