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2005 Looks Like Record Year for Net Growth

miller60 writes "Netcraft reports that the Internet grew by 2.7 million sites in June, the second-largest gain in the history of its Web Server Survey. With growth of 10 million sites in the first half of the year, 2005 should easily surpass the existing annual growth record of 16 million sites from the dot-com boom year of 2000. The growth of small business web sites, blogs, domain name businesses and online advertising are all cited as factors in the strong gains."

22 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. How many of these... by Silverlancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    The average site, of the 2.7m:

    eN14Rg3 y0Ur m4N1Lh0oD! or|)3r v!46Ra 70|)4Y!

  2. Hmmph by mcrbids · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just the other day we were being told that the Internet was broken and needed replacing. Then, we find that it is growing very nicely, only to have this article confirm it...

    I mean, is this where I toot my own horn and say: I told you so!!?!?

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
    1. Re:Hmmph by tktk · · Score: 2, Funny
      Being broken and being able to grow in size are not mutually exclusive situations.

      For example: AOL. Broken from birth, IMO.

  3. Server trends & commercial blogs by Sv-Manowar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Its interesting that the percentage of Microsoft powered servers has risen 0.27 from the last statistics, perhaps suggesting that improvements to the latest versions of IIS are increasing use. As for the overall growth, the use of blogs as a commercial tool seems to really be coming into age and this may prove interesting as to filtering and blocking spam or excessively promotional blogs from search engines and feed spiders.

    1. Re:Server trends & commercial blogs by bersl2 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Its interesting that the percentage of Microsoft powered servers has risen 0.27 from the last statistics, perhaps suggesting that improvements to the latest versions of IIS are increasing use.

      And the month before, their change was -0.28%. So what? You need to see an actual trend before you can possibly conclude anything.

  4. Sites or hostnames? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It seems that Netcraft is reporting on newly created hostnames (I'm assuming domain names) rather than actual sites. How hard is it to point multiple domains at one site? Not very.

    1. Re:Sites or hostnames? by Kinky+Bass+Junk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How hard is it to point multiple domains at one site? Not very.

      Yes, but in the same respect, how hard is it to have multiple sites per domain name? Not very.

      They probably even out quite nicely, in fact it is quite possibly a lot higher than the figures given, with that in mind.

      --
      Anonymous Coward
  5. Link-farms? by Trepalium · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How many of those sites are just link farms used to pollute search engines like Google? I'm noticing more and more of these linkfarms getting high placement when searching for things. It's making searching frustrating.

    --
    I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
  6. Personally, I perfer quality to quantity! by busman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone seen a good new site in '05?

    --
    __
    Sigs are like arse-holes, everybody has one ;-)
  7. How many are from China? by r_jensen11 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    With China's rapid pace of catching up, I'm guessing that the proportion to new sites in China as opposed to other countries is significantly higher.

    1. Re:How many are from China? by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Without a doubt, the Chinese government is oppressive (an understatement) and stomps on every core facet of freedom known to man. That said however, I'm rather optimistic about the future of China. Given these new rules and regulations being churned out by the CCP, I see this as an act of desperation by those trying to cling onto power and control over the masses.

      I know a girl that is currently living in Shanghai whom I speak with on Skype on regular bases. From what I've learned, there is a major culture divide. Everyone in their late 30s and below has embraced the philosophies of the western world in regards to freedom of expression. Even the taboo of sexuality is starting to make its rounds on the Chinese side of the Internet. Basically, China is on the verge of a revolution. And if the CCP is not careful, we can soon expect to witness its demise.

      Of course, this will not happen until AFTER they try and invade Taiwan in order muster up Patriotism among the Chinese people. But in fact, the exact opposite may end up starting the revolution in China.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  8. Never heard of GNU? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There is one glaring omission in your list: the GNU project. In fact, the net should really be called GNU/Internet.

  9. The rise of the blogs by supercytro · · Score: 5, Funny
    The growth of *snip* blogs *snip* are all cited as factors in the strong gains.

    I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out "Look what I had for breakfast this morning"

    1. Re:The rise of the blogs by geoff43230 · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Luke, I am.. your server!" "No, it's not possible!" "Search your trackback records, you know it to be true..."

  10. Re:Sites or hostnames? (SPAMMERS) by G4from128k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems that Netcraft is reporting on newly created hostnames (I'm assuming domain names) rather than actual sites. How hard is it to point multiple domains at one site? Not very.

    So true. Judging by all the throw-away domain names I see in spam everyday (e.g., fqydahwviagra.scam), I wonder what percentage of the domains are real. I also wonder if some of the domain name expansion is just companies protecting themselves with alternate tradename spellings and TLDs

    --
    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
  11. Conflicting statistics by bogaboga · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Over here at http://www.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/200506/ index.html, it shows Apache simply increased its market share in the month heading up to July 2005. This reminds me of what statistics can be: They can be made/manipulated into anything the presenter wants to project. So who is telling lies here? SecuritySpace or Netcraft or both?

  12. quality web sites?? where are they???? by John+Seminal · · Score: 2, Insightful
    reports that the Internet grew by 2.7 million sites in June, the second-largest gain in the history of its Web Server Survey

    I think the best days of the web are behind us.

