Sooner or later most of us need to collect some Internet statistics. Maybe it is for your homework, maybe it is for a market research you are doing for a project, maybe it is just out of curiosity. Over the years I came across several websites that provide these stats, and I decided to list the best ones in this post.
1. Pew Internet Project
One of the best resources for people looking for Internet statistics. Their research cover social networking, web 2.0, broadband and digital divide. Apart from detailed reports you will also find infographics, presentations, trends and surveys. The research topics are quite actual as well. For instance, they already have a bunch of reports and numbers on Twitter.
2. w3counter Global Web Stats
w3counter provides a web analytics program for website owners. However, they also use the data collected on the websites using the program (over 28,000) to create a monthly report called “Global Web Stats.” On the report you will find the most popular web browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions and countries.
3. w3schools Browser Stats
The w3schools website also publishes a report with browser, operating system and screen resolution statistics. One advantage of this site over the previous one is the fact that you can see at a glance the market share evolution of the different browsers over time. They have data going back to 2002, and there is also a section about the adoption of JavaScript.
4. Internet World Stats
If you are looking for Internet usage and adoption statistics from around the world, this is the website to visit. It comes with data regarding the total number of Internet users, a break-down by continent and penetration rates. The data seems to be updated frequently as well.
5. Alexa Top Sites
Not all of us are Alexa fans when it comes to traffic estimations. However, we can’t deny that Alexa has been tracking traffic numbers for a long time, and its list with the 500 largest websites on the Internet seem to be relatively accurate. If you need to get an idea of what are the largest sites on the web, it is worth a look.
6. Nielsen Net Ratings
Another company that offers decent traffic estimations for large websites is Nielsen. On the free report that is available inside their website they list the top 10 web parent companies, top 10 U.S. web parent companies, top 10 U.S. video sites and top 10 U.S. search providers. Nielsen also offers a monthly newsletter with the latest online trends and numbers.
7. Hitwise Data Center
Hitwise is a company offering competitive intelligence services. Inside its website there is a section called “Data Center” where you can access all sorts of Internet data. For example, they offer a list of the top 20 search engines, top 20 websites per industry, top 10 search terms per industry and the like. Make sure to check the Reports & Webinars section as well.
8. Point Topic
Point Topic is a research company specialized in DSL and broadband research. Most of their reports are paid, but they have a section called “Free Analysis” where you can get access to a bunch of free reports and studies. As far as broadband numbers go, they are the most complete I have found online. The only catch is that you need to register an account before getting access to them.
9. Internet Growth Statistics
If you want to see some data regarding the early days of the Internet (i.e. 1993 – 2000), check this website out. Apparently it was created by an MIT student, and it is not complete, but it does have some data available. For example, you can see the growth in the number of websites, web hosts, and the usage of the different protocols over time.
10. Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief
Verisign is the company responsible for the .com and .net domain registrations. As you can imagine, they have a lot of data regarding domain names, and they provide a quarterly report detailing all the latest numbers and trends on the domain industry. You can download the PDF documents directly, and they are well structured.
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