The Internet Index

Number 3
Inspired by "Harper's Index"*
Compiled by Win Treese (treese@OpenMarket.com)
17 September 1994 (Revised 19 September 1994)

Here is the Internet Index.

Number of daily newspapers with Internet mail addresses: 54
Number of TV and radio stations with Internet mail addresses: 62
Source: The Media List, compiled by Adam Gaffin (adamg@world.std.com), available from file://ftp.std.com/customers/periodicals/Middlesex-News/medialist

Percentage of PCs using TCP/IP in 1993: 3.9
Sales of PC TCP/IP products in 1993: $272 million
Source: Boston Globe, 7 September 1994, citing an International DataCorp report

Number of daily comic strips that regularly include an e-mail address: 2
(The strips are "Dilbert" by Scott Adams -- scottadams@aol.com -- and "Frank and Ernest" by Bob Thaves -- FandEBobT@aol.com)

Average number of megabytes of USENET news, per day: 172
Estimated number of USENET sites: 180,000
Estimated number of readers of news.announce.newusers: 800,000
Estimated worldwide disks space used by USENET news: 61 terabytes
Source: Brian Reid <reid@pa.dec.com>

Number of lawsuits over use of trademarks in domain names: 2 Source: Washington Post, 11 August 1994

Number of Internet retailers purchased by Home Shopping Network: 1
Source: The Boston Globe, 8 September 1994. HSN purchased the Internet Shopping Network

Average time between new network connections: 30 minutes

Number of countries connected by IP: 75
Number of countries connected by electronic mail: 152
Source: International Connectivity Table

Number of subscribers to BITNET mailing lists: 1 million
Number of subscribers to BITNET list for David Letterman's Top Ten Lists: 18,000
Source: John Buckman and Eric Thomas

Number of PGP keys in the MIT public key server: 6398
Source: MIT PGP Public service (pgp-public-keys@pgp.mit.edu)

Number of CommerceNet Sponsors: 53
Source: CommerceNet

Number of Commercial Internet Exchange members: 85
Source: Commercial Internet Exchange

Number of commercial domains registered between July 15 and August 15: 1401
Source: Internet Business Center

Number of advisories issued by the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT): 98
Source: Computer Emergency Response Team

Number of Internet access providers (U.S.): over 100
Number of cable television companies providing Internet access: 1

Percentage of US public libraries offering Internet searches by staff: 21
Source: Boston Globe, 7 August 1994, citing June, 1994, survey by the American Library Association.

Number of state consumer affairs agencies with Internet connections: 1
Source: Boston Globe, 15 September 1944 . It is the Massachusetts Executive Office of Consumer Complaints.

Number of domains registered to Fidelity Investments and related companies: 15
Source: Network Information Center

Number of Internet Request for Comments documents (RFCs): 1697
Percentage written by Jon Postel (some with collaborators): 10
Number issued so far in 1994: 135
Source: RFC Index

Number of telephone calls handled by AT&T on a normal business day: 175 million
Number of telephone calls handled by AT&T on 17 January 1994 (the day of the Southern California earthquake): 204.7 million
Source: Boston Globe, 1 September 1994.


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

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