January 4, 2002. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Internet speculators shut up shop

LONDON, January 4, Graphic News: The spectacular bursting of the the Òdot.comÓ bubble has resulted in the internet shrinking slightly in the final months of 2001, according to a new survey of cyberspace.

For only the second time ever, an authoritative monthly survey by the British internet consultancy, Netcraft, has found fewer sites online than in the previous month. The fall has been put down to a drop in the number of registered domain names -- the Òwww.company.comÓ names that identify individual web sites around the world. 

Despite the drop, the net remains hugely popular, and there are now over 36 million sites in cyberspace. The net has reached this huge figure in only five years. In August 1995, when Netcraft began regularly surveying the size of the internet, there were fewer than 20,000 websites. 

But between November and December 2001 the number of sites on the web fell by 182,142. Netcraft has put this down to a drop in the number of registered domain names. The only other time that Netcraft has seen a drop in the number of sites was in August 2000. That drop was the result of some organisations going bankrupt and the effects of the Code Red virus. 

That drop turned out to be a blip and in September 2000 the net resumed its steady upward climb. Now it has stumbled again, but this time the change looks more long-lasting. 

Typically when someone buys a domain name they get the right to use it for two years. Many speculators bought domains during the rampant dot.com speculation in late 1999 and 2000, hoping to sell the name for a profit to a company or individual desperate for a memorable or snappy web identity. 

However, the promise of those early days has not been fulfilled. As the two year ownership period on these names expires, many speculators are giving up the right to the names. In addition new net suffixes, such as .name, .info, .biz and .museum, are starting to be switched on and are reducing the pressure on the crowded .com domain.

Since 2000 was a bumper year for domain registrations and a time when speculators were at their most exuberant, Netcraft expects that the number of sites on the net will continue to fall over the opening months of 2002.

The Netcraft Web Server Survey explores the internet to find new web sites. At the end of each month, a web request is sent to each site, determining the web server used to support the site and the operating system.

In its December 2001 survey Netcraft determined that 63.34 percent of web servers were running Affinity-Apache software. This was followed by Microsoft, 26.62 percent; iPlanet, 2.83 percent; Zeus, 1.27 percent. Macintosh servers, which currently account for 1.07 percent, will soon be using Apache software with the increased use of its new OSX operating system.
/ENDS
Source: Netcraft.com