Chicago (IL) - 105,244,649 web sites populated the Internet at the beginning of December, according to report released by Netcraft. Over the past month - when the Internet passed the 100 million mark for the first time in its history - the Internet grew by 3.8 million sites and brought the 2006 tally to 30.9 million new sites - which represents a 45% overall growth in the recent 11 months. The 2005 total was about 17.5 million new sites, Netcraft said.

While 2006 will be a record year of growth in absolute numbers, it trails the boom times of the Internet a few years ago. In 2000, the Internet website count climbed from 10 million to nearly 26 million sites, a one-year increase of 160%, according to Netcraft.