As discussed last summer, there is a problem with certain phrases associated with personal web pages. It appears that "web" just wants to be a syllable - a prefix perhaps - but never a word on its own. David and Michael are at it over this over "web site" or "website". [Ed.: why can't we all be friends?] My observations:

• Google, used by David as apparently his sole authority for "website", is not an authority for language. Michael provides no authority so he is equally weak in argument;
• The use of "web" as a syllable should not be a special case so it is only "weblog" if it is "shipslog", and only "website" if it is "jobsite";
• "web" operates perfectly well separately and adjectivally as it does as a noun on its own and should be dignified in its diversity of usage, hence "web offset" which is a form of printing according to the Concise OED, 1990 ed.

Distinct from the duality discussed the above, there are three analogous uses set out the same edition of the Concise OED which predates Tim Berners Lee's little idea (discussed and illustrated here) which rely on a hyphen: web-footed, web-wheel and web-worm. So it is as properly "web-site" as anything else. However, people shy from the hyphen as implying the temporary and perhaps trite.

In the end, English has as many exceptions as rules and people use many different ways to express the idea. I am sure, for example, that I have written "web log", "weblog" and even perhaps something like "webllg" on this site as I do believe that speling sux. I think Fowler's Modern English Usage (1st ed., 1927) sums up the creative opportunity at page 702 where it states:

web. see WOOF.

Under "woof" it is confirmed that a woven "web" is made of "woof" and "warp". The Concise OED further states that the making of a web is "webbing" after which it has been "webbed". All these words are perfectly good and the weaving analogy could be extended when, for example, people like Seb seek to usurp the generally accepted meaning of "weblogging" for a new specific one. "Webbing" to me seems to be the nice neat term as yet left out in the cold with some new usage needing attachment to it.