As the Information Age continues to spawn new ways to communicate, writers and editors wrestle with terminologies that may not have made it into your dictionary or style guide of choice yet.     

Consider, for example, Wi-Fi™. Most tech-literate people correctly understand it to be a wireless networking technology. However, lots of folks also believe the word is short for wireless fidelity, and even spell it out as such. 

Wrong. Wi-Fi simply plays on the word Hi-Fi (aka high fidelity), and is officially not an abbreviation for anything. In fact, Wi-Fi is actually a trade name with its own logo, so use the initial caps and hyphen — not WiFi, wi-fi or any other variation.
 
So, as it turns out, questions pertaining to the spelling of that particular word have a single, straightforward answer. But what about words that don’t, such as eCommerce (vs. e-commerce or Ecommerce)? Here are a few quick litmus tests to help you figure it all out:

1. Is one spelling clearer than another at a glance? If you have to re-read a word to make sense of it, it’s probably not doing its job. Scan the word ecommerce, for instance. The eco- part appears to be a prefix, which forces a re-read. Not good.
2. Google the different spellings. Which usage shows up most frequently? This method doesn’t work well if you’re only dealing with case-sensitive issues, but with punctuation it can be telling. eCommerce (one word) has about 75 million results, while e-commerce (hyphenated) has about 90 million. 
3. How do reputable media outlets (MSNBC.com, NYTimes.com, etc.) use it? Wikipedia is one of my favorite sources. Its entry for electronic commerce, for example, has nine mentions of e-commerce and three as ecommerce. Be sure to check websites or publications that align with the tone and audience of your project.
4. Does one version feel a little awkward? In the case of eCommerce, I don’t like capitalization on any word that’s not a proper noun, and mid-word capitalization is just goofy to me.
   

Which brings me to my last point: if you do your research and still don’t have a black-and-white answer, simply go with your gut. Who knows, maybe this is your opportunity to coin the next hot term (think blogosphere)! After you’ve pinned down your preferred usage, all I ask is this: keep it consistent.