*Information*

[-Sweex]

Main Computer Manufacturer's
Acer - Taiwan electronics manufacturer.
3rd Biggest in the world
Subsidiaries: Gateway, Inc., Packard Bell, eMachines
Founded: 1976
Employees: 6,500 (Approx 2005)

Dell - American
2ndbiggest in the world
Subsidiaries: Alienware ASAP Software EqualLogic
Founded: 1984 as PC'S LIMITED
Employees: 95,000 (Approx 2005)

Hewlett-Packard - American
Largest in the world
Subsidiaries: Compaq - Merged with them, VoodooPC's
Founded: 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard
Employees: 309,000 (To current date)

Toshiba - Japan
5th biggest in the world
Subsidiaries: None
Founded: 1939 through a merger
Employees: 190,700 (Approx 2007)

Lenovo [IBM]
4th biggest in the world
Subsidiaries: None
Founded: 1984
Employees: 19,000 (Approx 2006)

Apple - USA
Founded: 1967 as Apple Computer INC
Employees: around 17,000
Revenue: 24 billion
Status: Apple is currently running head to head with HP
Criticism: Apple has received criticism for not notifying users of system vulnerabilities until a fix is released. Making user vunerable to problems until a fix is released.
Apple has been accused of pressuring journalists to release their sources

As you know, there is alot more companies, these are just the main ones.


The World Wide Web and The Internet
Many people use the these terms: Internet and The World Wide Web (Or Web). For the same use. However the two terms aer not synonymous.

Usage
There are about 450 million Internet 'Surfers' around the world. But not all are active, however 250 million surf the internet at once.

com 1316966
edu 1133502
gov 209345
mil 175961
net 150299
org 154578
us 37615
-----------------
total domains 3178266
this is not my grid. used with permission.
This gives an estimate of the Internet spread:

about 70% in North America
about 20% in Europe,
about 10% in the rest of the world.

According to net ratings these are the most popular websites.

1. MSN
2. Yahoo!
3. Microsoft
4. AOL
5. Google
6. BBC
7. Wanadoo
8. British Telecom
9. Amazon
10. Ask Jeeves

Anything to add, post.

[ebay]

I have to disagree about a few things.

Where did you get the facts, BBC is the 6th most popular website?

This would be my order/alexa ranking.

1. Yahoo
2. Google
3. Youtube
4. Windows Live
5. MSN
6. Myspace
7. Wikipedia
8. Facebook
9. Blogger.com
10. Yahoo Japan

[Hypertext]

I expext he went by UK Alexa rank if ge got wanadoo and british telecom. Uk-wise he is correct, globally however, incorrect.

[Blinger1]

google would be number 1 :S

[Agnostic Bear]

Yeah, Alexa isn't accurate at all, the most popular is Google by far. Alexa can only do results based on the people that use their toolbar.