Porn Beats Search Engines in Internet Traffic

zamboni1138 writes "A just published Reuters story claims almost 20% of all U.S. web traffic is categorized as 'adult'. While some of it is just of an adult nature, most of it is probably porn. Search engines get about 5.5%, Google being about half of that. This should surprise no one given the bandwidth intensive nature of online porn. Of course this is only the research of one company over a one week period. Is this one of the reasons why the US DOJ recently announced it is going to be taking a closer look at the porn industry?"

Comments

Endlessly opening windows

[SilentChris]

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that everytime a porn site is visited (even accidentally) it opens 20-some-odd popup windows...

Re:Endlessly opening windows

[LostCluster]

This is why web "traffic" is such a hard thing to quantify. It's easy to buy web hits or get people to download your content... however, if they click the close button immediately or run software that closes the window upon recognition, then those "impressions" are of zero actual value and deserve to be discounted if not ignored.

Re:Endlessly opening windows

[DrEldarion]

There's also the fact that there's only a handful of "top search engines" and about a million different porn sites.

MOD PARENT DOWN... oops, it's the article!

[LostCluster]

I'm ready to dismiss this story as pure flamebait because it's throwing numbers at us without any indication of what they're representing.

Just what exactly are "web traffic", "internet visits" and "web visits"? Without standardized defintions for those terms, or at least knowing what the study authors were using as their definitions, we really don't know what the numbers mean.

One of the biggest problems with comparing one website to any other, or even categories of sites, is that the easiest to measure numbers are also the most useless ones. Afterall, what advertisers really want to know is how much of an impression they're getting on the viewer's mind, and there's no real way to quantify that.

We don't know what the study authors are defining as the end point of one "visit" and the start of another "visit" by the same user. We can't just assume that "traffic" is equated to "bandwidth consumed", or if they're using some more exotic formula for traffic like Alexa uses.

We also don't know where this study is collecting its information, and what problems that introduces. Alexa admits that they will always report a biased number for Amazon.com since any user of their toolbar is exposed to links to Amazon.com inside that toolbar. Slashdot will usually be underreported in such reports because Slashdot users are more likely to be unwilling to run a data-collecting toolbar than the average user.

In short... that article says a lot but communicates nothing.

Re:MOD PARENT DOWN... oops, it's the article!

[Talking Toaster]

Flamebait?
Who are they baiting? The anti-pr0n movement? Focus on the Family and their lot?

I'll admit their statistics, like most statistics in the mainstream media, are vauge and useless.

But also consider this. How much of your time do you spend online searching for stuff, and how much of your time do you spend looking at the stuff you were searching for (pr0n or otherwise)? Using a search engine is a means to an end. It would be more suprising to find out that most people spend most of their time searching for stuff, but never looking at it, to say nothing of bookmarks and hyperlinks in non-search-engine-web-pages.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll get back to looking at pictures of hot french toast.

-yawn-

[silentbobdp]

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Porn drives technology. Whether or not this is conscious is debatable. Still:

VHS/VCRs: widely adopted after porn
DVD: widely adopted with/after porn
Internet: widely adopted after porn.

And it's going to drive video on demand too.

Re:-yawn-

[Sponge Bath]

Porn drives technology

Porn and war.
Better ways to get off and kill. Makes me proud to be human.

Re:-yawn-

[dlelash]

Really, any new media form with a low cost of entry has been popularized by porn. I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet that the second book ever printed was something that people had to hide between the pages of the Gutenberg Bible.

Re:No

[bladesjester]

Actually, looking back at the past actions of this government (prohibition, making marijuana illegal, etc), it would almost be safe to say that they're trying to play Big Brother again. Can't do this, shouldn't do that, A is unethical, and B is perverted. and you all know that we don't want perverts in this country (unless they are the ones running things).

If you can't convince them with logic, baffle them with bullshit so that they want what you want them to.

Who cares if porn is often looked at as long as it is porn involving consenting *adults*. Keeping children from looking at it is responsibility of the parents (so nobody can use that argument).

I do so love this country.

Do they mean

[dj245]

Is this one of the reasons why the US DOJ recently announced it is going to be taking a closer look at the porn industry?

