language of the Internet

[balakrishnanijk]

When it comes to writing the names of companies, websites, programs, software, etc., we sometimes do not follow the normal rules of capitalization:
WikiLeaks
YouTube
CyberLink
BitTorrent
AIWIL Software a.s.

How is that?

If we wrote Wikileaks or Youtube ,would we be branded as uninformed and uneducated?

[Raymott]

When it comes to writing the names of companies, websites, programs, software, etc., we sometimes do not follow the normal rules of capitalization:
WikiLeaks
YouTube
CyberLink
BitTorrent
AIWIL Software a.s.

How is that?

If we wrote Wikileaks or Youtube ,would we be branded as uninformed and uneducated?

No, but you might be corrected, in a place like this. I personally wouldn't have corrected any of the above (out of both ignorance and uninterest), but I would probably correct something a bit more common if it wasn't capitalised when it should be.
You might be branded uninformed by some people if you didn't know that there were capital letters in the middle of WikiLeaks and CyberLink, but that doesn't make you uneducated. If it's a formal piece of writing that you're doing, it does make you a bit careless though.

[konungursvia]

Maybe you're right, but then again, there is the point of view according to which companies don't or shouldn't really have the right to alter our language's conventions. I refused to use Starbucks' non-English cup size names for example, and after a few years, they came round and allowed me to say "medium" without feigning ignorance. To me, "Youtube" is okay.

[emsr2d2]

I probably wouldn't correct them without the capital letter in the middle but they would jump off the page at me. The only reason most of them are written like that is that the company name is usually made up of two separate words but, of course, you can't have a space in a website address. So "You Tube" becomes "YouTube" for the purposes of their website address and then just becomes known by that one-word name, even though it's made of two words.

The same goes for "WikiLeaks" - it's "Wiki Leaks"

[5jj]

The same goes for "WikiLeaks" - it's "Wikipedia Leaks"

Wikileaks is not associated with wikipedia. WikiLeaks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[emsr2d2]

Wikileaks is not associated with wikipedia. WikiLeaks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wow. Thanks for that. I must admit I had never checked, I had just wrongly assumed that they were two branches of the same thing.

[5jj]

I used to think that everything that began with 'wiki' was connected with Wikipedia. Then I discovered that Wikipedia was just one of many sites/organisations that took their name from Wiki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia