Internet witnessed a blooming rise in 2011. While the numbers of internet users broke all preset records, the number of new websites also saw a drastic steep curve. About five million domain names were added to the Internet in the third quarter(Oct- Dec) of 2011, bringing the total number of registered domain names to nearly 220 million worldwide across all domains, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign.
The increase of 4.9 million domain names equates to a growth rate of 2.3 percent over the second quarter of 2011, and marks the third straight quarter with greater than 2 percent growth. The Internet saw the addition of 4.5 million domain names in the first quarter (a 2.2 percent increase) and 5.2 million domain names in the second quarter (a 2.5 percent increase).
The .com and .net Top Level Domains (TLDs) experienced aggregate growth in the third quarter, reaching a combined total of 112 million names. New .com and .net registrations totaled 7.9 million during the quarter. This is a 5.9 percent increase year-over-year in new registrations.