Cultivating Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in a Digital WWWorld
The internet is a truly fantastic thing that has revolutionized the way we communicate and share information. In today’s digital age, the internet serves as a vital tool not just for personal communication and expression but also for education and business.
From its humble inception in the late 20th century, the World Wide Web has grown into something monumental and expansive. It encompasses countless platforms, services, and technologies, each shaping our daily interactions. It’s grown so huge that it spans the entire globe, connecting us across every continent and bridging social differences that once seemed insurmountable.
The internet has become an essential infrastructure for economies, cultivating innovation and entrepreneurship worldwide. It has transformed our lives, allowing us to connect with others, access vast stores of knowledge, and engage with different cultures like never before.
Growing - Not Growing
According to Google AI, as of January 2026, there are approximately 1.34 billion websites worldwide.
While the total number of websites is high, the vast majority are not regularly maintained. Below is a breakdown of the current landscape:
Website Activity and Growth
- Active vs. Inactive: Only about 15% (roughly 201 million) of all websites are considered active or regularly updated. The remaining 85% are dormant, parked domains, or expired sites.
- Creation Rate: Approximately 1.25 million new websites are created every day, or about 37.5 million per month.
- Domain Registrations: There are over 368 million registered domain names globally.
Key Web Infrastructure Trends
- Language: English remains the dominant language, used by 49.2% of all websites.
- Mobile Usage: Mobile devices account for 63% of all global web traffic, making mobile-friendly design critical.
- Popular Platforms: WordPress continues to be the most popular Content Management System (CMS), powering 43.5% of all websites.
- Top Domain: The .com extension remains the most popular with over 157 million registrations.
Internet Access Statistics
- Global Users: The total number of internet users has surpassed 6 billion, representing approximately 73.2% of the global population.
- Offline Population: Despite rapid growth, about 2.21 billion people remain offline, primarily due to infrastructure gaps in Southern Asia and Central Africa.
Source for above facts and stats: Google Search AI Mode
30 Years Online in 2026
Online since 1996, the ADCook.com website has seen thousands of updates, upgrades, and original content.
2026 and Beyond
What started as a simple website when websites were the “new cool thing” has grown into a 76-page, 777-post (so far) website with nearly 200 original artworks and airbrushed murals created over a lifetime, along with a few dozen ACEO Cards I’ve been enjoying creating lately. This website has grown into a digital timeline of content created before AI was the next new cool thing. Until most recently, I wrote my website posts by hand, from content created mainly by hand, by a couple of other contributors, and me.
I must confess, though, as I have in previous posts, I’ve come to enjoy using a little AI in my image editing and in my writing. And, truth be told, I’m not so sure you would want to read my pre-edited rants. Over these past few years, I come to rely on Grammarly to correct my typos, wandering thoughts, and such.
But, first and foremost, this website functions as my online portfolio and creative journey. Still, it is also about sharing others’ art, technology, and creative inspiration and inspiring other seekers and creative souls through my shared observations and stories about art, cars, life, and creative energy exchanges.
This site is definitely one of the roughly 201 million active websites in the world, with about 146 million in the United States alone. The ADCook.com website has been active and maintained since 1996, when there were fewer than a quarter-million worldwide websites worldwide. The Internet back then was like the wild west. It was a blank slate of creativity, so long as you had a fast dial-up connection. As a fun factoid, of the top ten websites of 1996, only one remains (Yahoo.com). I often joke that… “The ADCook website has been on the information highway since it was paved in cobblestone.” Now, as we’re truly entering a super highway period, it’s more fun and exciting than ever.
I endeavour to keep this website exciting, creative, and tech current. Over this website’s 30 years (launched in 1996), I’ve enjoyed keeping up with web technology, from website design and development to SEO and everything it takes to keep a large, engaging website alive.
A lot has changed about websites, what they do, and how they work, especially with AI rapidly taking over most every aspect of it.
According to Google AI, web design in 2026 is moving toward hyper-personalization, immersive experiences, and a shift away from sterile, automated aesthetics toward human-centered "authenticity."
Key emerging web design trends in 2026 include:
Advanced AI & Interaction
- Agentic Web Experiences: Websites are transitioning from static pages to intelligent systems that can automatically adjust layouts, content, and navigation based on real-time user behavior without manual input.
