Interesting Facts about Broadband and the Internet
Nowadays, the internet is as common in everyday life as the humble television set. It’s hard to believe then, that a little over two decades ago, having online connectivity was seen as a luxury that only the very privileged could afford. We rely on the internet for so many things in day to day life that in all honesty, if for some reason the world were to lose online connectivity, even for a short period of time, chaos and anarchy would likely ensue. As awesome as the internet is, we bet there are a number of facts relating to the internet that you weren’t aware of. Many of these facts are nothing more than just useless trivia, but they’re incredibly interesting nonetheless, and who knows when they may come in handy. Here are some interesting facts about broadband and the internet that you probably didn’t know.
There are a lot of websites online
Shock horror, the internet has a lot of websites, who knew? Yes, okay, you can hold the sarcasm however, because you’ll likely be surprised when you learn precisely how many websites there are. As of October 2018, there are more than 1.9 BILLION websites online, and that number is growing every single day. Some are awesome, some are horrendous, and some are just plain bizarre, but they are there nonetheless.
More than 1 in 2 people uses the web
We knew that the internet was popular, but did you know it was this popular? Currently there are 7.53 billion people in the world. As of this writing, just shy of 3.8 billion people are connected to the world wide web in some capacity.
We spend a lot of money online
Whether you’re buying your dog a cute outfit to wear during the holidays, or a brand-new processor for your work laptop, you can buy virtually anything online. Because of this, we spend a lot of money online in the UK, but do you know how much? Well, roughly each year, we spend an astonishing £1.7 Trillion on the web.
Hacking is a problem
Like it or not, online cyber crime is a real problem. Many websites, big and small, have been hacked in the past, and sadly that will likely be the case for the foreseeable future. Every single day however, around 85,000 websites are hacked by cyber-criminals, with WordPress sites being amongst the most vulnerable.
The first email was sent earlier than you thought
It wasn’t until the mid-nineties that the internet started to take off. The world’s very first email however, was sent way back in 1971. While the world’s first text message read ‘Merry Christmas’ the world’s first email was decidedly more boring. We know that because US programmer Ray Tomlinson sent it, and he can’t actually remember what it said.
We send a lot of emails
Talking of emails, while most of yours are probably spam, you do get the occasional useful one. But do you know how many emails are sent thanks to the internet and broadband? Well, you’re about to. We send 250 Billion emails every single day.
