Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the world's most visited Christian website, Bible Gateway (BibleGateway.com; @BibleGateway) has been viewed more than 14 trillion times by people using more than one trillion devices.
"To give some perspective to that astronomical statistic, one million seconds equal 11.5 days, one billion seconds equal 31.75 years, and one trillion seconds equal 31,709.8 years," says Rachel Barach, general manager, Bible Gateway. "Our mission statement is 'To honor Christ by equipping people to read and understand the Bible, wherever they are.' What an honor and privilege to be able to serve so many people around the world during the last quarter-century, doing just that."
Bible Gateway was created in 1993—when the World Wide Web was just beginning—as an internal Bible research computer tool for students at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Today it ranks No. 1 on global search engines, is part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., and is home to more than 200 Bible versions in more than 70 languages—a trusted resource for people in more than 200 countries who rely on it every day for all their desktop and mobile device Bible reading, listening, studying, searching, comparing and sharing needs.
What people the world over search for in the Bible on Bible Gateway varies throughout the year, but generally remains constant from year to year. An interactive visualizing graph lets users explore how cyclical some queries are, often repeating every year around the same time each year (for example, the word "love" being searched in the Bible around Valentine's Day in February).
Along with a new sweepstakes every month with high-value print Bibles as prizes, the website MyBibleGateway.com (#MyBibleGateway) is the hub of the 25th anniversary celebration, where enthusiasts tell what Bible Gateway means to them; such comments as:
"Encouragement. Bible Gateway is instant access to what my soul needs most—to hear from God through his Word."
"Convenient access. Bible Gateway is not only easy to find the passage or verse you need, but to share it with social media, text or email."
"God has been faithful these last 25 years, and we're excited about how he will continue to use Bible Gateway to further His kingdom and help people know and share His Word," says Barach.
Bible Gateway is device friendly, so that no matter what size device a person uses when visiting the site—desktop, tablet, smartphone—the screen is maximized for optimum viewing. And in the months to come, visitors to Bible Gateway will see a refreshed new design to the site.
The award-winning free Bible Gateway App for both Android and iOS allows people to read more than 90 Bible translations and listen to more than 20 audio Bibles, in addition to taking personal notes, highlighting text, starring favorite verses, follow Bible reading plans, enjoy night-mode Bible reading and much more.
The just-released free Bible Gateway Bible Audio App lets users listen to a variety of Bible translations, choosing from multiple audio narration styles; navigate quickly anywhere in the Bible; speed up or slow down playback to listen to the Bible at their own pace; and listen to the Bible while reading the very text that's being narrated.
Among Bible Gateway's many convenient features are the abilities to:
- ·create a free account to select personal preferences
- ·become a member of Bible Gateway Plus to benefit from additional acclaimed Bible study books
- ·receive the free Visual Verse of the Day
- ·access more than 200 Bible versions in more than 70 languages
- ·benefit from free Bible dictionaries, commentaries and encyclopedia
- ·search for Bible verses using Emoji
- ·listen to audio readings and productions of the Bible
- ·comprehensively search the Bible using keywords, phrases, topics and themes
- ·display and compare up to five Bible translations side-by-side at once
- ·read translator footnotes within the context of Bible verses
- ·highlight and favorite Bible passages
- ·write notes while reading Bible verses and save them to a personal account
- ·easily share Bible verses with friends using Twitter, Facebook, email and print
- ·sign up for customizable Bible reading plans
- ·select from more than 60 email and online devotionals
- ·learn personal Scripture engagement principles and techniques
- ·discover new books and read Bible-related articles and interviews on the Bible Gateway Blog, named the No. 1 best Bible study blog on the web by Feedspot.
The top 10 keyword searches on Bible Gateway are:
- love
- faith
- peace
- hope
- joy
- prayer
- Holy Spirit
- grace
- healing
- forgiveness
The top five Bible verses searched and shared by users of Bible Gateway are:
- John 3:16 - ""For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
- Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
- Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things because of Christ who strengthens me."
- Psalm 23:4 - "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."
- Romans 8:28 - "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28).
The top 10 countries searching Bible Gateway are:
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Mexico
- Philippines
- Columbia
- Australia
- South Africa
- Brazil
- India
It appears tropical vacationers and resort tourists enjoy browsing Bible Gateway. Out of more than 200 countries and territories, the geographic location that spends the most time (on average) on Bible Gateway is Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten, part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea, comprising two separate countries, divided between its northern French side (Saint-Martin) and its southern Dutch side (Sint Maarten). Sudan in northeast Africa is the country that statistically spends the least time on Bible Gateway.
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