 |
Just how big is the World Wide Web? |
|
The truth is that no one really knows how many Web sites or individual Web pages comprise the seemingly endless digital universe that is the Internet. |
| |
全球資訊網究竟有多大？其實根本沒有人知道究竟有多少網站或個別網頁，構成了網際網路這個看似無窮無盡的數位宇宙。 |
|
Wired magazine founder Kevin Kelly wrote that there are at least a trillion Web pages in existence, which means the Internet's collective brain has more neurons than the real gray matter that's inside our skulls. |
| |
《連線》雜誌創辦人凱文．凱利寫道，目前存在的網頁至少有一兆個，也就是說，網際網路這個集體大腦的神經元數目比我們頭殼裡的真實灰質還要多。 |
| |
"Each biological neuron sprouts synaptic links to thousands of other neurons, while each Web page on average links to 60 other pages," Kelly wrote in his 2010 book What Technology Wants. |
| |
"That adds up to a trillion 'synapses' between the static pages on the Web. |
| |
The human brain has about 100 times that number of links -- but brains are not doubling in size every few years. The global machine is." |
| |
「每個生物神經元都會冒出突觸，和數以千計的其他神經元互相連接，而每個網頁則是平均會連結到其他六十個網頁，」凱利在他二０一０年出版的著作《科技的渴求》當中寫道：「也就是說，網路上的靜態網頁之間共有一兆個『突觸』。人腦的連結約是這個數目的一百倍──但人腦的大小不會每隔幾年就增加一倍，而全球的機器卻是如此。」 |
|
While that alone is pretty heady stuff, the answer to the actual size of the world's digital "brain" may be on its way. |
| |
儘管這一點本身就足以令人目瞪口呆，但全世界的這個數位「大腦」究竟有多大，答案可能不久就會出爐。 |
|
A group called the World Wide Web Foundation is on a quest to figure out, with some degree of certainty, how big the Internet really is. |
|
The group was founded by Tim Berners-Lee, credited by many with being the closest thing there is to an inventor of the Internet. |
| |
一個名為「全球資訊網基金會」的團體正努力盡量確知網際網路實際上到底有多大。這個團體的創始人是提姆．柏納李，許多人都認為他是最有資格稱為網際網路發明者的人。 |
|
With a US$1 million grant from Google, the foundation plans to release the results of its online search, called the World Wide Web Index, early next year, the foundation's CEO, Steve Bratt, said in a recent interview. |
| |
有了谷歌資助的一百萬美元，該基金會計畫於明年初發表其線上調查的結果，名為「全球資訊網索引」，基金會執行長史提夫．布拉特在不久前受訪時表示。 |
|
"The Web Index will be the world's first multi-dimensional measure of the Web and its impact on people and nations," Bratt explained in an e-mail to CNN. |
|
"It will cover a large number of developed and developing countries, allowing for comparisons of trends over time and benchmarking performance across countries." |
| |
「網路索引將會是世界上首度針對網路及其對大眾與各國造成的影響所進行的多面向測量，」布拉特在一封寫給 CNN 的電子郵件中說明：「這項研究將涵蓋許多已開發與開發中國家，以便比較長期的趨勢演變以及評定不同國家的表現。」 |
|
Bratt stressed that it won't answer every question people have about the Internet, but he hopes the index, which will be presented as a series of annual reports, will go a long way toward filling in some of the gaps. |
| |
布拉特強調，這項研究無法回答眾人對於網路所懷有的一切問題，但他希望這份將以系列年度報告形式發表的索引，能夠在填補部份匱乏的資訊方面跨出一大步。 |
.gif)
