FW: OCLC Researchers Measure the World Wide Web

[Drew, Bill]

-----Original Message-----
From: Makssour,Marifay [mailto:makssoum at OCLC.ORG]
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 4:06 PM
To: OCLC-NEWS at OCLC.ORG
Subject: OCLC Researchers Measure the World Wide Web


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Edward O'Neill +1-614-764-6074
oneill at oclc.org
Nita Dean +1-614-761-5002
nita_dean at oclc.org

OCLC RESEARCHERS MEASURE THE WORLD WIDE WEB

DUBLIN, Ohio, Oct. 16, 2000--In their annual
review of the World Wide Web, researchers at
CLC have determined that the Web now contains
about 7 million unique sites; that the public
Web--sites that offer content that is freely
accessible by the general public--constitutes
about 40 percent of the total Web; and that
the Web continues to expand at a rapid pace,
but its rate of growth is diminishing over time.

According to the group's latest estimates, there
were 7.1 million unique web sites, a 50 percent
increase over the previous year's total of 4.7
million.  Although the number of web sites has
nearly tripled in size in the last two years,
year-to-year growth rates are declining, falling
from almost 80 percent between 1998 and 1999,
to only about 50 percent between 1999 and 2000.

Public web sites constitute 41 percent of the
Web, or about 2.9 million sites.  Private sites--
whose content is subject to explicit access
restrictions (e.g., Internet Protocol filters
or password authentication), or is not intended
for public use (e.g., web interfaces to privately
owned hardware devices such as printers or routers)--
comprise 21 percent of the Web, or 1.5 million
sites.  The remaining 2.7 million sites--or about
38 percent of the Web--are provisional sites:
their content is in an unfinished or transitory
state (e.g., server default pages or "Site under
construction" notices).

Adult sites--those offering sexually explicit
content--now constitute about 2 percent of the
public Web, or 70,000 sites.  The proportion of
the public Web occupied by adult sites has
remained unchanged since 1998.

"The Web continues to grow at a substantial rate,"
said Ed O'Neill, manager of the OCLC Web
Characterization Project.  "But a comparison of
the year-to-year growth rates suggests that the
Web's expansion is slowing.  This trend is even
more pronounced in the public Web, which grew by
about 80 percent between 1997 and 1998 but only
by about a third between 1999 and 2000.  Even in
absolute terms, growth seems to be slowing:  the
public Web increased by 713,000 sites in the
past year, compared to 772,000 sites between
1998 and 1999."

Brian Lavoie, a research scientist working on
the Web Characterization Project, notes the
increasing incidence of non-public web content."
For most people, the Web is the public Web--that's
where most web browsing takes place.  But there's
a lot of content out there that you would probably
never encounter in the course of casual browsing;
in other words, the private and provisional sites.
Private sites in particular have exhibited steady
growth relative to public sites in the past few
years, accounting for about 12 percent of the Web
two years ago, compared to over 20 percent today."

The Web Characterization Project, conducted by
the OCLC Office of Research, has collected a random
sample of web sites annually since 1997.  Current
results are based on analysis of the June 2000
sample.  For analytical purposes, a web site is
defined as content accessible through the HTTP
protocol at a given location on the Internet.

More information on the Web Characterization Project
is on the project web site <http://wcp.oclc.org/>.

Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer
Library Center is a nonprofit organization that
provides computer-based cataloging, reference,
resource sharing and preservation services to
38,000 libraries in 76 countries and territories.
OCLC was founded in 1967 to improve access to the
world's information and reduce information costs,
and conducts ongoing research to develop technologies
to support that mission.  Forest Press, a division
of OCLC since 1988, publishes the Dewey Decimal
Classification system.

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