A creator of the World Wide Web and chief Internet evangelist for Google, Cerf, told an audience in the National Press Club the world wants more Internet addresses.

“Every appliance you can perhaps imagine, you are switching from electromechanical controls to programmable controls. And once you set a computer inside of anything, there is a chance to place it to the Net.”

Cerf said he and Bob Kahn, another Internet cofounder, estimated the Internet would want about 4.3 billion addresses. Cisco Systems estimates about 50 billion devices will probably be on the Web by 2020, Cerf said.

For some consumers, the change has started. Philips, for example, has created a light bulb which allows owners to control the color and intensity, which needs an Internet address.

Internet users, Cerf said, need to change to the most recent type of IP address, IPv6, which uses more numbers to accelerate access to websites. Users simply have to call their Internet service provider to get changed to IPv6, he said.

The American Registry for Internet Numbers, ARIN is the not for profit that manages both new and old IP addresses.

ARIN’s CEO, John Curran, said the great bulk of folks don’t recognize that his team is retooling the Web behind the scenes.