Distribution, by percentage, of the most common uses of the Internet for the past 5 years

So, have you been wondering just what do those millions of people do on the Internet all the time? Here's the answer. This table gives the basics of how people have been using the Internet for the past five years or so. Actually, it tells us what percentage of the "packets" that travel over net are being sent by a particular type of application. As you can see, the percentage of file transfer protocol packets are declining relative to the others, as is electronic mail. Use of the old "interactive" 'net tools like telnet and finger is remaining relatively constant. The biggest rise is in the vaguely-named "non-TCP/UDP protocols"- -covering stuff like AppleTalk. "Other TCP/UDP Services", which includes the explosive popularity of the World Wide Web, is seeing continued steady growth.

          File      e-mail  Interactive   Domain   Other      Non-
          Exchange          tools (telnet Name     TCP/UDP    TCP/UDP
          (FTP)             finger etc)   Lookup   Services   Protocols
Oct 1990   45%      27%       7%          9%        11%          1%
May 1991   45%      24%       6%          4%        13%          8%
May 1992   53%      20%       4%          5%        17%          1%
May 1993   45%      18%       6%          3%        24%          4%
May 1994   37%      18%       5%          3%        27%         10%

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