Copyright 1994, 1995, 2004 by Kevin Savetz
In 1994, Sybex asked me to write Internet Top Ten Lists, a book of lists about Internet statistics, resources, users, and culture. It was supposed to be light reading, a "bathroom reader" for Internet trivia, containing about 250 lists, and appealing to the inherent curiosity of Internet users.
When I was about three-quarters done writing the book, Sybex decided not to publish it after all. I shopped the idea around, and in 1995, O'Reilly and Associates agreed to use the lists in Internet User Tools, which was to be a team-written book about Internet clients. That book was never published either. By that time, some of the top ten lists were getting stale and I was tiring of the project, so the book never saw the light of day. (I was content, though, having been paid advances from two different publishers.)
Ten years later (actually, ten years to the day that I sent the original outline to Sybex) I am making this partially written, twice killed, never-published book available on the Web. This online version contains 158 lists which were to be included in either the Sybex or O'Reilly books. It contains some interesting facts and statistics that might otherwise be difficult to find today. Very few of these "top ten" lists include exactly ten items, by the way.
Because it was supposed to be a "browsable" book that could be picked up and read from any point, the lists were completely unorganized. For the online version, I've organized the information into loose categories.