---
title: "The internet in 2006"
description: "Twitter starts, Facebook opens to everyone, and the feed is invented. 85,507,314 websites, 4 Mbps at home, and what a download actually took."
url: https://atoneplace.net/internet-in/2006/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The internet in 2006

**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.

## Related pages

- [The internet in 2005](https://atoneplace.net/internet-in/2005/)
- [The internet in 2007](https://atoneplace.net/internet-in/2007/)
- [Every year side by side](https://atoneplace.net/internet-in/)
- [Convert data units](https://atoneplace.net/convert/)

## Sources

- Web Server Survey — Netcraft (https://www.netcraft.com/blog/category/web-server-survey/)
- ICT Facts and Figures / World Telecommunication Indicators — International Telecommunication Union (https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/)
- Historical cost of computer memory and storage — Compiled from contemporaneous retail advertising and manufacturer price lists (/about/)