The NewsDemon Blog

Google wonders, ‘how expansive is the world wide web?‘ They’re giving a $1 million grant to a group to answer just that question.

Founded by Tim Berners-Lee, who actually created the Internet and first announced it on USENET newsgroups, the World Wide Web Foundation is the recipient of the grant which will involve a compiling the World Wide Web Index. This will be a ‘multi-dimensional measure of the Web and its impact on people and nations’.

The group’s study will be revealed as a series of annual reports and will hopefully help improve the impact that the web has on the human race. This could help to settle theories regarding the web’s influence around the world, and may help answer the question of whether a nation’s investment in internet infrastructure really helps grow the gross domestic product (GDP) of that nation.

The study is expected to be a useful resource as policy makers and investors analyze the web’s impact, which will allow them to make better decisions and form more effective strategies for investment and growth. It’s expected that the first edition of the World Wide Web Index will be released early next year.

Meanwhile, regardless of how many pages are currently on the internet, Nielsen has found that time spent on social media and blogs accounts for about a quarter of the time Americans spend on the web. The results revealed that in May of 2011, Americans spent over 53 billion minutes on Facebook, which accounted for more time than any other website.

If you’re beginning to conjure up images of teenagers sitting in front of their computer at all waking hours, hold on just a minute. The Nielsen report indicates that about 40 percent of social media users access such content using their mobile phones, and internet users who are over 55 years old are the group ‘driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile Internet.’

So as Google looks at how large and far-reaching the internet really is, Nielsen reveals that Americans are spending a good deal of their time using the world wide web connecting with others on social media. The findings of the World Wide Web Foundation will be interesting as we learn of the impact social media has had on American society.

Meanwhile, Usenet continues to be a useful tool for connecting with others across the globe. Usenet actually preceded the internet and for a while was the chief way that people connected with others and shared ideas and new projects. Despite its age, however, Usenet continues to be a popular means of sharing new technology projects and unveiling innovative new services and products.

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