INTERNET GROWTH STATISTICS Today's
road to eCommerce and global trade
And the
" Global Village " became a Reality
Internet has made real
what in the 1970's that visionary of the communications Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) called the "Global Village".
In a matter of very few years, the Internet has consolidated
itself as a very powerful platform that has changed the way we do
business, and the way we communicate. The Internet, as no other
communication medium, has given an International or, if you prefer, a
"Globalized" dimension to the world. Internet has become the Universal source
of information for millions of people, at home, at school, and at work.
Internet is actually the most democratic of all the mass media.
With a very low investment, anyone can have a web page in
Internet. This way, almost any business can reach a very large
market, directly, fast and economically, no matter the size or
location of the business. With a very low investment, almost
anybody that can read and write can have access to the World Wide
Web.
“When I took
office, only high energy physicists
had ever heard of what is called the World Wide
Web... Now even my cat has it's own page.” -
Bill Clinton
History
and Growth of the Internet
Before getting into the numbers, let's take a look at
the
fascinating history of the Internet, from 1945 to 1995, by
courtesy of the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C).
Today the Internet continues to grow day by day making
McLuhan's Global Village a reality. The following table
shows the incredibly fast evolution of the Internet from
1995 till the present time:
The Internet has made distances shorter and the world
smaller.
However, the great divider that stands in the way of a truly
global
society is fact that there are many different different
languages
spoken in our planet Earth. The following table shows the
ten
most numerous languages spoken by the Internet
users.
To see old (Historic) Internet World Usage Statistics click here.
For detailed information on the Internet from
Wikipedia.org click
here.
For more on the Internet’s history and its relationship with the
information
revolution read NetValley’s informative nine part report.
For current up to date Internet User Statistics click here.
Learn what the internet is and how it works, read
about the creation of the Internet, Internet culture,
legal and moral issues, and a lot more at Wikiverse
Here you will find the
Internet History
in a few links
Learn about Leonard Kleinrock who in 1962 invented
the packet-switching technology that made it all
possible.
You can see a timetable
highlighting some of the Internet key events and technologies
that helped shape the Internet as we know it today at the Hobbes Internet Timeline.
The Internet Virtual Library
also features a very complete
page with links about the Internet History.
The Living Internet
is a free web site, including
more than
700 pages about the Internet’s history, design, advanced
use,
key features, security issues, help resources, and
references
to additional information about the Internet.
The Internet Archive
is another interesting website.
They are
building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural
artifacts
in digital form, like a paper library. Free access is provided to
researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.
The Internet Archive is huge and growing every day. They have
received help from Sun Microsystems for storing the database,
in what could be called, literally Internet in a Box
. See the 30
minute video where Brewster Kahle and Greg Papadopolous
unveil the Wayback Machine’s new datacente.
World Wide Web
Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops
interoperable
technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools)
to lead
the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information,
commerce,
communication, and collective understanding. On the W3C page,
you'll
find news, links to W3C technologies, help and ways to get
involved.
Public participation is welcome at the WWW
The Top Web
Sites of the Internet For information on the current favorite web sites
take a look at Alexa’s Top 500 Sites
