This story on CNN really caught my eye: Web Reaches New Milestone: 100 Million Sites. If the song, 57 Channels (And Nothing On), is accurate, just imagine what that says about the Internet.
The article goes on to say:
“There were just 18,000 Web sites when Netcraft, based in Bath, England, began keeping track in August of 1995. It took until May of 2004 to reach the 50 million milestone; then only 30 more months to hit 100 million, late in the month of October 2006.”
I don’t think we are prepared for the ramifications of this.
People constantly say that the Web is a media – like TV, Radio, and Print and I don’t think it is. I’m not saying I know what it is, but it’s not anything like those channels. The Net does not hold any of the limitations we see in these other media. I think the next big step for the Web (and marketers) is understanding that the model of a few major sites with most of the traffic will soon disappear. Watch and see what RSS and click-to-subscribe will do. Every person will have their own, fully-customized and personally-modifiable environment that is full of text, images, sound and video. The borders will completely blur between fixed and mobile and 100 million websites will seem just as small and silly as reading about the 18,000 websites in 1995.
That is if we can unclog all of these 100 million tubes…

Congrats on hitting the hundred million mark (and yes, I am loving the YouTube videos).