AfterDawn: News

Company called Webnoize, had made a analysis based on "packet sniffing" technology of Napster's usage in September 2000. Technology "sniffes" the files and users that are connected and shared through Napster's 114 servers. Note -- Napster's current technology splits users into several servers, so think about the capacity and the range of music available through all the servers if they would be connected to each other -- a feature that has been in top 3 wish-lists among Napster users.

Anyway, Webnoize estimates that in September there were 640,000 users connected to Napster in any given time -- of course the peaks represent a much higher numbers. By tracking the number of users and files shared on estimate, Webnoize estimates that people shared 1.39 billion files in September via Napster.



And funny issue -- also Webnoize recognizes the fact that CD sales among the college students are raising rapidly, giving a clear sign of the fact that has been announced also in other studies -- MP3s increase CD sales. So, now RIAA is trying to kill their big, maybe the biggest, promotion tool ever. Go figure..

Correction: Napster servers are already linked in such way that searches propagate across the entire Napster server network.

Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 15 Oct 2000 22:17