In-Reply-To: <950329170327_65256838@aol.com>
Message-ID: 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII



On Wed, 29 Mar 1995 ADAMX10415@aol.com wrote:

> On 3/29 (or thereabouts) reeltime@omni.voicenet.com wrote:

> >Does anyone know what the latest estimate of Web users is, >or where I could
> >locate up-to-date info on this?

> Jupiter Communications, as part of its brand new ONLINE MARKETPLACE
> newsletter, debuting in April (end of plug) has projected consumer use of the
> World Wide Web through 1999. We focus on home users only, so we are not
> counting the many users who are in corporations and universities, hiding
> behind firewalls and who are, in effect, not countable accurately. While this
That is a bit like counting only those people who have completely paid 
for their houses as true property owners.  Or only those who have paid 
over 100% of their child support and are up-to-date as responsible fathers
(many NCPs are "behind" but are making payments regularly).

> method is probably seriously understating the market in its present
> incarnation, over the next few years, the home user will begin to dominate
> the online demographic, so we feel the count is important.
Anyoine coming into a TIA connection over an X.25 pad doesn't get counted?
How about the Dial-ups who get to the TIA on the "Safe" side of the 
fire-wall.

There are about 36 million internet users, most of whom have web 
capability of some form (Mosaic, Webster, Cello, NetScape...).

> Anyway, we peg the current number of users of the Web (from the home) at
> about 1.25 million. Any estimates you might have seen pegging the number at
> 3-5 million are undoubtedly counting institutional users, a task that, as I
> noted above, is undeniably shaky.

NetScape is estimating about 3 million based on the users that "ding" 
their home-page when they log in.  This is probably the tip of the 
iceburg since many users define their own home-pages.

Don't forget that 2 million Prodigy users, and several thousand AOL users 
are ALSO Web capable.  There are about 10 million internet host IDs, 
which front for an average of 20 users (TIA, Pink-Slip, Fire-walls, and 
application level SLIP.)  Don't forget shared logins and shared hosts 
(multi-user systems like UNIX and VMS) which can run X11 clients.

Common survey methods include number of downloads of clients.  Number of 
times popular home pages are "hit", number of http connects on the 
backbones, and number of downloads of upgrades.

> Adam Schoenfeld

	Rex Ballard


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Wed Apr  5 21:58:27 1995
Status: O
X-Status: