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One of the most famous quotes (especially of artists) is that a picture speaks for a thousand words. And yeah, it is absolutely true. The image attached above (sorry for the small size, view it in full size) displays the number of internet users among the top countries. It is indeed surpising to see Asian countries like India and China being among the top though just 6% and 19% of the residents use internet whereas in other countries, the usage is an average of more than 60%. It is estimated that by 2012, Asia will have thrice the users as compared to US and India will be the 3rd largest group online.

How much has internet grown?

The growth of interent cannot be measured so easily. Yet, I will try to list the important points due to which an image of the growth will be formed by you.

- Under the oceans, there are internet cables that run for thousands of miles. Not one, but there are 93 of them currently and 28 more are going to be added before 2011. These cables can be damaged by any natural calamity. In 2008, a cable near Western Europe was disrupted due to which 28 crore people couldn’t access the internet.

- In 1982, there were just 315 web domains. In 2008, this number has increased to 2.8 billion. Now, we are falling short of unique identifiers a.k.a IP Address. The internet will soon go for an upgrade which will unlock another trillion more domains. Amazing, huh?

Problems :

There are two sides of each coin, good and bad. The good thing here is that it will give more scope for e-commerce and increase the GDP of many developing nations. But on the other end, it has many negatives. This surplus and overcrowding on the internet is inevitably gonna give rise to more cyber wars and cyber crimes. It will be tough for the protectors to control this epidemic. Since there won’t be monopoly of traffic, the web is ultimately going to be divided into many languages like Maridian, Hindi, English, German, Russian and hence forth. Piracy is going to reach unstoppable heights.

Hope all this comes to a full stop and various restictions are enforced so that the unavoidable transition of booming in the cyber world may be smooth.