What is one of the reasons? The fact that the porn industry is a huge part of the internet, or the fact that someone wrote a story about it?

The porn industry has always had a huge presence online as long as I can remember. Maybe it wasn't like that pre-1992, but thats when I got hooked up and there was shedloads of porn then. A story about it neither increases the amount of porn on the net, nor makes it any more illegal. It just brings it to peoples attention, like all good 'controversy' news stories.

Porn Built the internet

[St4rScream]

Lots of people never want to admit this, however the desire for online porn and its extremely high bandwidth requirements played a large role in buidling the internet.

Porn Providers needed lot of bandwidth and large ISPs (The main backbone providers) recieved lots of buisness and money from these bandwitdh needs.

I worked for one fo these companies and at the time over 25% of our revenue was comming from porn related companies.

I would also argue it helped push home broadband services.

The nice thing is everyone benefits from the larger pipes the porn industry has helped to build.

This is a problem?

[alizard]

I'd say that if this is true, and given the bandwidth-intensive nature of pr0n, it may well be, then the DOJ shouldn't have a problem, either.

The voters have decided, with their dollars, and with their observed behavior, that pr0n is A Good Thing.

Of course, given that in John Ashcroft's last personal experience with the political process, he got beaten by a corpse, democracy and the will of the people may not mean a whole lot to him.

Re:This is a problem?

[Khomar]

The voters have decided, with their dollars, and with their observed behavior, that pr0n is A Good Thing.

Disclaimer: I do not wish to enter into a debate over whether or not porn should be allowed, but rather to point out the dangerous assumption in the parent post.

A very high number of people have the observed behavior of driving while under the influence of alcohol. This does not mean that this action is "A Good Thing". This is exactly the cause of many of the problems in our society: justification without considering the ramifications on society. Many kids have sex while still in Junior High or High School. This doesn't mean we just "let kids be kids", because there are many dangers to consider: teenage pregnancy, abortion (and little publicized fact that there are medical dangers in addition to any moral considerations), and sexually transmitted diseases.

This is why the United States is not a pure democracy. A true, pure democracy is an evil thing because then whatever... I repeat whatever the majority rules, that's what we get. So if the majority of the people in country believed that every Linux programmer should be taken out and shot, well, then a whole lot of us would be dead or running away to New Zealand. Therefore, the founding fathers wrote the Bill of Rights to protect against abuses and instituted a representative republic to make it harder for drastic changes. There are times when absolutes and standard codes (do not murder, do not steal) can protect us from ourselves. It was when such laws were forgotten that the German society was led to murder millions of innocent people in World War II.

Now granted, this is an extreme example, but once you start down the slippery slope of justification and compromise, where does one draw the line? Think about it.

Re:This is a problem?

[winwar]

"...but once you start down the slippery slope of justification and compromise, where does one draw the line? Think about it."

Ummm, you do realize that compromise is one of the central components of our form of government? It is deliberately difficult to accomplish anything in government without the support of others (both houses of Congress, the administration, etc) leading inevitably to compromises.
As for justification, well, we justify everything, even those "absolute and standard codes". A person's justification may differ of course (diety of your choice said so, it seems like a really good idea, etc.) but it is still only a justification.
As you so aptly put it, think about it.

Re:This is a problem?

[Khomar]

Very true, however, any society is established on a set of principles with which to guide its decisions. In the United States, it is the Bill of Rights. There are also other basic priniciples that have formed the society known as America: strong families, hard work, being considerate of others, dignity of life. If you sacrifice these principles, you being to erode the basis on which your society lives. Once this foundation is gone, the society falls into anarchy (do that which most benefits you as an individual).

The foundations that have made America what it was are rapidly disappearing. The standard beliefs and ethics, while never perfectly met, are no longer even being attempted to be followed by many Americans. If we as a people cannot agree on foundational principles, then we as a society will degrade to anarchy. It has happened repeatedly throughout history, and we are showing every sign of this transition right now in America.

Principles and foundations do not preclude change. This is where the compromises of government come into play, and there is quite a bit of room to maneuver. However, once you start encroaching on those principles on which a society rests, you are asking for far bigger changes than you may realize. And you may not like the results.

