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Is the web dying? It doesn't look that way

Is the web dying? It doesn't look that way

By Nick Bilton, NYT News Service | Updated: 6 June 2012 13:24 IST

Highlights

Chris Anderson, Wired magazine’s editor in chief, says the Web is being crippled by a world of apps and screens in a cover story titled “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.” Is he right? Should we plaster R.I.P. signs all over the Web? Not exac

Chris Anderson, Wired magazine's editor in chief, says the Web is being crippled by a world of apps and screens in a cover story titled "The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet."

Mr. Anderson argues that a world of downloadable apps, which work through the Internet and arrive through gadgets like the iPhone or Xbox, are quickly cannibalizing the World Wide Web as consumers prefer buttoned-up, dedicated platforms, designed specifically for mobile screens.

Is he right? Should we plaster R.I.P. signs all over the Web? Not exactly.

A chart Wired used for its story shows that since 2000, Web traffic has decreased as a percentage of overall Internet traffic in the United States. The graphic's data comes from a Cisco report that uses data from the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, a collaborative group that monitors Internet infrastructure.

The Web site Boing Boing notes that if you change the graph to show actual traffic growth online, you can see hockey-stick-like growth over every aspect of the Internet through the past two decades, including the Web.

Although Wired might be right in its assessment that apps are on the rise, with billions downloaded from Apple alone, many areas of the Web continue to grow dramatically too.

Take Facebook for example. Not only has the company grown to over half a billion users, but it has also seen major growth in its mobile applications, all while its Web site has grown with rapid speed too. In other words, the entire platform has grown dramatically.

There's another piece of the puzzle too. Most of these apps and Web sites are so intertwined that it's difficult to know the difference. With the exception of downloadable games, most Web apps for news and services require pieces of the Web and Internet to function properly.

So as more devices become connected to the Internet, whether they're built to access beautiful walled gardens, like mobile apps or TV-specific interfaces, they will continue to access the Web too, enabling each platform to grow concurrently.

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