(Thanks to Katie Anderson for this morning’s picture. See a whole set of odd images, complete with horse heads, here.)
From a press release I saw yesterday: “To help writers, editors, and content creators write effectively for the Web, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is publishing ‘The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World,’ the first guide of its kind to focus on the specific issues associated with developing content for the online medium. ” Okay, two things. First, I don’t think that this is the first guide of its kind. Wasn’t Crawford Kilian doing books on Web writing over ten years ago? Also, why is Yahoo a valid arbiter? I’m not trying to slam on Yahoo, I’m just trying to figure out what makes it (or Google or Facebook or anybody) the valid style maker for online content.
From Lifehacker: 10 Clever Google Voice Tricks.
A few more rumors on the possible GoogleMe social network.
Starting October 1 Bing’s Web crawler will be renamed Bingbot. I’m disappointed; I was hoping for Bingaling.
Springer inroduces new open access journals: “SpringerOpen will cover all disciplines within the science, technology and medicine (STM) fields and will be offered in cooperation with BioMed Central. The entire content of SpringerOpen journals – including research articles, reviews, and editorials – are fully and immediately open access, and are accessible to anyone with an internet connection. No subscription is needed.”
Hmm, the Google Docs viewer now has a mobile version. Between this and Kindle for Android, I need to start seriously thinking about Android.
BusinessInsider.com’s chart is about IAC/Ask, and notes that half of IAC’s revenue is search (and of course, much of search is Ask.com.) That’s not good news for IAC considering how moribund Ask.com is…
SepiaTown has added over 200 images of old Berlin.
The latest oddity caught on Google Street view is a dude who has been dubbed “Horse Boy”. The Huffington Post wonders, what is Horse Boy doing? Looks to me like he’s chillin’. Good morning, Internet…
Categories: morningbuzz, Uncategorized
Thanks for the mention. Yes, the first edition of Writing for the Web came out in 1999; it’s now in its fourth edition. But it’s not really a style guide, though I try to make the case for a certain kind of style as best suited to the medium.
I haven’t looked closely at Yahoo’s guide, but I like the idea (if not always the practice) of trying to establish a consistent style in webwriting as in mainstream journalism. Resources like the AP and CP style guides give us some kind of direction. If we don’t like their recommendations, they at least make us think about what might be clearer and more effective.
Meanwhile, we can enjoy the different styles in various English-language media around the world.
Cheers,
Crawford