Bonum Certa Men Certa

2021: The Year of Gemini on the Internet (From Around 500 Known Capsules to 2,000 or More, With Over 3 Months Left)

Along with or along the lines of "Linux on the desktop" (PC Magazine claims 2021 Is the Year of Linux on the Desktop)

Gemini Lupa
Gemini Lupa stats as OpenDocument Format (ODF)



Summary: We've decided to chart or produce a graph with some of the publicly-available numbers from Lupa, the Gemini protocol spider of Stéphane Bortzmeyer (bortzmeyer.org)

THE investment we've put into Gemini paid off; more so than IPFS for reasons that we explained yesterday.



The numbers shown in the graph (and spreadsheet) above are not complete, but they're the closest approximation we currently have because Geminispace (or Gemini space) is not centralised. The raw data comes from past stats and present stats. These do stress upfront: “There are several reasons why many URIs are not in the database: * the capsule may forbid retrieval, through robots.txt, * we do not know all the URIs and some cannot be found from the ones we know [...] 1186 (87.1 %) capsules are self-signed, 139 (10.2 %) use the Certificate Authority Let’s Encrypt, 37 (2.7 %) are signed by another CA (may be not a trusted one).”

CAs are part of the centralisation trap we've often spoken about. Web browsers actively encourage this centralisation if not monopolisation by issuing exceptionally nasty warnings to people (if not outright blocking access).

Here is what the monthly reports say or said.

Today (29th of September): "There are 1679 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 1362 of them."

Start of September: "There are 1538 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 1289 of them."

Start of August: "There are 1503 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 1210 of them."

Start of July: "There are 1342 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 1149 of them."

Start of June: "There are 1263 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 1062 of them."

Start of May: "There are 1093 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 926 of them."

Start of April: "There are 1028 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 850 of them."

Start of March: "There are 825 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 712 of them."

Start of February: "There are 606 capsules. We successfully connected recently to 519 of them."

Start of January: "There are 531 capsules. We successfully connected to 441 of them."

December 22nd: "There are 506 capsules. We successfully connected to 415 of them."

We've been feeling this phenomenal growth ourselves, as traffic doubles every 2 months or so. In the month of September: (so far)

        
  21236 requests on September 1                  
  20951 requests on September 2                  
   8955 requests on September 3                  
   8087 requests on September 4                  
   7986 requests on September 5                  
   8876 requests on September 6                  
  29780 requests on September 7                  
  41844 requests on September 8                  
   8853 requests on September 9                  
   9048 requests on September 10                  
   9206 requests on September 11
  10052 requests on September 12                  
  13739 requests on September 13                  
   9981 requests on September 14 
  12974 requests on September 15                  
  10816 requests on September 16                  
  10497 requests on September 17 
  10056 requests on September 18                  
  12172 requests on September 19                  
  11829 requests on September 20                  
   8993 requests on September 21                  
  20090 requests on September 22                  
  11978 requests on September 23                  
  10986 requests on September 24 
  10649 requests on September 25                  
  15293 requests on September 26                  
  14994 requests on September 27                  
  13672 requests on September 28   
  


That's about 13.8k page requests per day (0.16 per second) or more than double what we got last month. Most accessed URLs for the given day (or a prior day) can be seen here. Over the Web we average about 4.7 per second, i.e. 34 times higher than the above rate. But currently a lot more people use the Web than Gemini; that can change in the more distant future.

Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 83 Out of 200: Religion is Still Alive, But for Many This Religion is Monetary (Greed, Monopolies, Corporate Power)
If all you keep boasting about is being able to afford a hotel room and some domestic flight, then maybe you have no real accomplishments and are more like a "Facebook serf" with a credit card
Web Browsers Are for Rendering Web Page, They Shouldn't Become PDF Editors
Linus Torvalds is quickly learning and speaking about this
 
