20 Interesting Technology Facts You Didn't Know

In this article, I'll be sharing with you 20 technology facts you didn't know, and without wasting much of our time, let's get right into it.

15:17 07 March 2022

Technology can be interesting and fun for some and on the other hand, it can be boring and hard for some. Over the years, technology has developed and changed thus becoming more efficient and effective, and getting us close to the future that has always been in our imaginations. For me the best part about technology are the fun and interesting facts you could learn about them. These range from history of how certain tech were founded or invented to some little unknown but really interesting facts, all of those are compiled below for your reading pleasure.

 

In this article, I'll be sharing with you 20 technology facts you didn't know, and without wasting much of our time, let's get right into it.

 

•  Google's name is from a spelling error

When Google was founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, they initially wanted to name it after a mathematical term "googol" which is the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.

 

They finally went with "google" which is another variant of the mathematical term. They found the domain name "www.google.com" available for registration and decided to go with it. "Google" obviously sounds better in today's time, damn, it has even become a verb for years.

 

•  The first-ever VCR was so big

In 1956, the first-ever Video Camera Recorder was made and it was so big, it's said to be equivalent to the size of a piano today. Looking at the fact that our small smartphones can literally perform the same task nowadays, you'd have to acknowledge how far technology has come.

 

•  Domain names used to be free

Before 1995, domain name registration used to be totally free and didn't cost a dime but after 1995, the National Science Foundation gave permission for Network Solutions to charge people for registering a domain name. It initially cost $100 for a 2-year registration which is really expensive compared to today's price of a few dollars.

 

•  The name for "robot" is not what you think it is

If you trace the history of the word "robot", you'd find out that it is from the Czech word "robota" which when roughly translated to English means forced work or labor. This is definitely something that is a grievous crime in today's world if done to a human. The word "robot" was first used in 1920 to refer to a fictional humanoid in a play.

 

•  How many websites are on the World Wide Web

As of September 2014, the world wide web had a total count of 1 billion websites and as of 2022, the total number of websites on the web is estimated to be around 1.5 billion which is very much. Surprisingly, only about one-quarter of all websites available on the web are active, which is about 200 million. This is not going to be surprising to tech enthusiasts as domain parking, domain hoarding are all common practices.

 

• Most powerful computer

Fugaku is a supercomputer developed by Riken Research Lab and Fujitsu, and it currently holds the spot as the most powerful computer in the world after kicking IBM's Summit supercomputer off its spot.

 

It has a record computations per second count, a whopping 442,000 TeraFLOPS, which is insane when compared to the Sony PlayStation 5's 10.2 TeraFLOPs.

 

•  Samsung is way older than Apple

Samsung is one of Apple's top rivals in today's technology market as they frequently struggle for who holds the most market share. Samsung is 38 years and 1 month older than Apple and it wasn't a tech company at start as Samsung was founded as a grocery store on March 1, 1938, by Lee Byung-Chull. In my opinion, this is the most shocking technology fact in every way possible.

 

•  The first computer mouse was made from wood

This may sound a bit weird but the first-ever computer mouse was made from wood by Doug Engelbart, in the year 1964. It doesn't even look close to what we have nowadays as it is rectangular and has a little button on the top right. Also, he said it was called a mouse because the cord from the back reminded him of the tiny rodents.

 

•  The first alarm clock could only ring at a set time

Levi Hutchins invented the first-ever mechanical alarm clock in 1787, and it could only ring at a one time (4 am) set by the inventor. This was used for a long time as it wasn't until 1876 that another alarm clock was created that could be set for any time the owner pleases.

 

• The first website

The first-ever website was created in 1989 by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee who is also the inventor of the World Wide Web.

 

As at when it was created, Tin worked for CERN and it was hosted on his NeXT computer. He created it with the goal of allowing information to be shared with ease among fellow scientists and universities.

 

Today, there are over 1.5 billion websites so you can see how far technology has gone.

 

• The first computer

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first-ever computer to be made in the world, it was fully developed in 1945, and it was in service by December 1945.

 

It isn't close to what we have today as it required octal-base radio tubes to run but the caveat was that the tubes burned out every day and needed to be replaced also. Over time, better tubes were available but they didn't last so long as they burnt out every one to two days.

 

It costs $500,000 as of when it was launched which was really expensive.

 

• Microsoft Windows was called "Interface Manager" 

Originally, Windows was called Interface Manager when Microsoft began its development in 1981. It wasn't until 1983 that Interface Manager became Microsoft Windows which all of us know today. In 1985, Windows 1.0 was released by Microsoft and, today, at Windows 11, it is the most common operating system as millions of computers run on Windows.

 

• The first product to be scanned

In October 1952, Norman J. Woodland invented the barcode and he received a patent for it. Surprisingly, it was not used for product labeling until 1974 when IBM employed him. When it was first used, the product to be scanned was a packet of chewing gum. 

 

Today, the system is now known as the Universal Product Code with more than tens of billions of products being scanned every day.

 

• The first-ever online game

In 1999, Sega released the Sega Dreamcast and it became the first 128-bit console available on the market. Apart from that, it was also the first-ever console to offer real time online gaming. 

 

Sadly, it didn't kick off that well as most internet connections then were not good enough to allow for real time online play. Today, there are thousands of online games and the internet is now reliable enough.

 

•  Nintendo wasn't a video games company at start

Nintendo was founded in 1889. During that time, there were no computers so they definitely couldn't have been a video games company. At start, Nintendo was a playing card company in Japan and they expanded from there to other parts of the world. Today, Nintendo still makes playing cards in Japan.

 

• Google might be a spell checker

Google might just be a spell checker as 97% of people use Google to check if they have spelled a word the correct way. This is not surprising as almost everyone must have done this.

 

• The first word to be auto-corrected

When auto-correct was developed, the first-ever word to be auto-corrected was "teh" to "the".

 

Today, millions of words have been auto-corrected and right now, it is one of the most helpful writing assistant tools available to people for free.

 

• The monthly Google searches are more than the world's population

As of November 2021, the world population was estimated to be 7.9 billion and this is quite tiny compared to the over 255 billion searches Google processes every month. If you like math, the amount of Google monthly searches is 32.3 times more than the world's population.

 

•  A pigeon was once faster than the internet

A test was once carried out in the early days of the internet to compare internet upload speeds. To get it done, a carrier pigeon was to fly carrying a USB drive across 50 miles while an internet upload was also carried out across the same distance.

 

In the end, the upload took over 2 hours while the pigeon took a bit over an hour.

 

This is quite unbelievable as the peak Internet speed achieved today is 319 terabits per second (39.875 TB/s).

 

• Firefox logo isn't related to a fox

Firefox is one of the most popular internet browsers today and most people think that because it is called Firefox then the logo must be a fox.

 

Not to burst your bubbles but the cute creature in the Firefox logo isn't a fox but a red panda!