Funny how it's a non-problem for some other languages, like Portuguese.
While English allows you to naturally create whole sentences using one-syllable words, it's horribly hard to even put two one-syllable words side-by-side in Portuguese.
That, and "W" takes only two syllables to pronounce, making the grand total six in an URL, the same number required to spell the dots (our domains end with ".com.br", making it three times the two-syllable word "ponto"). And now I remember "W" was not even officially considered a letter until recently, so abbreviations with it are rare.
Before considering a letter harmful, please mind the rest of the world that is also using it.
It's funny because as I started to read this, my first thought was "I'm so thankful that nobody says dub dub dub anymore." My second thought was "I thought this was going to be about how difficult capital W is in deciding character limits since it's so damn wide."
I just ignore it and use the TLD when I have to relay a URL verbally. Most Web servers (at least for sites that I build or refer others to) are configured to serve pages without the www in the URL.
G isn't its most common sound. Neither is Q. U's pronunciation doesn't make much sense, except that its long vowel sound is the same as the letter's. Also, I'm proud to be an American because we pronounce Z "zee" instead of "zed," which makes no sense whatsoever.
I have often wondered about a chicago business named W W Grainger, but alas it appears that they did not go for www.ww.grainger.com, opting instead for www.grainger.com.
In French, W is not expressed as "Double U", but as "Double V", which to me makes much more sense.
However it appears infrequently in written French -- the "w" sound, as it would be spoken in English, is written "ou" (eg "oui"). But in French, the letter w is only really seen in loanwords.
As a pun hack, run together Us. I refer to my university as Triple-U A.
In dutch, W is pronounced more or less like you would pronounce 'wey' but without the 'y' sound at the end. (the actual sound doesn't exist in english afaik)
In rapid speech I find that 'W' is said less like 'dub ull yew' and more like 'dub uhya', and the 'uhya' is so compressed it's hardly like two distinct syllables. But that might be my Texas showing.
While English allows you to naturally create whole sentences using one-syllable words, it's horribly hard to even put two one-syllable words side-by-side in Portuguese.
That, and "W" takes only two syllables to pronounce, making the grand total six in an URL, the same number required to spell the dots (our domains end with ".com.br", making it three times the two-syllable word "ponto"). And now I remember "W" was not even officially considered a letter until recently, so abbreviations with it are rare.
Before considering a letter harmful, please mind the rest of the world that is also using it.