April 15, 2005

April's monthly gain of almost 1.7 million hostnames is the strongest increase so far this year.

When compared with previous years, the big gain suggests a seasonal pattern to the Internet's strongest growth.

Last year's biggest month was April, with a similar gain of 1.7 million hostnames, while 2003's best showing was a 3.3million site gain in March. Those are the three largest monthly gains since the Internet economy began its recovery in 2002.

While this month's gain is notable, monthly growth of 1 million-plus hostnames is becoming routine.

The survey has added at least 1 million sites in 10 of the last 18 months, compared to just three times in the previous 18-month period.

The web server market was little changed, however, with Apache picking up 0.2 percent share from Microsoft on the month.

Source: Netcraft