The Internet Boom Goes Bust: World Wide Web Apocalypse

The reckoning of the Internet age is looming.

Growth of the World Wide Web may become strangulated and grind to a halt as soon as 2011. The culprit? I.P. addresses. Part of the mysterious, interconnecting underworld of codes and formulas that lurk under basic domain names, unique I.P. addresses are rapidly running out. When the current internet protocol was designed in 1981, the internet only had 4 billion potential I.P. addresses. New I.P. addresses are shelled out every time a new mobile device or web server hits the great 'net. Due to the explosion of new web technologies and the popularity of the internet in most developed countries, the IPv4 address report suggests that our 4 billion supply could run out in 1272 days.

A switch to the IPv6 protocol is necessary to fend off the internet's collapse. If we do run out of I.P. addresses before switching to the upgraded version of the web, slow internet speeds and other issues are expected bury the fabled World Wide Web in technology's graveyards-right next to rabbit-eared televisions and rotary telephones.

Source: Fox News
London Times