Re:This is a problem?

[autopr0n]

Now granted, this is an extreme example, but once you start down the slippery slope of justification and compromise, where does one draw the line? Think about it.

Wherever you want. If you think X, Y, and Z are 'bad' then you simply ban those things, and nothing else. That's why DUI is illegal, and drinking is not.

Also Nazi Germany was definitely not a democracy. There was no 'slippery slope' of jew-killin' that lead to the holocaust. Everyone with decision making power wanted to get rid fo them.

Re:This is a problem?

[Khomar]

Only the sickest person could honestly say that homosexuality or free-love or atheism or hip-hop or whatever is more morally wrong then the enslavement of man.

Now that is a very narrow world view. While I agree that slavery is wrong, that is very much a western philosophy. Most of Asia believes very strongly in a class-based system in which it is morally wrong to try to be anything other what you were born to be. This is, in our view, border-line slavery, but for them, it is the right thing to do.

As for homosexuality, if it degenerates the fabric of the family and confuses the natural functioning and innate differences of the sexes, then, yes, it is morally wrong -- according to nature and religious views.

Free-love? Well, if you don't find it morally objectionable to sit idly by while people live lifestyles that will lead to an early death from AIDS, then okay, its not morally wrong. Fortunately, Uganda did not take this view point, and through the teaching of abstinence, has turned from having one of the highest rates of infection in Africa to having one of the smallest. To use a parellel, if you knew a bridger had been washed out, would you not try to warn drivers heading toward that bridge?

Atheism? Well, the same reasoning can apply. If you believe, as I do, that people who do not believe in God and His son Jesus Christ are going to spend an eternity in hell, would it not be morally irresponsible for me to not at least try to warn others of the impending danger even if they won't agree with the problem.

The often touted "every way is the right way" philosophy would actually come to my defense. After all, it only matters on your sincerity not on your accuracy, right? (sarcasm off) Just because we in America hold personal libery in very high regard does not mean that everyone sees that as the highest virtue. Christianity would teach that our slavery to sin, not man, is our critical issue.

I do not expect you to agree with me on any of these points.

Re:This is a problem?

[autopr0n]

Now that is a very narrow world view. While I agree that slavery is wrong, that is very much a western philosophy. Most of Asia believes very strongly in a class-based system in which it is morally wrong to try to be anything other what you were born to be. This is, in our view, border-line slavery, but for them, it is the right thing to do. An idiot is someone who speaks with authority on a topic he or she knows nothing about.

You are an idiot.

Lower caste people in India today may believe that reaching outside of their caste is morally wrong, or they may not. But they are still free to do it In fact, Indian university caste-quotas similar to affirmative action in the us, and Lower castes are firmly represented in government. How many slaves were there in congress in 1822?

And outside of the Hindus of India, no where else in Asia, certainly not post-communist china or Capitalism obsessed Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and so on. You basically have no fucking clue what you're talking about beyond a simplistic misunderstanding. The caste system is wrong, and bad, and it may have been like slavery hundreds of years ago but it is not today.

Free-love? Well, if you don't find it morally objectionable to sit idly by while people live lifestyles that will lead to an early death from AIDS, then okay, its not morally wrong.

Ever heard of condoms?

Atheism? Well, the same reasoning can apply. If you believe, as I do, that people who do not believe in God and His son Jesus Christ are going to spend an eternity in hell, would it not be morally irresponsible for me to not at least try to warn others of the impending danger even if they won't agree with the problem

There's nothing wrong with warning people, (although it can be very annoying) but there is definitely something wrong with trying to control them if the only ones they can hurt are themselves.

Fortunately, Uganda did not take this view point, and through the teaching of abstinence, has turned from having one of the highest rates of infection in Africa to having one of the smallest."

