Then End of 2005 & the Beginning of the Transsexual Internet

[Richctdude]

more sites and it really caught on

[runningdownthatdream]

I think it was likely due to increased media exposure and perhaps especially:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There's...g_About_Miriam

Note that it originally aired in early 2004 although the media buzz about the show continued for some time and spread all over the world.

[Stavros]

I can't be sure but I believe that since 2005 there has been an incremental increase in the numbers of people connected to the internet at home, which has been possible as connectivity becomes easier through cable or wireless. The costs have come down dramatically as a result of the increase in users, which altogether means more and more people accessing more and more websites, and particularly social networking sites and YouTube which were limited at the time. There was a time when the internet was only accessible at work on in public libraries or internet cafes, I think the greater use of it at home where people can search for their preferences in private may explain the graphs. Certainly there is a greater variety of material out there than there used to be, yet I understand some other surveys shows that most people access roughly the same 10 web sites on a regular basis...seems to be right for me.

[BluegrassCat]

It seems likely, as some people said, that the bulge was due to increased broadband access and the decline due to people finding sites they like rather than starting every jo session by heading to google. But Asia's comment is really interesting in that there was a real effect going on off the web. That and the fact that other niche markets didn't show the same bulge makes it seem like maybe there was T in the water those years. Maybe that was the golden age for providers and producers - the window after widespread broadband and before the recession.

[Jamie French]

Started escorting in 2005... between then and 2007 was the busiest time in the business I've had.

[BluegrassCat]

Here's another bit of evidence of for the golden-age of 2005-2007 theory. Looking at the top 150 posters on HA we can see when they joined. Again for 2006 and 2007 a lot more people (who would go on to post substantially) joined. October & November 2007 were especially good months. Of course all kinds of porn forums could have been doing similarly well in this time, but it's interesting it matches up with the google-search pattern.