It is hard to believe that it was as recently as 1991 that Tim Berners-Lee created the first website. Since public access was granted to the world wide web in 1993, the internet has become an integral part of our daily lives; however, most of us have no idea just how curious and diverse the internet really is. Here are some hot facts to contemplate:
The number of websites in the world
There were one billion websites by September 2014, with the number falling slightly before rising to the one billion level again, and staying there, by March 2016. Not all these sites are active, of course, but it is still an awful lot of internet to surf!
‘Surfing the internet’
Have you ever wondered where the expression ‘surfing the internet’ came from? The first person to coin the phrase was Jean Armour Polly, a master in library science at the University of Minnesota. She wanted to capture the fun, skill and endurance required to browse the world wide web and was inspired by a surfing-themed mouse mat.
50 million bhp
According to Lifewire, there are over 8.5 billion computers and other devices communicating with the internet at any one time, which requires 50 million brake horse power of electrical power to keep it all running smoothly.
More popular than TV
Just over 1.5 billion households around the world own a television, but more than two billion people use a smartphone or tablet to access the internet. It is widely anticipated that the majority of television viewers will switch to mobile devices for their viewing needs within a few years.
Humans or bots?
Surprisingly, well over 50 per cent of internet activity comes from bots, spammers and web scrapers, meaning that just 46 per cent of web traffic is down to human interactions with the internet. With so many search engine bots crawling the web at any one time, it makes sense to ensure that your SEO is top-notch. You can source great web development services in London, or anywhere in the UK, from agencies such as https://www.redsnapper.net/web-development-services-london. Such specialists understand exactly how to attract favourable attention from web crawlers.
The three-second rule
Visitors will wait up to three seconds for your website to load before leaving.