    When the internet first hit, almost all websites were free. If Joe wanted to tell the world about his love of aviation, he set up a website. People put in lots of hours, with quality information.

    But how has the internet evolved?

    Money currupted the internet.

    For example, try typing in "learn spanish" in google. How many websites are places that want your money? When the internet first started, there were better websites that were free. Not anymore, they got pushed off the web.

    I think the web has outlived its usefullness. It is like TV. Too many commercials. I wonder if the next computer will come with a machine to suck in dollar bills. Maybe it can transmit the numbers off a $10 bill and shred it, so that way the bank credits the other end.

    --

    Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."

  13. How does Netcraft define "site"? by securitas · · Score: 4, Insightful


    How does Netcraft define the word "site"? If it just means domains that resolve to a host, it's not very encouraging. I would like to see a breakdown of the numbers that shows how many of these sites are linkspam farms, redirects and other such junk.

    My suspicion is that most of the growth comes from from such "sites". The survey notes read:

    • Speculation in the market for domain names, buoyed by rising resale prices and the ability to generate revenue via pay-per-click advertising on parked domains.
    • Strong sales of online advertising, especially keyword-based contextual ads that support business models for both domain parking and commercial weblogs.

    While individuals may use ad revenues to subsidize the cost of parking domains while they develop them, the new business model for advertising-filled parked domains and spam-filled "commercial weblogs" means that the amount of junk on the net will increase.

    This also means that it's now even more lucrative for domain squatters to hold onto decent domains, which will increase their resources and abilities to register and squat on an even greater number of domains. After all, this is now an acceptable and viable business model that works against those who want to contribute something useful to the Internet. Squatters can now cite ad-revenue squats in arbitration cases.

    This isn't a positive development.

  14. So maybe thats why.. by Francis85 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe thats why we're starting to get flooded with domains like .tv, .info, .biz, .lollercoaster, etc

    Problem with IPv4 was running out of IPs, but they must be running out of domain names too?

    Also, something should be done about the damn placeholder sites waiting to be bought, with no other purpose. You should not be allowed to have a domain name unless you're going have a REAL SITE there. A good example is the damn "search engines" which you get on as soon as you make a typo in a URL. Another example is netidentity.com.. on the bottom of their sites they say "We've reserved over 17,000 name-based domains to share with you. Get an e-mail or web address in your name -- it's easy"

    What a waste of valuable domain names this is.

  15. Wikipedia etc. by dustmite · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Nowadays, Joe Aviation-lover probably contributes to aviation articles on Wikipedia.

    "When the Internet first hit", people created lots of disparate Web sites all over the place, with little bits of information spread all over. It was hard finding and piecing together all this information if you needed to know more about something, because there would be a hundred different websites on a topic, by a hundred different people, all thin on info. Wikipedia was a stroke of genius - they got those hundred people together to instead create one single, central, quality resource on that topic. Now those hundred little websites that used to exist are made redundant - Wikipedia supercedes all of them - so in a sense we don't really need to mourn their loss. Of course it's more impersonal, but blogs have largely replaced "the personal web site" as a mechanism for expressing yourself, and despite all the cynical comments on slashdot, blogs are popular and do serve a purpose (of course Sturgeon's law applies, but it always did before to "personal web sites" too).

    The Web hasn't outlived it's usefulness at all - it's just changed. In fact, with sites like Wikipedia, I'd say it's more useful than ever before - I consult Wikipedia all the time, it's got an incredible wealth of quality information in it, and growing rapidly.

    (Yeah I probably sound like a Wikipedia shill or something.)

  16. New sites I've come across in '05 by Infonaut · · Score: 2, Informative
    I've only found a couple, but I read both of them frequently now. Of course, these may be of little or no use to anyone else, but I imagine many new sites are like that. Even more so than with the magazine industry, the Web allows for a tremendous level of specialization.

    The Huffington Post - a collection of opinionated high-profile bloggers who are already making waves by making the notion of blogs accessible to people outside the "blogosphere"

    Bayosphere - citizen journalism in the San Francisco bay area, and noted tech journalist Dan Gillmor's new hangout

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
  17. I really hate domain squatters... by seanvaandering · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I can relate completely to this point. Last month I wanted to register vaandering.com - so I waited, patiently until the domain expired. Then there's the extra 15 days or so where the original owner can get last dibs on the domain before it gets tossed back into the pile. Well I went on holidays and came back to seeing my domain REGISTERED again! Imagine my surprise when I see it registered to BuyDomains! A well-known domain squatting business. Now this is my legal name, whether or not they want to display it as vaandeRing.com - they're sole purpose is to try and make a quick grand off domains... Why heres the fine print if your interested in buying a domain from them...

    By submitting this price request, I understand that the quoted price will be at least $1,000 and may be over $10,000. The quoted price is a fixed, one-time only fee that will be valid for 7 days. This is not an auction. I understand the pricing terms and am prepared to spend at least $1,000 for this domain.

    Isn't this bordering on the illegal? Theres no way im paying $1000 to register my name, its absolutely rediculous, and they advertise that they have over 475,000 'quality' domain names. Good lord...