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Let's save our breath with 'web,' not 'www'By HOWARD TROXLER © St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 1998 Well, okay, maybe that's a little strong. But Yost does have an idea that would simplify the life of anybody who uses a computer and the Internet. If you have ever tried to tell somebody, out loud, an address on the World Wide Web, you know what a pain it is. It usually goes something like... http://www.anyname.com... which you must pronounce like this: Haych tee tee pee colon slash slash double-you double-you double-you dot ... Over time, Yost has come to hate the "www" part with a great passion. It is, in his opinion, "a tedious, cumbersome annoyance." What worse letter can there be, really, to employ for such a purpose than the three-syllabled "w"? On top of that, to require it to be pronounced three times is too much to bear. Nine whole syllables. Why, we might as well still use rotary telephones. But, Yost makes the case much more elegantly than I could. He issues this whimsical indictment: " "W' is a letter that is not one syllable, for that would be too few, a letter that is not two syllables, for that too would be too few, but a letter, in fact the one letter of all 26 that insists upon blathering on and on in its attempt to twist the tongue and overtax the ear, extending to the full three, yes three -- three syllables, the legal alphabetical maximum. "But wait, my friend. That is only the beginning. We go on to treble the damages by repeating this freak letter, this monstrosity that is one thing, claims to be two other things, but is really three things, not once, not twice, but a full three times, in a nonometric rhapsody fleshed out to the nines, a compound triplicate triumphant cat-o'-nine-tails tongue-lashing, a nonotuple witches' syllabic brew of treble, treble, toil and trouble." All of this is why Yost, a software designer in California's Silicon Valley (he has a sister who works in Tampa), is running almost a one-man campaign to persuade the world to switch to using a new kind of address: http://web.anyname.comSure, it doesn't look that much different, but think about saying it out loud. "Web dot com" instead of "double-you double-you double-you dot com." Nine syllables, replaced by one. Yost advances his case on, naturally, the World Wide Web. You can find him at http://web.yost.com/misc/webdot.html. All he wants you to do is find out whether your own Internet service provider allows you to use "web" as an alias for "www." If not, then ask them to. "Hey, I know it's not a big deal," Yost says. "But if you do it, the world will be relieved of a silly little bit of tedium, and radio announcers and listeners will thank you." There are hundreds of thousands of Web sites that begin with the address "web," but they amount to only about 4 percent of the total, he estimates. One of his favorite examples of who would benefit is the publishing house, W.W. Norton & Co. That company did once try a "web" address, but chickened out and returned to the ridiculous (in Yost's opinion) www.wwnorton.com. His Web site contains some lively discussion on the merits on his idea. Some would rather change the pronunciation of "www." Suggestions include "hex you," "six you," "tri-dub," "way way way," "wah wah wah," and "triplya." But really, should we have to change the pronunciation of our very alphabet? Dave Yost has my vote. Out with "www"! And after that, I say we bring him to Florida and put him in charge of timing red lights.
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ave Yost is a Don Quixote of our modern age. He is the champion of an idea that is so simple, so elegant and so helpful that a grateful world should rise up and make him king.
