Netcraft, an internet monitoring company that has tracked Web growth since 1995 has claimed a mammoth milestone has been reached with the Internet and sites. October brought the 100 millionth site to us and they are reporting the exciting news.
They count domain names with content in this number, says Rich Miller. He does acknowledge that some are busier than others and of course, updated more often, and those numbers are around 47 to 48 million. Amazing numbers if you go back in time and realize the Internet was born with a lowly site that represented sharing of ‘high energy particle physics data’ after creator Tim Berners-Lee worked on it so that experts could share data.
Bloggers and small businesses have proven how simple it is to create a site and make it popular to others. Information sharing and simplicity have merged, creating a huge push of new sites and domains. Reports say much of that increase happened in the last two years.
The cost and complexity of learning to build a site has decreased and many are taking it upon themselves to get creative and learn. Sharing photos on Flickr.com, reconnecting with friends or sharing music on the social networking site, MySpace, or delving into sites that offer video sharing, matchmaking services and more has made life a very different story than 10 years ago when information was hard to come by. How many times do you hear “oh, I’ll just Google it” when a question is asked with no answer?
Many feel the URL market will only increase because of celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who have already purchased registered domains for all three of their children. Is this going to be the next step after registering for a Social Security number after the birth of a child? I think so…along with GPS tracking chips and other new things.
And remember when people thought the internet was just a fad? Wow.