The Internet began as the ARPANET during the cold war in 1969. It was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) in conjunction with a number of military contractors and universities to explore the possibility of a communication network that could survive a nuclear attack. It continued simply because the DOD, it's contractors, and the universities found that it provided a very convenient way to communicate. (University of Regina)

17 Million US Households to Shop Online in '99 17 million US households will be shopping online by the end of this year, with online retail sales expected to top USD20.2 billion, according to Forrester Research. (NUA/Forrester Research)

10 Million Networked Homes in the US by 2003 10 million households across the US will be transformed by the introduction of networking capacity to their homes by the year 2003. (NUA/Yankee Group)

Number of pages on the Web: 800 million.(NEC Research Institute)

64 Million U.S. Adults Regular Internet Users Mediamark Research Inc. has released data which suggests that there are 64.2 million adults going online in the U.S. every month. (NUA)

56 percent of U.S. companies will sell their products online by 2000, up from 24 percent in 1998. (NUA)

Cisco Systems Inc. is today the world's largest Internet commerce site, selling more than $32 million in products every day. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)

This summer 82 percent of college graduates will search for careers and employment information online. (NUA)

A survey of 30,000 consumers in 30 nations found that the U.S. not only has the fastest-growing number of Internet users, but the largest proportion of e-commerce consumers. (Roper Starch Worldwide)

More than a million new jobs were created by the U.S. high-tech industry since 1993. (American Electronics Association)

Preliminary employment data show that the U.S. high-tech industry employed 4.8 million workers in 1998, making it one of the nation's largest industries. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Some Quick Facts About Search Engines According to a new study just released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, "Search engines have become an increasingly important part of the online experience of American internet users." On an average day, nearly 60 million people use search engines. Over the past year there has been a sharp increase in search activity. From June 2004 to Septemeber 2005 the use of search engines on a typical day rose from 30% to 41% of the internet-using population, which itself has grown in the past year. At the same time, the total number of people using search engines on an average day jumped from roughly 38 million to about 59 million — an increase of roughly 55%. comScore Media Metrix data, derived from a different methodology, show that from September 2004 to September 2005 the average daily use of search engines jumped from 49.3 million users to 60.7 million — an increase of 23%. In either case, it is clear that the use of search engines is edging up on e-mail as the primary internet activity on any given day. However, the Pew data shows that on a typical day, e-mail use is still the most popular internet activity. On any given day, about 52% of US Internet users send and receive e-mail, up from 45% in June of 2004. Obviously, e-mail continues to be a powerful application accounting for a great part of users' online time and attention. Overall, there is little difference between the sizes of the e-mailing population and the search-engine using population. Pew data shows that 91% of all Internet users have at one time sent or receive e-mail, compared to 90% of Internet users have used search engines. To put e-mail use and search-engine use in perspective, Pew compared them to other Internet activities on an average day. According to the latest comScore data, Google is the most heavily-used search engine. In October 2005 the site had 89.8 million unique visitors, followed by Yahoo! Search with 68 million unique visitors. 169,400,000 people in the United States use the internet. 92% of internet users worldwide use search engines to find the sites they want. Search engine listings are the number one way to generate traffic on websites. Media Metrix (Dec 2004) and Nielson/NetRatings (March 2005) report how many people visit which search engine sites each month. ( The totals exceed 100% because many people visit more than one: e.g., data reported by Media Metrix suggests that people visit an average of 1.7 each month. ) 47.3% Google 20.9% Yahoo 13.6% MSN   4.5% AOL   1.8% Ask   1.7% My Way   1.5% Netscape   1.0% Iwon   0.9% EarthLink   0.8% My Search   6.1% Others 97 percent of Fortune 100 companies had some type of site architecture problem that might give them problems being found by search engines. IntelliTeam, May 2005 Nine out of ten web users visit a search engine, portal or community site each month. They also revisit frequently, nearly five times per month. Nielsen//NetRatings, May 2005 Users looking for products are far more likely to type the product name into a search engine's search box (28%) than browse shopping "channels" (5%) or click on ads (4%) Jupiter Media Metrix & NPD, March 2001 Search engines are the top way consumers find new Websites online, used by 92.4% of those surveyed. Forrester, March 28, 2005 Search engine positioning was the top method cited by Website marketers to drive traffic to their sites (66%), followed by email marketing (54%). Direct Marketing Association, Aug. 2004 On average, Americans experience "search rage" if they don't find what they want within 12 minutes. WebTop Search Rage Study, August 2004 Meta tags are the most popular search engine optimization technique, used by 61% of those surveyed, followed by optimizing page titles (44%) and link building (32%). Iconocast, Nov. 2004 This chart shows how people find Websites. As you can see, 70% of people find what they are looking for by using a Search Engine their very first time online. Top