The Internet is a wonderful thing. It has given us the ability to progress from the print world of information to the digital world, proving us all of the information we could ever hope to retain. And with 35% of the world’s population having access to the Internet, it’s a true source of technology that has changed the way people function. Really, when is the last time you looked something up in an encyclopedia instead of “googling it?” So since the Internet is such a big deal, here are 11 interesting and fun facts you should know about our dear friend, Internet.
1. The World Wide Web began as a single page at the URL http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. The original page was never saved, but this is what the page looked like after 2 years of revisions.
2. If Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest in the world:
China: 1.354 billion
India: 1.210 billion
Facebook: 1.06 billion
US: 315 million
(However, Americans are #1 for the most people who use the internet and watch TV simultaneously)
3. The most expensive domain name ever is Insure.com, which sold for $16 million, second to sex.com, which sold for somewhere around $13-14 million. If you had been the lucky owner of FB.com before the Facebook boom, you were fortunate enough to sell the two-letter domain for around $9 million.
4. The longest domain name is www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com
Well, maybe. They actually asked Guinness World Records to verify this and got this HILARIOUS e-mail response (which may or may not be true. Hey, it is the Internet after all!)...
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From : <crm@guinnessrecords.com>
To : <email>
Subject : Guinness World Record
Date : Wed, 25 Sep 2002 16:54:32 +0100
25 September 2002
Dear Sir
Thank you for sending us the details of your recent record proposal for ’Registering the worlds longest computer domain name’
After having examined the information you sent, and given full consideration to your proposal, I am afraid we are unable to accept your proposal as a record.
This record is currently rested, which means that no one can attempt this record and become a new record holder. It has been rested because there is no merit whatsoever in this. It takes little to no effort and is similar to taking the largest number in the world and then adding 1 to it.
I appreciate you have gone to a lot of effort, and we are delighted to hear from people around the world with their record claims and suggestions. However, given the sheer scope of the records on our database, and the growing number of people contacting us with record claims and suggestions, we need to exercise some editorial control over what is and is not accepted as a record.
I appreciate this may be disappointing for you, but I hope this does not deter you from trying again. We are always keen to hear from people who wish to break Guinness World Records. If you should need any advice regarding breaking an existing record, please contact us again quoting the above reference number. Alternatively, you can contact us through our website at: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com
Once again, thank you for writing. We wish you every success with any future record-breaking endeavors.
Yours sincerely,
Scott Christie
Records Research Services
Guinness World Records
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5. The Internet was called the "Galactic Network" by MIT’s JCR Licklider in memos written in 1962.
6. Internet sovereignty was achieved on April 30, 1993 when CERN announced that anyone could use WWW technology freely.
7. Bill Gates house was designed using a Macintosh computer.
8. Doug Engelbart made the first computer mouse in 1964 out of wood.
(image via: http://gajitz.com)
9. The World Wide Web only took 4 years to reach 50 million users.
radio: 38 years
television: 13 years
10. The first White House website was launched during the Clinton-Gore administration on October 21, 1994. Coincidentally, the site www.whitehouse.com linked to a pornography web site.
11. Google claims to have only indexed about 0.04% or 200 Terabytes of the Internet, meaning you could fit the entire Internet on only 200 million Blu-Ray Disks. 
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