Category: Internet statistics

Posted in 21st Century life, Internet statistics, online communication, online data collecting, web research

Twitter’s Got Bots: Lots of T​hem

Posted on by Marti Weston

Pew Twitter bots

Twitter is becoming a more influential part of everyday 21st Century life. However, we all need to understand that not all tweets are sent by people.

Recently Pew Internet researchers designed a Twitter study aiming to figure out what portion of tweet traffic comes from bots. Bots are automated programs that tweet or retweet information around the web, but they do so without the help of people.

Bots are not necessarily bad or nefarious. Tweets that announce weather, traffic, remind you of a concert starting time, or warn communities of nearby problems serve a constructive purpose, but they are often sent by bots.    Continue reading “Twitter’s Got Bots: Lots of T​hem” →

Posted in 21st Century parenting, connected learning, digital kids, digital life, family conversations, Internet statistics, parents and technology

Amaze Digital Kids with Internet Statistics!

Posted on by Marti Weston

Royal PingdomDo you wish you could amaze the digital kids in your life with trivia or fun facts about the connected world?

For the past couple of years, the Royal Pingdom site has posted a yearly overview of Internet statistics. The post, Internet 2012 in Numbers, shares some interesting figures, and they will indeed help you amaze the digital natives in your life. Moreover, these statistics can serve as excellent conversation starters and provide good context to help connected learners understand more about the size and scope of the digital world that they take for granted.

Here’s a sampling from the 2012 post. By the end of the year the Internet featured:

  • 425 million active Gmail users
  • 635 million web sites
  • 51 new web sites added during the year
  • 246 million domain name registrations
  • 2.4 billion Internet users and 565 million of them are in China
  • 175 million Tweets per day
  • 40.5 years as the average age of a Facebook user
  • 4 billion hours watched on YouTube per month

Check out the many other stats and some nifty graphs. Remember, though, that the statistics are from 2012. Royal Pingdom has also compiled numbers for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, so you can have some fun comparing and contrasting the numbers from year to year (and watching them grow). The site has not posted statistics for 2013 – at least not yet.