Editing World Wide Web (section)

== Nomenclature ==
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2023}}
Tim Berners-Lee states that ''World Wide Web'' is officially spelled as three separate words, each capitalised, with no intervening hyphens.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html |title=Frequently asked questions - Spelling of WWW |publisher=W3C |access-date=27 July 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090802051415/http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html |archive-date=2 August 2009}}</ref> Nonetheless, it is often called simply ''the Web'', and also often ''the web''; see [[Capitalization of Internet|Capitalization of ''Internet'']] for details. In Mandarin Chinese, ''World Wide Web'' is commonly translated via a [[phono-semantic matching]] to ''wàn wéi wǎng'' ({{lang|zh|[[wikt:万维网|万维网]]}}), which satisfies ''www'' and literally means "10,000-dimensional net", a translation that reflects the design concept and proliferation of the World Wide Web.

Use of the www prefix has been declining, especially when [[web application]]s sought to brand their domain names and make them easily pronounceable. As the [[mobile web]] grew in popularity,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/277125/share-of-website-traffic-coming-from-mobile-devices/ |title=Percentage of mobile device website traffic worldwide from 1st quarter 2015 to 4th quarter 2024 |publisher=Statista |access-date=17 April 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref> services like [[Gmail|Gmail.com]], [[Outlook.com]], [[Myspace]].com, [[Facebook]].com and [[Twitter]].com are most often mentioned without adding "www." (or, indeed, ".com") to the domain.<ref name="cas">{{cite web |last1=Castelluccio |first1=Michael |title=It's not your grandfather's Internet |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/It%27s+not+your+grandfather%27s+Internet.-a0239804575 |date=Oct 1, 2010 |work=Strategic Finance |via=The Free Library |publisher=Institute of Management Accountants |access-date=7 February 2016 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305145947/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/It%27s+not+your+grandfather%27s+Internet.-a0239804575 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In English, ''www'' is usually read as ''double-u double-u double-u''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Audible pronunciation of 'WWW' |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/WWW?q=www |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=25 May 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525195152/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/WWW?q=www |archive-date=25 May 2014}}</ref> Some users pronounce it ''dub-dub-dub'', particularly in New Zealand.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Harvey |first1=Charlie |title=How we pronounce WWW in English: a detailed but unscientific survey |url=https://charlieharvey.org.uk/page/how_we_pronounce_www |website=charlieharvey.org.uk |date=18 August 2015 |access-date=19 May 2022 |archive-date=19 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221119073310/https://charlieharvey.org.uk/page/how_we_pronounce_www |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Stephen Fry]], in his "Podgrams" series of podcasts, pronounces it ''wuh wuh wuh''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stephen Fry's pronunciation of 'WWW' |url=http://www.podcasts.com/stephen_frys_podgrams_audio_visual/episode/series_2_episode_1_stephenfry.com_2.0 |publisher=Podcasts.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404220105/http://www.podcasts.com/stephen_frys_podgrams_audio_visual/episode/series_2_episode_1_stephenfry.com_2.0 |archive-date=4 April 2017}}</ref> The English writer [[Douglas Adams]] once quipped in ''[[The Independent]] on Sunday'' (1999): "The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it's short for".<ref name="Sim">{{cite web |last1=Simonite |first1=Tom |title=Help us find a better way to pronounce www |url=https://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/07/help-us-find-better-way-to-pronounce.html |website=newscientist.com |publisher=New Scientist, Technology |date=22 July 2008 |access-date=7 February 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313095715/https://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2008/07/help-us-find-better-way-to-pronounce.html |archive-date=13 March 2016}}</ref>