Summary: Netcraft explains why Microsoft's numbers seem to be increasing and also finally changes the way it presents market share

Microsoft Windows is a malware farm, so it oughtn't be too shocking that Web spam ("link farms"), according to Netcraft's latest figures via], is driving up Microsoft's share (along with what seems like bribed hosts of parked domains). "Microsoft spin" is what our readers called it. Here is what Netcraft says:

Microsoft’s most recent growth in hostnames since mid-2013 has, for the most part, been caused by a large number of Chinese linkfarms (泛站群). The sites in question provide advertising for gambling sites, online product listings, and normally make use of affiliate schemes. Yet they are hosted in the USA, on generic TLDs such as .com and .net to bypass China’s TLD and internet content provider (ICP) license requirements. Unusually, each linkfarm makes use of a reasonably large number of domains and IP addresses, presumably making them harder for search engines to evade. This would normally be cost prohibitive for this kind of activity, however hosting and domain packages can be found advertised on auction sites specifically for this purpose, with packages of (random/unspecified) .com domains available for as little as €¥17 (~ €£2 / $3) each, guaranteed to remain yours for at least a month. It is not clear why IIS has been chosen for these sites, however it does have a considerably higher market share (for all of our metrics) in China compared to worldwide - for example 59% of domains hosted in China use IIS compared to just 29% worldwide.

We previously explained the role of parked domains as well. Here are some posts from a few months ago:

• More Microsoft Openwashing From The Register and Continued Deception on 'Open Source' in the British Press
• Is Microsoft Paying Few Companies to Move Parked Domains to Windows, Thereby Gaming Netcraft Numbers?
• Microsoft is Still Losing Market Share in Actual Web Servers (Not Dummy Domains)
• Today's Slashdot and IDG Still Relaying Microsoft Propaganda

Microsoft software is not only behind inactive domains; it is also running behind spam (link farms). What a source of pride, eh? Microsoft's real market share on the Web is ~10%, depending on how it's measured. Top sites hardly have anything from Microsoft in them, so the total active site/domain count can be very misleading. Microsoft' share on the Web (measured in terms of number of requests for a page) may actually be something far lower than 10%, and maybe lower than 5%. ⬆