The Internet Index

Number 1
Inspired by "Harper's Index"*
Compiled by Win Treese (treese@crl.dec.com)
7/8/93 (Revised: 1/7/94)

Here is the Internet Index annotated with sources and the directory of all editions.

Annual rate of growth for Gopher traffic: 997%

Annual rate of growth for WWW traffic: 341,634%

Average time between new networks connecting to the Internet: 10 minutes

Number of newspaper and magazine articles about the Internet during the first nine months of 1993: over 2300

Number of on-line coffeehouses in San Francisco: 18

Cost for four minutes of Internet time at those coffeehouses: $0.25

Date of first Internet mail message sent by a US President: 2 March 1993
(Sent by Bill Clinton, President of the United States)

Date on which first Stephen King short story published via the Internet before print publication: 19 Sept 1993

Number of mail messages carried by IBM's Internet gateways in January, 1993: about 340,000

Advertised network numbers in October, 1993: 16,533
Advertised network numbers in October, 1992: 7,505

Date after which more than half the registered networks were commercial: August, 1991

Number of Internet hosts in Norway, per 1000 population: 5
Number of Internet hosts in United States, per 1000 population: 4
Number of Internet hosts in October, 1993: 2,056,000

Round-trip time from MIT to mcmvax.mcmurdo.gov in McMurdo, Antarctica: 640 milliseconds
Number of hops: 18

Number of USENET articles posted in two weeks during December, 1993: 605,000 Number of megabytes posted: 1450
Number of users posting: 130,000
Number of sites represented: 42,000

Number of Silicon Valley real estate agencies advertising with Internet mail addresses: 1

Terabytes carried by the NSFnet backbone in February, 1993: 5

Number of countries reachable by electronic mail: 137 (approx.)
Number of countries not reachable by electronic mail: 99 (approx.)
Number of countries on the Internet: 60

Amount of time it takes for Supreme Court decisions to become available on the Internet: less than one day.

Date of first National Public Radio program broadcast simultaneously on the Internet: 21 May 1993

Percent of Boardwatch Top 100 BBS systems with Internet Connectivity: 21

Number of people on the Internet who know you're a dog: 0

*"Harper's Index" is a registered trademark of Harper's Magazine Foundation. Copyright 1993,1994 by Win Treese. Send updates or interesting statistics to treese@OpenMarket.com.