Banner Year for Web Growth

Netcraft, reports that based on its October survey, 2005 is shaping up to be a record year in Internet growth: "In the October 2005 survey we received responses from 74,409,971 sites, an increase of 2.68 million sites from the September survey. The large gain makes 2005 the strongest year ever for Internet growth, as the web has added 17.5 million sites, easily surpassing the previous annual mark of 16 million during the height of the dot-com boom in 2000."

After an earlier survey from July, Netcraft noted that small businesses were driving much of the growth:

"Factors in the dramatic growth include:

• Increasing use of the Internet by small businesses as web sites and online storefronts become more affordable.



• The explosive growth of weblogs, a growing number of which are purchasing domains for branding purposes.



• Speculation in the market for domain names, buoyed by rising resale prices and the ability to generate revenue via pay-per-click advertising on parked domains.



• Strong sales of online advertising, especially keyword-based contextual ads that support business models for both domain parking and commercial weblogs.