when the web ran out of e
Web 2.0 is suffering, friends. There is a tragic shortage of desperately needed "e"s. Through bad planning and massive overuse of "e-" as a prefix, Web 2.0 has had to make do without the letter e and simply contract their names.
You've seen them on the street, with names like Flickr, Zoomr, Tumblr, Frappr, Talkr, Soonr, Rel8r... the list goes on.
Let's not be fooled here, Web 1.0 is to blame for this problem. Web 1.0 used "e" like there was an unlimited supply, with no thought for sustainability or future generations' need for e. The term "email" was an innocuous and relatively logical start, but sadly it was followed by eCommerce, eBook, eCard, eZines, eBusiness and even eEducation. Thankfully "cyber" can be synthesised cleanly in lab conditions and - despite heavy use - web 1.0 did not plunder natural stock for future generations.
But there is hope. Some applications have overcome great challenges and used e for its intended purpose. Feedburner and Twitter are two services which managed to conserve enough e to avoid the terrible fate of unnecessary contraction.
You can help. Sponsor a web 2.0 startup today and spare as much e as you can. Together, we can save the web.
Labels: e prefix, silly, web 2.0mfg
Save the "e"'s today. Don't let the "e's be chained to these horrible startups, don't let the "e" be dominated like this. Let the "e"s roam free. Join PETE today (Peeps for Ethical Treatment of E)
Agreed we have not only harmed the planet, but over used the alphabet.
You mention Twitter, but it was on the vowel donation list for its first many months of existence. Twitter started life as Twttr, as it seems it ran into not only the "e" shortage, but a quickly approaching "i" problem.
So glad you have made the world aware of this tragedy.
@V: Good to see that with care and a little persistence, even a vowel-starved app can grow to lead a rich life complete with fully-formed words!
G__d p_st b_t _ th_nk _t's t__ l_t_ f_r m_st _f _s, s_dly! :-(
@nathanael: never fear! Through patient rehab you can regain the joy of vowels!
Don't forget the lowercase-i epidemic of mid-90s BBSes. So many of us were afflicted, but we pulled through! We can now capitalise "I" on demand...
And don't forget the "My" prefix - the latest being my.barackobama.com
Consonants will soon be under attack -- the letter "r" is now being used up at an accelerated rate.
Buggr