What was the internet like in 2008?

The App Store opens, and software starts being something you tap once to get. A typical home connection was 7 Mbps, there were about 172,338,726 hostnames responding on the web, and a gigabyte of storage cost $0.20.

How long did it take to download a film in 2008?

A 4 GB film at 7 Mbps would have taken about 1 hours 20 minutes, assuming the connection held its rated speed the whole way, which it would not have.

How many websites were there in 2008?

About 172,338,726 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 2008

The App Store opens, and software starts being something you tap once to get.

172,338,726 hostnames · Broadband at 5 to 10 Mbps. 3G becoming usable.

The App Store took an installation process that had involved finding a website, downloading a file, trusting it and running an installer, and reduced it to one tap and a password. Chrome arrived with a comic book explaining its architecture and the then-unusual idea of running each tab in its own process, which meant one bad page no longer took down the browser. Spotify launched in Europe with the argument that convenience beats free, which turned out to be right.

The numbers

Websites: 172,338,726 hostnames responding to HTTP
Typical connection: 7 Mbps — Broadband at 5 to 10 Mbps. 3G becoming usable.
A gigabyte of storage cost: $0.20, in 2008 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 7 Mbps
A 3 MB song	4 seconds
A 5 MB photo	6 seconds
A 700 MB CD image	14 minutes
A 4 GB film	1 hours 20 minutes
A 50 GB game	16 hours 39 minutes

What arrived in 2008

The App Store, in July
Android, on the HTC Dream in October
Google Chrome
Spotify
Dropbox

Against the years around it

Year	Hostnames	Typical speed	$/GB of storage	A 4 GB film took
2007	121,892,559	5 Mbps	$0.30	1 hours 52 minutes
2008	172,338,726	7 Mbps	$0.20	1 hours 20 minutes
2010	206,956,723	10 Mbps	$0.090	56 minutes

Between 2008 and 2020 the typical connection went from 7 Mbps to 100 Mbps, a factor of 14, and a gigabyte of storage fell from $0.20 to $0.020 — a factor of 10. The 4 GB film that took 1 hours 20 minutes takes 6 minutes.

Common questions

What was the internet like in 2008?: The App Store opens, and software starts being something you tap once to get. A typical home connection was 7 Mbps, there were about 172,338,726 hostnames responding on the web, and a gigabyte of storage cost $0.20.
How long did it take to download a film in 2008?: A 4 GB film at 7 Mbps would have taken about 1 hours 20 minutes, assuming the connection held its rated speed the whole way, which it would not have.
How many websites were there in 2008?: About 172,338,726 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 2007 The iPhone arrives, and the internet stops being something you sit down for.
The internet in 2010 Instagram launches, and the phone camera becomes the point of the phone.
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