It looks like the internet bubble that burst at the turn of the century, where a record number of internet start-ups went belly-up, is well and truly behind us.
According to new findings, small business that have decided to branch out online have been instrumental in making 2005 the strongest year ever for posting internet growth.
Based on the findings of Netcraft, a Bath-based internet services company, there were at present 74,409,971 websites being hosted worldwide. This is 2.68 million more than figures recorded in September.
For 2005, a total of 17.5 million sites were added to the World Wide Web. This marks the strongest year for internet growth ever posted and surpasses the previous year-round high of 16 million, which was posted in the year 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom.
The report said that the significant increase in web sites can be directly related to small businesses finally realising how the internet (and creating a website) can bring positive benefits to their businesses and drive revenue growth. Blogging has also played a big part in pushing businesses into developing new websites.
But Netcraft also cited the negative side of this increase in website generation growth. They said that spammers can also be partly blamed because of their modus operandi of buying new domain names in order to manipulate search engines. These spammers also purchase websites that are no longer in use but are still attracting significant traffic.
Company formation and business solutions experts said that small businesses should learn to harness the powers of the internet to their benefit and use it to drive positive business growth.