Differences between Login and Logon

Have you ever wondered why there so many inconsistencies even from me in these blog postings about the word login? In some blog posts, I refer to Login and Logon even log in when my grammar editor thinks me dull.

And apparently this conundrum goes way round when terminating or quitting a process. I am talking signing off;

LogOff

LogOut

SignIn

SignOut

Which one is which now, Login vs LogOn and LogOff vs LogIn?

From a technical computer point, the login and logon are terms defined in the .NET framework. All ASP.NET controls use the terms ‘Login’ and ‘Logout’ consistently. But Microsoft internally throws the words around and are not localized.

Even Google and indeed the rest of the world use these as they please. Though CA1726 a “Microsoft technical writing style guide” insists on LogOn over LogIn.

 I feel logOn for Microsoft comes fore because it sounds natural.

However, here is some voice of democracy from Google knowing search algorithms both now and 11 years ago.

login      5,780,000,000
sign In   16,180,000,000
logon        276,000,000 
log on    19,550,000,000

login wins because sign in and log on reflects what’s been typed in the Google search while login(5,780,000,000) and logon(276,000,000) are forms Google search is able to find.

10 years ago

login    2,020,000,000
sign in    430,000,000
logon       27,700,000
log on      18,200,000

logout      83,500,000
log out     34,500,000
sign out    19,400,000
log off      5,350,000