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Worldwide (English) Change
Web Characterization : Size and growth statistics

Size and growth statistics

Number of Web sites

A Web site is defined as a distinct location on the Internet, identified by an IP address, that returns a response code of 200 and a Web page in response to an HTTP request for the root page. The Web site consists of all interlinked Web pages residing at the IP address.

1998: 2,851,000
1999: 4,882,000
2000: 7,399,000
2001: 8,745,000
2002: 9,040,000

Number of unique Web sites

The number of Web sites, adjusted to account for sites duplicated at multiple IP addresses.

1998: 2,636,000
1999: 4,662,000
2000: 7,128,000
2001: 8,443,000
2002: 8,712,000

Web site types

Unique Web sites are assigned to one of three categories:

  • Public: site provides free, unrestricted access to all or at least a significant portion of its content
  • Private: site's content is intended for a restricted audience; restriction can be explicit (e.g., fee payment or authorization) or implicit (obvious from nature of content)
  • Provisional: site is in transitory or unfinished state (e.g., "under construction"), and/or offers content that is, from a general perspective, meaningless or trivial
  1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
  # % # % # % # % # %
Public 1,457,000 55% 2,229,000 48% 2,942,000 41% 3,119,000 37% 3,080,000 35%
Private 315,000 12% 790,000 17% 1,494,000 21% 2,078,000 25% 2,489,000 29%
Provisional 864,000 33% 1,643,000 35% 2,692,000 38% 3,246,000 38% 3,143,000 36%

Growth

  1998 - 1999 1999 - 2000 2000 - 2001 2001 - 2002 1998 - 2002
Sites 71% 52% 18% 3% 217%
Unique sites 77% 53% 18% 3% 231%
Public sites 53% 32% 6% -1% 111%