Estimating the size and growth of the World Wide Web
LE3 .A278 2004
2004
Trudel, Andre
Acadia University
Master of Science
Masters
Computer Science
The World Wide Web, developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991, is one of the most frequently used services of the Internet. The size of the Web has become increasingly difficult to measure as its popularity has increased. This study employs a population sampling technique from Biology called "Quadrat Counts" to estimate the Web's population using subsets of the IP address space comprised of 100 addresses each. These subsets, or "quadrats," were visited three times at one-month intervals in order to check for the presence of web servers. The data from these three surveys is used to estimate the size of the Web; the growth and decline of the web server population; and the representation of content, language, and server hosting software on the Web. The results of the study, coupled with our previous work, point to a locally volatile, but overall stable web population of approximately 18.5 million servers.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:2890