GAFAM is Connected to Misogyny, Almost All Founders Divorced
They're not good people, even if they pay the media to pretend otherwise
Oracle Seems to Have Popularised Overnight Layoffs, Now GAFAM Does the Same
layoff emails at 4 a.m. local time
A Lot of Fake News About Microsoft's LinkedIn Today, Some Comes From Slopfarms, Some Relies on Those Slopfarms
As usual, slopfarms make the Web a huge pile of garbage
IBM's Kyndryl is Circling Down the Drain, Say Kyndryl Insiders
"IBM Dinosaurs who were recycled and catapulted into the orange trash heap by IBM"
A Lot of Coverage Adding Hype Factor to Slop Bug Reports... is Made by LLM Slop
Local Privilege Escalation [...] the slop motivates some actual people to keep writing about it
Links 20/05/2026: Mass Layoffs at NPR (Bought by the Ballmers and Bill Epsteingate), Starbucks Korea CEO Fired Over ‘Tank Day’ Ad
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/05/2026: Advantage of CD Collections, Geminaut's View of Nostr, and SSL / TLS Certificates
Links for the day
IBM is Becoming a Pile of Expired Patents and Abandoned Buildings, Assets of Little Actual Value
Having laid off a ton of people, borrowed lots of money to fake growth (by acquisition), and sent some jobs to low-paid regions where innovation isn't done
Links 20/05/2026: Looting of Americans for "White Grievance Reparations Fund"; "Mark Zuckerberg Used Shell Companies to Bully Native Hawaiians"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 82 Out of 200: British Government Intervenes in the SLAPPs by Brett Wilson LLP
At this stage our matters are dealt with by a layer below that of the Prime Minister (adjacent to it)
LinkedIn Communications Reveal That LinkedIn - Like GitHub - Will Vanish Inside the Belly of Microsoft
This is definitely going to happen.
In Wall Street, Financial Difficulties Drive Shares Up
Wall Street doesn't work that way
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXVIII - European Patent Office (EPO) Guidebook Says Report Crimes Committed on EPO Premises. Some Did, But President Campinos Covers up for the Culprits.
The staff has long been on strike and the union (SUEPO) organised an enhanced day of action just two days ago
Gemini Links 20/05/2026: Fall of an Empire, "High Tech is a Social Exercise", and Big Cameras
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 19, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 19, 2026
LinkedIn Layoffs at Microsoft: Probably Well More Than 5% of Staff
In short, it's difficult to believe only 5% are impacted
It's Not Just a Widespread Theory, It's Apparently a Verified Fact: Home Appliances Not Made to Last Long
Washing machine repair man asserts that the machines sold a decade ago could maybe last a decade; now they last barely 5 years.
Torvalds Capitulated on Rust and Slop, Now He's Paying the Price
they are pushing Microsoft and slop for grifters and scammers
Whistleblowers Needed: We Are Seeing Many Layoffs in Red Hat (Not Just in China), We Want to Know More
Last week we learned about some people who said they had left Red Hat or are leaving Red Hat
Links 19/05/2026: More Obituaries for Peter G. Neumann, Taiwan Abandoned by Cheeto House for Don's Personal Gain
Links for the day
Links 19/05/2026: Online 'Storage' (Surveillance) Accounts Lower Thresholds (Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos), Slop Debacles Expand (False Promises Made to Staff Regarding Compensation)
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 81 Out of 200: SLAPP Censorship Does Not Work If Your Sole Strategy is Revenge (and You Attack the Family)
Both yours and others'
Techrights at 20 (Soon)
It does not seek popularity or affirmation from "Establishment" outlets
We Pay More for Less, for Things That Last Less Time and Are Almost Impossible to Repair
Ever noticed how "modern" or "smart" TVs come with dumber and dumber (worse) controllers?
Vista 11 Turns 5 in a Couple of Months. Not Many People Use It.
It is the only supported version of Windows; many people move elsewhere
Head of GitHub Recently Left, Microsoft Need No Longer Report Mass Layoffs There (User Activity is Declining)
We've long said that LinkedIn and GitHub, which Microsoft bought, would likely end up like Skype
The Slop Bubble is Already Bursting
Slop is not desirable and the general public is growingly impatient, seeing that slop has improved nothing for them
Gemini Links 19/05/2026: Reliable Old Tech, Collection of Essays
Links for the day
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXVII - European Patent Office (EPO) Became a "Toxic Work Environment" When Cocaine Addicts Put in Charge
They are putting at risk colleagues by abusing them
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 18, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, May 18, 2026
Links 18/05/2026: Slop-induced Shortages, Solicitors Regulation Authority Says It's Unable to Deal With Complaints Load (So Regulation Does Not Really Exist)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/05/2026: Ghost Essay and World Wide Web Considered Broken
Links for the day
Cooperation and Collaboration, on a More Personal Level
Rianne, to me, isn't just a wife; she is also my best friend
IBM Has Payroll Problems (Just Like Microsoft)
It's a good thing that many nations around the world are, accordingly if not proactively, divesting from GAFAM
Links 18/05/2026: 25 Years of OLDaily and Dangers of "Living With Too Much Tech"
Links for the day
Trips to London
London isn't a bad place, but it's a long journey and we'd rather stay in Manchester and write about technology
SLAPP Censorship - Part 80 Out of 200: Having Run Out of Time to Meet a Judge's Deadline, Microsoft's Graveley Had Garrett's Lawyers Argued My ~190-Page Defence and CounterClaim (DCC) Was Unclear About My Position
Nothing could be further from the truth
Working in the Shell (and Fish)
Yesterday we spent about 5 hours on the shells and fish
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXVI - Campinos Has Put Unfit-for-Employment Drug Addicts in Charge of the European Patent Office (EPO)
How many months has Campinos got left before the delegates show him the door?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 17, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, May 17, 2026
Gemini Links 18/05/2026: Poetry, Sauna, and GNU Taler
Links for the day