Since the first website was launched in 1991, the Internet has grown and evolved exponentially. From a mere curiosity, it has become a world-wide necessity. Here’s all the information you need to know about just how big the Internet has gotten.

A Worldwide Phenomenon

It took the Internet 7 years to reach 50 million people. In contrast, it took cable television 10 years to reach that mark – television took 13 years and radio took a whopping 38 years to meet that same goal.

Only 18 countries in the world still have no Internet access. Of the overwhelming majority that do, the United States and China lead the world in Internet usage, cornering 13% to 21% of the world’s use of the Internet. In fact, 3 out of 4 Americans use the Internet regularly. India and Japan follow with 4.7%-5.5%, followed by Germany and Brazil at 3.1%-3.9% and France, Russia, the UK, and South Korea at 2.2%-2.7%.

In 2010, there were 1.8 billion Internet users worldwide. By 2020, that number is expected to grow to 5 billion Internet users across the globe.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

When it comes to the sheer volume of information stored on the web, the numbers are staggering. 1,673,000 terrabytes of information are created and stored on the web each year. By comparison, it would take 360,212,766 single-sided DVDs to contain that same amount of information. 16.91 billion webpages exist as of February 2011. Internet traffic will grow to 44 extabytes in 2012, which is more than twice the amount for 2011. On average, there are 1 billion devices connected to the Internet.

But the information being shared isn’t just data; the Internet has become the premier source for sharing photos and interacting online. Flickr hosted 5 billion photos in 2010 alone, and Facebook sees over 3 billion photos uploaded per month.

That’s What the Internet Is Made Of

But what exactly makes up the Internet? Are shopping sites the biggest draw or is it social networking? The Internet breaks down like so:

119 million ecommerce and business websites;
4.3 million entertainment websites;
3.1 million finance related websites; and
1.8  million sports related websites.

In fact, of the 250 million websites out there, 80 million are .coms. The .com business now brings in over $400 billion annually.

Are .coms the only dominant type of website out there?  .coms do dominate the field at over 80 million, followed closely by country codes (.us, .de, etc) at 79.2 million, 13.2 million .net names, and 8.6 million .org names.

The Internet has certainly boomed since its inception in 1995, when a mere 16 million people used the net. While its growth was steady throughout the 1990s, the boom really took place between the years 2000 and 2009, when the number of Internet users grew by 399.3%. This Internet revolution has completely transformed the way we share information, and will continue to do so well into the future as Internet growth continues to go wild.

The iPhone has had a strangle hold on the ‘cool’ and ‘edgy’ factors of the cell phone market for several years now. Other producers have followed in the trendsetting wake of iPhone’s advancements hoping to pick of business, but were never quite able to capture the phoning attentions of the consuming public – but the tide is changing.

Perhaps the folks at iPhone thought that no Johnny-come-lately phone would ever be able to replace the spot they currently hold in consumer popularity contests…but the Droid phones certainly seem to be doing just that.  These phones are like the Borg, assimilating iPhone customers faster than any Starfleet officer.  But is their victory going to be short lived?

The newest version of iPhone is set to launch, broadening not only the service providers available, but bringing with it new bells and whistles to boot.  If this wasn’t enough, there is a new big power set to launch that will change the cell phone popularity contest again: Win 7 Mobile Smartphone. The graphic at left lists three of the major power players in the cell phone market making it easy for you to compare.

Which phone is right for you? One of the considerations you need to contemplate is the provider and the plans they offer. This is especially important if you have your heart set on an iPhone or other exclusive phone brands and models.  Certain phones are only available through certain cell phone service providers. This is especially true of the iPhone, which is still exclusively available through AT&T.  That is set to change with new iPhones coming online through providers like t-Mobile, but if you want the tried and true, you’ll be stuck with AT&T for now.

If you just can’t live with AT&T, or other providers with exclusive rights to service certain models and brands, then you’ll need to decide what is more important to you: Nursing your feelings of avarice toward a certain provider or buying the exact model of cell phone you want and dealing with the provider restrictions and rules.  If the phone thing comes in second, then you have just narrowed your choices, which brings you one step closer to making a final choice.

Once you have finished the debate over service providers and the various plans they offer, take a look at the phone options still available to you.  For the sake of a clear and fair comparison, this article assumes you have all three of the big cell phone brands available for your choosing.

Now it is time for you to look at the virtues of the cell phone itself.  A plan with unlimited texting is fairly useless if your fingers just can’t do the walking because your phone’s texting keys are useless

The Droid Android 2.2, iPhone 4 powered by AT&T and the Windows 7 phone are all rated to be very finger friendly, for you text fiends. They also have external keyboard capabilities, but the android and windows phones offer an external full size keyboard.

Does size matter to you? Then the Android phone might be your best bet. Its screen is the largest at 3.7 inches.  (To see how iPhone and Windows phone 7 compare, see the graphic)

Do you like to take photos and video with your phone? Then you will want to pay attention not only to the basic ability to perform these tasks, but also the processor and memory specs of your phone. You don’t want to get stuck with a slow processor that can’t keep up with the demands you are placing on it. Nor do you want to constantly delete photos because you don’t have enough room to store them.  Windows 7 has the most mega pixels for your photo quality, but iPhone has more storage – both leave the Android in the dust.

Photo enthusiasts will likely not enjoy the Android 2.2’s Kodak moment capabilities, but if battery life is more of a concern for you, Android wins this competition hands down with 40+ standby hours more than Windows 7 and 200+ hours more than iPhone.

The choice is yours, and only you know the specific order of IMPORTANCE each feature will be for your dream cell phone. The graphic to the left has more specific details to help you make an informed selection.