Yet, I suspect like many a Web designer back in the day, the word Webmaster really rubbed me the wrong way. What exactly did it entail? A bit of everything as it turns out. A bit of design, a bit of development, a bit of maintenance, a bit of serving coffee and a lot of putting up with a slightly neurotic, mercurial boss.

Those days are well behind me now, and thankfully, the Web today is a lot more about specialization, I am a Web designer who works with Web developers, project managers, account managers, Web editors, usually a Web production team and a Web publishing team. Even that is something of an oversimplification — Web pros can actually be a lot more specialized than that. It seems like the whole Webmaster, jack of all trades, master of none epithet is finally starting to disappear.

However, that is not entirely true, the word is still very present in pop culture and while it may have appropriate uses, the fact remains that it is often misused, for example when my friends whom I’ve designed websites for continue to refer to me as their “Webmaster”, it makes me cringe. Also, judging from various job sites around the world, companies are still looking to hire Webmasters and when I read the job descriptions, I often feel another, more specific job title may have been more appropriate.

The bottom line is, while the Webmaster is still very much in demand and can certainly be a useful asset to any company or organization running a Website, I feel the word continues to be overused, and people aren’t yet entirely aware of the level of specialization that exists and can describe Web professionals today… or maybe my aversion to the word is just based on my own unpleasant crazy boss experiences.

Either way, I’d love to hear what your thoughts are…