How many websites are there in the world?
So, are we still at the 1 billion mark? If not, how many websites are there in the world today?
When the world’s first website launched 24 years ago, there was no Google, no Facebook, and no Twitter. In fact, the first ever website was a threadbare, imageless cluster of text. It wasn’t all that exciting, but it was a start.
Incredibly, in September 2014, we hit a record total of 1 billion websites. There’s no mistaking that the world wide web has changed the way we live, work, play and communicate.
So, are we still at the 1 billion mark? If not, how many websites are there in the world today?
Since hitting this remarkable figure last year, the number has in fact declined to approximately 874,408,576 of which 171,359,243 are considered active (as at August 2015).
Interesting facts
The journey to almost 1 billion websites on the world wide web is draped in plenty of interesting facts. Here are just a few we could find:
- Happy World Wide Web Day. The world wide web was invented in March 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee. He also introduced the first web server, the first browser and editor, and the first version of HTML (HyperText Markup Language).
- The internet’s first ever website. The first ever website (http://info.cern.ch) was published on 6 August 1991 by the same Tim Berners-Lee, with a landing page that contained 153 words.
- Internet freedom. On 30 April 1993, the CERN website went global announcing that its world wide web technology would be free for all.
- First photo upload. The first ever photo uploaded to the web was of an all-girl, physics-themed rock band called Les Horribles Cernettes in 1992.
- Billions now surf the web. Approximately 40 per cent of the world’s population are online today. And about six out of seven people have internet access.
How is quantity estimated?
We admit that it’s hard to pin point the exact number of websites, as literally thousands open and close every day. Not to mention that calculations can vary depending on how the term “website” is defined. For instance, some calculations are made on the number of pages indexed by search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo Search.
The figure of 874+ million from August 2015, as well as the magic 1 billion reported in September 2014, comes from Netcraft’s Web Server Survey, which has been running since 1995.
Netcraft uses the term “website” to mean unique hostname (a name which can be resolved, using a name server, into an IP address). Using a complex algorithm, Netcraft is also able to determine activeness by, among other things, discounting sites that are automatically generated from a template.
We hope you find this bit of trivia useful at your next quiz night – you never know. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a digital agency to help drive your business further, whether it be through intuitive and stylish web design or targeted digital marketing, contact iFactory today on 07 3844 0877.
