Useit.com Alertbox Article

Jackob Nielsen’s Alertbox from November 6, 2006, entitled 100 Million Websites found on the website Useit.com discusses how the internet contains 100 Million Websites. According to Netcraft’s latest Web survey the web contains 101,435,253 websites. Although some of these websites are not live, if only half the sites accounted for are maintained today, there are still more than 100 million websites on the Internet that people pay to keep running.

Reaching the 100 million mark is a milestone, and represents the immense growth the Internet has obtained since its creation 15 years ago. The chart below above shows the growth of Internet websites from 1991 until 2006.

From this chart one can see that the Internet has experienced three growth stages:

• Explosive growth: From the years 1991-1997, the internet grew at a rate of 850% each year. During this time frame, each time users went on the web, they encountered something new.
• Rapid growth: From the years 1998-2001, the internet grew at a rate of 150% each year. Since the internet’s rapid growth ended in 2001, all the usability guidelines have been repeatedly confirmed.
• Maturing growth: From the years 2002-2006, the internet grew at a rate of 25% each year. Now, user’s basic expectations have settled and web-designers need to construct their websites accordingly, unless they have something substantially better.

If the internet continues to grow at its current rate of 25 percent, then the internet will reach 200 Million Websites by the year 2010. Even if we are realistic and slow the growth rate of websites on the internet a little, it is fair to predict that the internet will obtain 200 Million Websites by the year 2012. This prediction is fairly reasonable considering there are millions of business and people who do not have internet websites yet. Eventually every business and organization in the world will have a website.

Today when designing a website, the web-designers need to comply with users’ expectations. The internet is no longer a marvel of innovation. It is now used as an everyday tool, and websites need to differentiate themselves by providing both better content and superior solutions to users’ problems.

I agree with the Jakob Nielsen’s article. I think the internet will definitely reach 200 Million Websites by the year 2012. Currently not all businesses possess a website. Eventually all business will have a website. In addition, new business are constantly being developed, and these new business will need and eventually have websites as well.

I also agree that the Web is not a new experience for users anymore and they expect websites to be designed certain ways. Users are goal oriented when they go on the internet; they use the web as a tool to find the answer to their problem. When users go on the web, they usually have a purpose for doing so. Therefore, when designing a website, people need to keep in mind that their sites need to be useable, meaning the websites need to be easy to understand and navigate around.