What was the internet like in 2004?

Facebook launches at Harvard, and Gmail offers a gigabyte as an April Fool. A typical home connection was 2 Mbps, there were about 51,611,646 hostnames responding on the web, and a gigabyte of storage cost $1.

How long did it take to download a film in 2004?

A 4 GB film at 2 Mbps would have taken about 4 hours 40 minutes, assuming the connection held its rated speed the whole way, which it would not have.

How many websites were there in 2004?

About 51,611,646 hostnames responded to HTTP. That counts hostnames rather than distinct sites, which is why the figure occasionally falls between years without the web shrinking.

The internet in 2004

Facebook launches at Harvard, and Gmail offers a gigabyte as an April Fool.

51,611,646 hostnames · Broadband at 2 Mbps typical, and dial-up now a minority.

Gmail launched on April Fools' Day offering a gigabyte of free storage when Hotmail offered two megabytes, and a large number of people concluded it was a joke. It was invite-only for three years and the invitations were traded on eBay. Firefox 1.0 broke a browser monopoly that had looked permanent — Internet Explorer had over 90 per cent of the market and had not shipped a meaningful update in years. Facebook was a university directory and required a .edu email address.

The numbers

Websites: 51,611,646 hostnames responding to HTTP
Typical connection: 2 Mbps — Broadband at 2 Mbps typical, and dial-up now a minority.
A gigabyte of storage cost: $1, in 2004 dollars

How long things took to download

Assuming the connection ran at its rated speed throughout, which it did not. Real dial-up throughput after protocol overhead was typically 10 to 20 per cent below the modem's rating.
What	At 2 Mbps
A 3 MB song	12 seconds
A 5 MB photo	20 seconds
A 700 MB CD image	48 minutes
A 4 GB film	4 hours 40 minutes
A 50 GB game	2.4 days

What arrived in 2004

Facebook, in February, restricted to Harvard
Gmail, on 1 April
Firefox 1.0
World of Warcraft
Flickr

The thing people misremember

Facebook was not open to the public in 2004, or 2005. It required a university email address until September 2006.

Against the years around it

Year	Hostnames	Typical speed	$/GB of storage	A 4 GB film took
2003	40,912,332	1.5 Mbps	$1	6 hours 13 minutes
2004	51,611,646	2 Mbps	$1	4 hours 40 minutes
2005	64,780,617	3 Mbps	$0.60	3 hours 6 minutes

Between 2004 and 2020 the typical connection went from 2 Mbps to 100 Mbps, a factor of 50, and a gigabyte of storage fell from $1 to $0.020 — a factor of 50. The 4 GB film that took 4 hours 40 minutes takes 6 minutes.

Common questions

What was the internet like in 2004?: Facebook launches at Harvard, and Gmail offers a gigabyte as an April Fool. A typical home connection was 2 Mbps, there were about 51,611,646 hostnames responding on the web, and a gigabyte of storage cost $1.
How long did it take to download a film in 2004?: A 4 GB film at 2 Mbps would have taken about 4 hours 40 minutes, assuming the connection held its rated speed the whole way, which it would not have.
How many websites were there in 2004?: About 51,611,646 hostnames responded to HTTP. That counts hostnames rather than distinct sites, which is why the figure occasionally falls between years without the web shrinking.
What do people get wrong about 2004?: Facebook was not open to the public in 2004, or 2005. It required a university email address until September 2006.

The internet in 2003 MySpace, Skype, iTunes and WordPress all launch, and the social web starts.
The internet in 2005 YouTube launches, and video stops needing a plugin and a prayer.
Every year side by side Speed, storage cost and site count in one table
Convert data units Bits, bytes, and why a megabit is not a megabyte

Sources

Web Server Survey — Netcraft
ICT Facts and Figures / World Telecommunication Indicators — International Telecommunication Union
Historical cost of computer memory and storage — Compiled from contemporaneous retail advertising and manufacturer price lists

How these figures are compiled and checked