Again, you're an idiot

Sex education programmes in schools and on the radio focused on the need to negotiate safe sex and encouraged teenagers to delay the age at which they first have sex. Since 1990, a USAID-funded scheme to increase condom use through social marketing of condoms has boosted condom use from 7% nationwide to over 50% in rural areas and over 85% in urban areas. The social marketing scheme involved sales of condoms at subsidized prices or free distribution by both the government and the private sector. The scheme was also backed up by health education and other public information. Meanwhile more teenage girls reported condom use than any other age group -- a trend reflected in falling infection rates among 13-19 year old girls in Masaka, in rural Uganda. And among 15-year-old boys and girls, the proportion who had never had sex rose from about 20% to 50% between 1989 and 1995."

While putting off virginity loss was one aspect of the campaign, it was accompanied by a huge increase in condom use. Up to 85% in cities.

And don't even be trying to deny it. .int domains are hard core.

Re:This is a problem?

[Khomar]

Yes, that is what some sectors are saying about Uganda, but it is far from the truth. I would like to point you to the following article: Uganda Aids education 'working'. Note some of the quotes from this article:

This has led to a reduction in the number of people having casual sex, as well as the willingness of Ugandans to openly discuss HIV issues.

This led to a fall of 60% of people reporting they had casual sex. Other African countries studied have similar levels of condom use as Uganda, but little reduction in the number of sexual partners. According to the scientists, only a vaccine - as yet undeveloped - that worked in 80% of all cases would have a similar effect.

Now note the statement in this article: Bush praises Uganda Aids fight.

Uganda is the only African country which has successfully managed to reverse the tide of Aids infections...

This is the real reason why Uganda has been so successful, and it is the evidence that those addicted to sex in this world do not want known. Notice that other African countries have the same amount of condom use, but their infection rates have not changed like Uganda -- because Uganda went after the behavior.

there is definitely something wrong with trying to control them if the only ones they can hurt are themselves.

But they are not just hurting themselves. The problem in Africa is that they saw it as the man's right to live as he pleased. He would have his family back home and several mistresses in town. As he picked up AIDS from his mistresses, he then brought it home to infect his family. Only by teaching men to become faithful to his wife and abstaining from casual sex was the tide turned with AIDS. They are, in fact, teaching people to "control" their behavior.

Porn in this country is having a devestating effect as well. Whatever you want to say, if a husband is found looking at porn by his spouse, a rift does result in their marriage. It breaches the trust that is so essential to a strong marriage because the wife now wonders just how far his sexual experiences go. Man's sexual drive and energy should be saved from the marriage bed where he can give all of his attention and devotion to his wife. This is what fuels strong families and good examples to children on how to behave. Unfortunately, men are spending all of their energy on porn so they can no longer perform in their marriage. Thus, Viagra has become a huge item as men try to keep up their addiction to sex. Viagra was intended for men with real health problems not to fuel addiction, and while there are other contributing factors, I believe that this addiction is a very large reason why there are so many divorces today.

Re:not for anyone with an iota of common sense

[autopr0n]

What does this have to do with IE? IE is going to have a built-in popup blocker in about a month from SP2, and toolbars that have it now are plentiful.

Wow. Well, your post will make sense in about a month then. That said, isn't the new version of IE for XP only? or has that changed? A lot of people still use older versions of windows.

going after porn...

[dindi]

Now seriously people what is better ?

Healthy people + the weirdos spanking the monkey occasionally (or everyday:) ) ... or the healthy people suffering with an expoding wiener + weirdos running around raping everyone in sight ....

I think porn is healty (I am not talking about sado/sodomist/kiddie/raping stuff - just "normal" porn movies ), and wives and husbands should take a walk to the videorental booth/machine/whatever and play with a dildo or whatever fits instead of cheating on the SO or going after hookers ...

it is the same as videogames, i do not think it creates bad stuff (more rape eg.), and i think lot's of people can releive their "dirty" fantasies instead of causing harm in real life .....

all this antiporn crap bothers me, of course i do not want (my non existent) 5 year old kid to watch porn, but i find it ridiculous that the whole US is making a scandal of a TIT, while in europe you can see TITS all day on TV, all day at beaches, damn even public baths have a sun terrace when all the girls are topless ....

---
I grew up seeing tits all around, and i do not think i am a sexually disturbed person.... i know people who grew up without seeing TITS ... now most of them are seriusly sexually disabled ... just a note ... i recommend SHOW YOUR TITS GIRLS!

