If there's one thing I've "learned" in my, well, ever, it's that when something in the world bothers you, the best and most effective way to do something about it is always to complain about it online. So today I have a very special rant prepared about your friend and mine, the intarwubz.

The internet was the offspring of a military network of computers. Early on, the convention was that "the Internet" got a capital "I" while "an internet," --that is, any set of networked computers--got a small "i."  It was also the convention that "Web" was capitalized because it stood in for the proper noun "World Wide Web." The AP and most US media (Wired magazine being the notable exception) still use this convention, presumably because they haven't realized how far down the line that particular train is yet. In England such capitalization is much less common; the Times of London stylesheet has "internet" lowercased.

It's still possible to argue over whether the internet is still a unique and specific enough entity to warrant a proper noun; the point is that it's a stupid argument and a waste of time. We don't capitalize "plumbing," or "power grid" or "economy." Capitalizing "internet" is a throwback to a time when it really was a largely exclusive network, before everyone used it daily.

Anyway, technically those things are supposed to be capitalized, so I can't really fly off the handle at anyone who capitalizes them. But in the words of Moliere, "I'll be quiet, but I'll be thinking hard."