What was the internet like in 2006?

Twitter starts, Facebook opens to everyone, and the feed is invented. A typical home connection was 4 Mbps, there were about 85,507,314 hostnames responding on the web, and a gigabyte of storage cost $0.40.

How long did it take to download a film in 2006?

A 4 GB film at 4 Mbps would have taken about 2 hours 20 minutes, assuming the connection held its rated speed the whole way, which it would not have.

How many websites were there in 2006?

About 85,507,314 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 2006

Twitter starts, Facebook opens to everyone, and the feed is invented.

85,507,314 hostnames · Broadband at 4 Mbps typical.

Facebook opened registration to anyone over thirteen in September and launched the News Feed the same month. The feed was extremely unpopular on arrival — hundreds of thousands of users joined groups demanding its removal, on the grounds that it was creepy to broadcast every profile change — and it became the single most copied idea in the history of software. Twitter began as a side project at a failing podcasting company, with a 140-character limit chosen to fit an SMS message with room for a username.

The numbers

Websites: 85,507,314 hostnames responding to HTTP
Typical connection: 4 Mbps — Broadband at 4 Mbps typical.
A gigabyte of storage cost: $0.40, in 2006 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 4 Mbps
A 3 MB song	6 seconds
A 5 MB photo	10 seconds
A 700 MB CD image	24 minutes
A 4 GB film	2 hours 20 minutes
A 50 GB game	1.2 days

What arrived in 2006

Twitter, in March
The Facebook News Feed, in September
The Wii

Against the years around it

Year	Hostnames	Typical speed	$/GB of storage	A 4 GB film took
2005	64,780,617	3 Mbps	$0.60	3 hours 6 minutes
2006	85,507,314	4 Mbps	$0.40	2 hours 20 minutes
2007	121,892,559	5 Mbps	$0.30	1 hours 52 minutes

Between 2006 and 2020 the typical connection went from 4 Mbps to 100 Mbps, a factor of 25, and a gigabyte of storage fell from $0.40 to $0.020 — a factor of 20. The 4 GB film that took 2 hours 20 minutes takes 6 minutes.

Common questions

What was the internet like in 2006?: Twitter starts, Facebook opens to everyone, and the feed is invented. A typical home connection was 4 Mbps, there were about 85,507,314 hostnames responding on the web, and a gigabyte of storage cost $0.40.
How long did it take to download a film in 2006?: A 4 GB film at 4 Mbps would have taken about 2 hours 20 minutes, assuming the connection held its rated speed the whole way, which it would not have.
How many websites were there in 2006?: About 85,507,314 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 2005 YouTube launches, and video stops needing a plugin and a prayer.
The internet in 2007 The iPhone arrives, and the internet stops being something you sit down for.
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