Quiz: How Much Do You Know About The Internet Itself?
The most expensive word on Google AdWords is not exactly sexy or cool. What is it?
The most expensive keyword for Google AdWords is "insurance." Not exactly sexy, is it? Although I suppose it's practical.
How old is the Internet?
The internet is now 10,000+ days old. If you want to keep an exact track of the counter, you can always visit howoldistheinter.net and appreciate that for that long you have access to free information anywhere and everywhere. In 2019, it will turn 30.
True or False: The first website ever made is still live.
The world’s first website is still alive and kicking. It does not come close to being glamorous because all that’s present is text and hyperlinks… but the fact that it is still running is pretty cool.
In what year was Twitter founded?
The first tweet was written on 21st March, 2006, by Twitter's founder, Jack Dorsey.
According to a study on America's internet-literacy, 1 in 10 Americans believe that...
Here's another indication of the digital divide: according to one study, 1 in 10 Americans think that HTML (the programming language used to build web pages) is a sexually transmitted disease.
Which company helped make the first ever “banner ad” online?
The first ever banner ad invaded the Internet in 1994. The ad was part of AT&Ts “you will” campaign, and was placed on the HotWired homepage.
Which country has the highest percentage of citizens using the internet?
China leads the world in terms of the total number of Internet users with over 630 million people. Norway, however, has the highest percentage of its population using the Internet at 95.05 percent.
A DDOS attack is a form of cyber terrorism. What does DDOS stand for?
The most common form of “cyber terrorism” is a DDOS, or Distributed Denial of Service attack, whereby hundreds if not thousands of systems around the world simultaneously and repeatedly connect to a website or network in order to tie up the server resources, often sending it crashing offline.
What is the term used to describe the gap in online skills between older people and younger people living today?
15% of American adults do not use the internet. That's a pretty astonishing figure, and serves to illustrate an issue which some social scientists have begun to call the Digital Divide, or Digital Inequality. The theory being that, as modern economies become more and more entwined with online behavior, those of us who fail to adapt and learn new skills will be left behind. A parallel might be someone who was illiterate in the early 20th-century, and how they would struggle to find work.
True or False: Internet trolling is proof that human beings are becoming more means-spirited.
Psychologists examined Internet trolls and found that they are "narcissistic, psychopathic, and sadistic", and that while they can be extremely vocal, the traits themselves are only as common as they have always been, throughout human history. In other words: although trolls are easy to focus on (because of their volume and their eye-catching crappiness) they don't actually make up an overly-large portion of internet users. So humanity hasn't gotten worse by-and-large... it's just that the worst of us are getting louder.
How long did it take for the Internet to reach 50 million users?
It took the Internet a mere three years to reach 50 million users. The television took 13 years, while the radio managed to achieve the same feat in 18 years.
The first mainstream music file-sharing service was called…
The MP3 standard was invented in 1991... but it didn't take off right away. It took until 1998 for the first music file-sharing service, Napster, to go live and take the file format to the mainstream.
True or False: There is high-speed internet service on Mount Everest
If you happen to have bad internet service in your house, here's another reason to be mad at your provider: there’s actually high-speed internet service on the way up to Mount Everest.
It is expected that around 40 billion gadgets are going to be connected to the internet by 2020. Experts call this concept...
It is expected that around 40 billion gadgets are going to be connected to the internet by 2020. It's a concept that experts refer to as The Internet of Things, or IOT.
About how many websites are hacked every day?
30,000 websites are hacked every day. While most of these hackers play simple pranks (like hiding a joke on the website or rearranging menu items) some have very malicious intentions... like stealing user data or credit card numbers.
True or False: There are physical cables deep under the sea, which help to transfer data across the Atlantic Ocean.
True! They’re called submarine communications cables (SCC), and are often as little as an inch thick!
What is the name of the man who is considered to have invented the Internet?
Tim Berners-Lee isn’t just the inventor of the internet… he’s also a knight! He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
True or False: When you enter a Google search, the results are pulled from every page on the Internet.
False! Google estimates that the Internet today contains about 5 million terabytes of data (1TB = 1,000GB), and claims it has only indexed a paltry 0.04% of it all!
Roughly what percentage of American adults do NOT use the Internet?
5% of American adults do not use the internet. That's a pretty astonishing figure, and serves to illustrate an issue which some social scientists have begun to call the Digital Divide, or Digital Inequality. The theory being that, as modern economies become more and more entwined with online behavior, those of us who fail to adapt and learn new skills will be left behind. A parallel might be someone who was illiterate in the early 20th-century, and how they would struggle to find work.
What is the most-viewed video on Youtube?
For a long time, “Gangnam Style” by PSY was the most viewed videos of all time with more than 2,840,000,000 views… but it has recently been beaten by the song “Despacito” which boasts an astounding 5 billion views and counting. More than half the world has seen it!
What country has the highest average internet speeds in the world?
South Korea has the fastest internet speeds in the world. They can download at 26 Mbps—nearly four times the world average of 7 Mbps. (Mbps means “megabytes per second”)
What was the first ever webcam used for?
he camera was focused on the pot, so anyone on the network could check to see if the pot had coffee before they were forced to stand-up and look like a bunch of cavemen. Yep. This monumental moment in the history of the internet was the work of some computer programmers too lazy to get out of their chairs. Truly, we are living in the future.
The majority of internet traffic is generated by...
The majority of internet traffic isn’t generated by humans. It's mostly bots— like the ones run by Google and other search engines. There's also just a ton of malware. That’s why websites almost always have those “I’m not a robot” boxes to check off.
Roughly what percentage of Internet users are from Asia?
Approximately 3.2 billion people use the internet. 1.7 billion of those users are from Asian countries.
In which country was a politician pushing for internet censorship… only to be arrested for online sexual misbehaviour himself?
For years, Patrick Rock was a Policy Advisor to the British Prime Minister, David Cameron. But for many, Rock was more famous for one thing: his role in advocating for "porn filter" which would censor online content in Britain. The initiative was wildly unpopular... and it only got worse after Rock resigned his post in 2014 under suspicious circumstances. What caused his resignation? Well, it likely had something to do with his later arrest for child porn offenses. That's right: the man who was pushing to regulate online pornography in Britain was himself a sex-criminal.
Your Results
Internet user
You’ve clearly been studying your internet history. Sure, a few of those questions got past you… but that’s because we made this as hard as humanly possible. And you still did pretty dang well. Good on you.
Master of the Interwebs
Have you found some way to make a living off this knowledge you have? I mean your Internet expertise is shocking. Who else has such deep knowledge and understanding of the most obscure details of the online world? Very impressive… well done.
Happy With Your Test Score? This video can help you do better on any quiz... even if you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the topic.
Quiz
The internet is all around us. This is, indeed, a good chunk of its power. Because the internet is everywhere (in our phones, streetlights, and microwaves), it helps to make our modern world go. But how much do you know about how it all works? And how it came to be? Time to find out...
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