How Much Web3D and Related Formats are Out There

Dateline: 5/3/00

It's been over a year since my last non-scientific but still interesting search through the Web for media types. As you can see from the numbers total results of pages with the word VRML have shrunk. I've added the new search term "Flash" and have had to eliminate HotBot and replace it with Lycos. HotBot doesn't return the exact number of pages and seems to have merged somewhat with Lycos. I've also added Google as another search engine source. In addition I've kept the text from the original articles below for context and so as not to lose those witty remarks ;-)

Following are some graphic summaries showing the trends over the 3 time periods. Time 1 is the earliest, time 2 the middle and time 3 is the current May 3, 2000 time period.

Geocities graph
Geocities

Tripod graph
Tripod

AltaVista Graph
AltaVista

Search Results - Number of Hits May 3, 2000
VRML Java Shockwave QuickTimeVR RealAudio QuickTime Flash
Geocities 14667 289310 28849 92 24392 9206 177506
Tripod 6512 123689 14884 49 14000 8420 74893
Alta Vista 356155 6,057,543 563735 7004 680520 583805 1,187,025
Lycos 226596 3,209,832 211856 4207 488,790 361,863 1,063,824
Google 94,900 632,999 139,987 6,649 196,997 137,982 454,000

VRML usage seems to have shrunken somewhat. Flash is clearly becoming a big deal but since it wasn't measured in past surveys no graph is available. I'll attempt are more comprehensive survey looking for the various proprietary Web3D systems in the near future.

Next page Past Surveys >Page 1,2

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