Jesus christ

[autopr0n]

Why don't you alter your brain chemistry to remove that stick up your ass.

Why don't you go talk to Alan Turing to see how well hormone therapy works in controlling sex drive. Oh wait. He killed himself.

There's plenty of time in the day to look at the sky and get off. The only reason for "eliminating" masturbation and sexual fantasies is if you're morally opposed to it for some reason. Sexual release is a healthy part of life.

I don't get it

[HarveyBirdman]

I perused some porn sites a year ago when I had a source for free username/passwords.

I can't see actually paying for any of it. It's the same stuff over and over. None of it is particularly compelling. Even when you travelled down the pr0n foodchain to the fetish/bondage/whatnot sites, you find content by people who wouldn't know erotic if it, well, bit them in the ass.

And the amateur porn... wassup with that? Dubious looking people in poor lit situations rehashing the six or seven basic porno poses. Somewhere there's a Porno For Dummies book these people are reading.

And then there's the crossdresser sites. Honestly, do I share the same planet with these guys? Some of them aren't even trying! I mean, what the fuck is this?. He's not even trying!!! What's the point?? Aaaa! Aaaa!

Re:There's more to life, really.

[be-fan]

Sorry, I don't believe in taking behavior-altering drugs. I mean, drugs are for when your body isn't working properly, not when it *is* working properly!

Re:Huh

[McKinney83]

dont forget elephantlist.com and sublimedirectory.com

Hmmm, let's see: Images vs. Text?

[WgT2]

Some surprise that image-based internet traffic beats out that which is mainly text-based traffic.

Perhaps that's why web hosting companies can afford to advertise "unlimited" bandwidth as
long as their fine print requires the greater portion of the customer's traffic be text based and not otherwise.

Catharsis theory isn't true

[autopr0n]

Actually, if you could really stop all porn, people's sex drives would simply go down. You wouldn't have people out raping anyone. Really all you'd end up with is a bunch of bored masturbators fantasizing about a hot chick they saw at the mall or something.

Of course, while spankin' it will reduce the desire to have sex immediately afterwards, porn just makes it more fun. If you watched less porn, you'd think about sex less.

The same is true of violence and violent media. Watch violent media, and you're more likely to be aggressive. If you do something like punch a pillow or whatnot when you're pissed off, you'll just get more pissed off (but maybe fell a little better).

Some studies have been done on porn and rape, and according to the findings men who looked at violent pornography did change their attitudes towards rape (more likely to say they'd do if they knew they would get away with it, more likely to say it wasn't that bad) after watching tons of porn. But a lot of the "affects of porn" research is done with violent pornography, while the vast majority of porn out there is "normal" stuff, you know naked women hopefully making out with each other. It's totally obvious that "violent" porn would make people have "violent" sexual fantasies, but most people aren't interested in that sort of thing anyway.

Ultimately, each individual is responsible for their own actions, and trying to control speech, and artistic expression in order to keep "bad thoughts" out of peoples heads might work somewhat, but that doesn't mean it will prevent "bad actions". And a censored world like that isn't one I'd want to live in.

Tip of iceberg?

[Maljin Jolt]

20% of all U.S. web traffic is categorized as 'adult'

Considering majority of porn sites are totally blocking any google references this number is telling something...

Um, no.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've heard this argument before, but it's laughable. Yes, pornography has existed for almost as long as humanity. No, it does not play as central a role in the history of humanity as it does in that of many slashdotters' lives. Let's look at the details:

Your assertion: "Porn drives technology." As this statement is totally unqualified, it means that porn has "driven" (whatever we take that verb to mean) at least the majority (if not all) of important technological advancements throughout human history. In other words, nobody means by "A causes B" that A only caused B once or a few times; they mean that A causes B either all of the time or most of it. You are making a generalization, and I am going to hold you to it.

