How much of all Internet traffic is pornography? I’m talking Web pages, peer-to-peer transfers, and so on–the whole kit and caboodle. My friend claims that by far the majority of Internet traffic is porn. I’d say that while it makes up a large percentage, it’s probably less than half. Who’s right? –Allen Gainsford, via e-mail
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Livid critics went to town, pointing out so many flaws in Rimm’s work that Time printed a partial retraction. No need to rehash the arguments–they’re meaningless now. Usenet? Binaries? More important, U.S. “backbone” Internet traffic grew from 16 terabytes a month in 1994 to 80,000-140,000 terabytes a month in 2002. Even if Rimm’s claims were spot-on in 1995 (which they weren’t), today they wouldn’t mean squat.
Come now, you say. Even if we can’t put a number on it, surely we can get a handle on Internet smut volume. The closest thing the Web has to a central registry is the databases amassed by search engines such as Google and Yahoo, which have cataloged billions of Web pages. A few nanoseconds of googling and we’ll have a ballpark idea how much porn’s out there, right?
