Sure, hundreds of millions of people may be surfing the web at the same time you are, but there are now currently even more non-human visitors sprawling around the internet than ever before.
According to a recent study by Incapsula, bots now comprise 61.5 percent of all internet traffic, up by a fifth from last year. In 2012, despite bots having a slight edge, the numbers were mostly even, with human traffic comprising 49 percent of web searches, and bots comprising 51 percent. With only 38.5 percent of traffic in 2013 coming from human searches, who knows what 2014 will bring.
Fortunately, not all of these bots are spammers or hackers; in fact, the aforementioned growth comes mostly from “good” bots, tasked with gathering analytical data. But almost 31 percent of bot traffic comes from bad bots, intent on doing as much damage as possible.
Interesting to note, spam bots have decreased – albeit slightly – over the past year. In 2012, spam bots consisted of 2 percent of traffic, to only .5 percent of traffic in 2013. It’s entirely possible that Google’s anti-spam campaign is to thank for this. Still, hacking attempts and malware attacks are becoming smarter and more efficient, with many attacks custom-made for precise activities.
SOURCE: The Fiscal Times https://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/12/14/Humans-Now-Account-Less-40-Web-Traffic-Infographic