As I say, you assert that most of human technological advancement has been driven by porn. However, you cite as examples only three, extremely recent, extremely similar examples. My own list, with notes, follows:

Advancements driven by porn:
VHS
Internet
DVD
Sex toys
Printing press
Writing on paper

(I include the last two even though I do not believe they really belong; however, pornography in those media has existed for nearly as long as they have, so I'll concede the points. Also, I don't entirely agree that porn drove the adoption of the internet; most early adopters got internet access for email and other work activites (although, certainly, they enjoyed the porn). I entirely disagree with the idea that porn drove the adoption of DVD; by the time DVD hit the streets people were using their VCRs primarily for non-pornographic uses, and bought DVD players to fill the same niche (home viewing of non-porn). However, I'll grant you DVD for the sake of argument.)

Off the top of my head, some important inventions NOT driven by porn:
Fire
Stone tools
Agriculture
Shelter
Roads
Wheels
Sailin g/Navigation
Metallurgy
Firearms
Plumbing
Stea m power
Electricity
Radio
Television
Cotton 'gin
Typewriters
Airplanes
Automobiles
Submari nes
Rocketry/Space exploration
Nuclear power
Teflon crockery
Septic tanks
Letter openers ...

It should not be hard to see that the list of technolgy whose adoption was not motivated by porn is huge, and could be continued almost indefinitely. In contrast, I can't think of more than 20 inventions or so that could possibly have been motivated by porn. The only thing that jumps out at me as a candidate for "cause of all human advancement" when looking at this list is war-making, but even war cannot account for all, or even very many, of the examples. I think the message here is that, if you look at the breadth of human technological advancement, you see that the motives behind it are as diverse as human beings are. Yes, people are willing to adopt technology that provides them with new and fun ways to wank off, but they are also interested in technolgy that aids them in exploring, trading, pondering, eating, sitting, being warm, being lazy, planting crops, making artwork, making music, cleaning their asses, and killing each other. None of these explains all of human advancement; together, they explain a fair part of it. So, in my opinion, the idea that pornography drives technological advancement is needlessly cynical; viewed through the right lens, all of history is explicable in terms of strawberry jam. What we cite as important in history often says more about us than it does about history.

(Sorry for the rant, I just hate glib, cynical generalizations.)

Re:Where is autopr0n?

[ScottGant]

Ashcroft, a religious man who does not drink alcohol or caffeine, smoke, gamble or dance, and has fought unrelenting criticism that he has trod roughshod on civil liberties in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, is taking on the porn industry at a time when many experts say Americans are wary about government intrusion into their lives.

Can we really trust a person like this? So much for me being raised with "the US is a free country, not like the Soviet Union" that was beaten into our heads at school over and over and over. If it's a free country, then an adult should be able to watch anything they want.

But I say bring it on...we'll fight this again...and win again like Flynt did before. Why are they wasting their time with this? Is it because they want to look moral? It's like the goofy admendment banning flag burning. I mean, come on. They KNOW this would be shot down by the Supreme Court...free speech and freedom of expression and all that. They are just posturing...so they can say "see, I'm against this...I'm Mr. Morals...come vote for me".

Aren't there more pressing issues Ashcroft should be looking into? Guess not. It's a "don't worry about what we do...we know what's good for you and we'll decide what's best".

I want out...

Re:ARG

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm the moderations are sure interesting to watch. No this was no troll, I just wrote exactly what I had on my mind that night.

I find it frightening that there are people who consider a provocative gender based outcry actually *worse* than a pro-nazi post...

And I'd reinstate that whenever asked.

A good heart and a strong pussy are very seldom inside the same woman. Suffer jealousy or suffer boredom - good choice.

Jerking off may even be the best option for now as every other thing suggested. Either bow bow down to this twisted "game" or pay hookers - I say *neither* because it just worsens the problem. Women's liberation was a good thing and this isn't ironic. But it also brought us this bipolar Martha-Stewart-Syndrome where one part of the girls think women's liberty means creating a male harem for herself and the other part regard sex as a kind of reward, a "dog treat" so to speak, for her "hubby". - Both result in a direct trade between "services" for sex which I think is unhealthy for both parties involved. "Give me that, do this and that and maybe I'll consider you this night!" is nothing to base a relationship on. Even worse if it's the natural instict inside the male that drives this - cause they got nothing to gain here.

So it's time for a men's liberation!