- AI-Powered Hyper-Personalization: Sites now dynamically adapt journeys for each visitor, providing custom content and role-based UX based on unique preferences and intent.
- MCP-Ready Websites: A growing number of sites are being designed with Model Context Protocol (MCP) support, allowing AI agents to navigate and interact with them directly on behalf of users.
- Zero UI & Conversational Interfaces: Interfaces are becoming less reliant on traditional screens, favoring voice, gestures, and smart chatbots that act more as “chatbuds” or human-like copilots.
Aesthetics & Visual Identity
- Humanized Minimalism: The cold minimalism of the past is being replaced by warmer, “snug simple” designs that use soft neutral backgrounds, rounded edges, and tactile visuals to feel more approachable.
- Retro & Nostalgia Revival: Multiple nostalgic trends are emerging, including Dial-up Delight (90s chaotic energy), Y2K gradients, and Museumcore (16th-17th century opulent aesthetics).
- Tactile Maximalism: Moving away from “quiet minimalism,” this trend uses asymmetrical elements, intense textures, and vigorous movement to create overstimulating, psychedelic-like experiences.
- Dopamine Colors: Vibrant, high-saturation hues like electric blue, neon pink, and bright orange are engineered to trigger positive emotional responses and hold user attention.
Technical & Functional Trends
- Performance as Design: Speed is now a primary design principle. Developers prioritize lightweight code, optimized images, and “lean” layouts that can load in under 1.5 seconds.
- Accessibility by Default: Inclusive design has moved from a “checklist” to a core standard. Trends include higher color contrast, better keyboard navigation, and AI-powered accessibility checks built into CMS platforms.
- Sustainable & Ethical Design: There is a growing focus on carbon-aware design, reducing energy consumption through efficient coding and eco-friendly hosting.
- Immersive 3D & AR: Three-dimensional graphics and Augmented Reality (AR) are now common for product previews and storytelling, allowing users to explore items in their own physical space.
Source for above web facts and stats: Google Search AI Mode
That’s a lot to consider in an already busy Internet, and it doesn’t even cover SEO and marketing. While I may not implement all the above-listed features into this site, I sometimes get the opportunity to incorporate other cool features into others’ websites. [ see my web design projects here ]
But Is It Art?
With so many advanced AI interactions, aesthetic and visual identity considerations, technical and functional trends, one has to ask whether it’s art or science, or maybe both, mixed with some magic. Sometimes, I’m azaded that any of this even works at all.
As an artist, I hope AI is used as a tool rather than a crutch. I’m not yet convinced that typing a prompt into an AI program makes anyone an artist, anymore than having AI create a song makes you a musician. And that is what separates art from technology — the human element.
Creating anything is so much more than making a thing. It’s about the journey, who we meet, and what we learn along the way. So, as I boldly trek forward, creating and sharing my art and story here with the help of a few fellow storytellers and sharers of knowledge, I’ll tread deeper into the AI world. The fact is, you can’t truly escape it at this point. AI is here to stay and is growing, but whether good or bad, each of us has a choice about how we use it. Through our creative efforts, we are feeding the beast.
Art is about creating, not so much about shortcuts. It’s the journey and the creative process that excite me. So while I geek out on the website, my heart for art leans toward the traditional side. It’s pencils, paint, and paper, time at the easel, if only to create for no other reason than to create. It’s a human thing.
Cheers to a creative 2026!
- The Art of Global Connection and related stock images © 2026 Adobe Stock. Licensed for editorial and edited by A.D. Cook
- ADCook.com screenshots © 2026 A.D. Cook
- Web Stats Source: Google Search – AI mode :-)
- About the Author
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A.D. is an artist who started drawing at a young age. Throughout his life, he has worked with different creative tools in traditional and digital art and design. His art and writings have been showcased in various publications such as Airbrush Action Magazine, Airbrush Magazine, American Art Collector, Art & Beyond, Dream To Launch, Easyriders, Las Vegas City Life, Las Vegas Weekly, L’Vegue, ModelsMania, Quick Throttle, and The Ultimate Airbrush Handbook.
