How Many Internet Domain Names Are There?

[Bec]

How many Internet domain names are there?
by Davey Winder on Sep 6th, 2011, 10:09 am

Ever wondered just how many domain names there are on the Internet? DaniWeb has, and can reveal the answer as being an almost astonishing 215 million worldwide.

According to global Internet infrastructure provider and domain registrar Verisign, more than five million domain names were added to the total during the second quarter of this year alone, which represents a growth rate of 2.5 percent above the previous three months. To put that into some perspective, that's a year on year growth in the number of Internet domains of 8.6 percent or some 16.9 million domains.

If you were to look at just the number of .com and .net domains registered, then you are talking about a running total of more than 110 million by the end of that second quarter 2011 cut off point. New registrations within the two domain high flyers accounted for 8.1 million in the quarter. However, according to the DomainTools statistics site the Internet could have been be so much bigger if domains had not expired and been deleted over the years - or could it? The current numbers suggest that a staggering 328,456,608 .com domains have been deleted since the Top Level Domain was first created, and 36,196,098 .net domains for good measure. Actually, domains which expire are added to the deleted column and removed from the active, but are available for re-registration immediately. So the deleted column is a cumulative total over the decades.

Interestingly, China moved ahead of the European Union after the .cn domain became the eighth largest in the world and .eu dropped down a place to ninth. And if there are any DNS server admin nerds out there who are interested in such things, take comfort in knowing that the average daily DNS query load on the Verisign servers during that second quarter of the year alone was 56 billion, peaking at 68 billion!

[HunkyLuke]

wow that's a lot a domains!!

[Bec]

wow that's a lot a domains!!

Yeah really! ... and between the two of us we own what ... about half? :supercool:

[nickbaer]

If the full domain name may not exceed a total length of 253 characters, is the potential of Domain Name combinations a matrix of 253 characters on the X axis and 253 on the Y axis?

I forget the math of permutations and combinations, but is that 253 to the 253rd?

Or is it more complicated a formula than that? I tried looking it up on Google, but the answers were more complex - how many 6 letter words can you make from 12 characters. That isn't the question. The question is: how many 2,3,4...253 words can you make from 253 characters! I guess it's algebraic, doing a formula which is foreign to me.

Darn, no easy answer.

[PFLJayden]

Yeah really! ... and between the two of us we own what ... about half? :supercool:

Oh no, you couldn't have half... How dare you! WHORES! ALL OF YA! I think between the three of us, only 2/3 are left.
Perhaps we need Domain AA? Something like that. It's ok, we can go together :tsr:

[Bec]

Oh no, you couldn't have half... How dare you! WHORES! ALL OF YA! I think between the three of us, only 2/3 are left.
Perhaps we need Domain AA? Something like that. It's ok, we can go together :tsr:

Yeah, Luke and I formed a chapter of Domain Addiction Anonymous awhile back. We should have a meeting though ... I'll bring the donuts.

[PFLJayden]

Yeah, Luke and I formed a chapter of Domain Addiction Anonymous awhile back. We should have a meeting though ... I'll bring the donuts.

:howdy: I have Godaddy Discount Coupon Cards! Can I bring those too? (Really don't have any but it sounds good! LOL)

I've got the coffee!

[Bec]

Speaking of buying domains, have you checked your PM's recently? Sent you one several days ago.

[PFLJayden]

Speaking of buying domains, have you checked your PM's recently? Sent you one several days ago.

Yes, I have looked. I sent the list over and am waiting on a reply.