BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- There are now up to100 million websites with domain names and content on them, CNN quotedThursday a major Internet monitoring company as announcing.

The company Netcraft that has tracked web growth since 1995 saidthe United States, Germany, China, South Korea and Japan showed the greatest Web site growing spurts.

　"Within that, there are some that are busy and updated more often, and that represents the active sites, which are at about 47 or 48 million," said Rich Miller,from the company.

Bloggers, small businesses, and simplicity have combined to create the dramatic growth of sites, much of it just in the past two years, he added.

"The bottom line is it's much easier to create a website nowadays, and it's much easier to make money with a Web site," said Miller.

Netcraft uses the domain name system to identify websites, check how many of them are in a particular location, such as what operating system and Web server software they're running, and then publishes its information in a monthly report.

There were just 18,000 Web sites when Netcraft, based in Bath, England, began keeping track in August of 1995. It took until May of 2004 to reach the 50 million milestone; then only 30 more months to hit 100 million, late in the month of October 2006.

In both the business world and the social scene, a website is now an identifier almost as common as a phone number or an e-mail address.

Whether it is sharing photographs on Flickr.com, showing off an amateur video on YouTube, or looking for a mate on Match.com, websites have also become a way to bond and belong.

(Agency)