If you scored an Internet world record today, chances are it won’t be around for long. Unlike some categories of world record – cockroach eating, say, or sword swallowing — Internet records tend to be short lived. You could be the toast of the World Wide Web one day and be virtually forgotten the next. But some records are harder than others to break. Here are 10 most amazing internet records that are hardest to break
10| Most famous Spammers
Everything has a first on the Internet, and Spam – those annoying, unwanted emails filling more than 90% of your inbox – is no exception. On May 3, 1978 a marketer at Digital Equipment Corporation named Gary Thuerk thought of a brilliant way to get the word out about their new computer systems. He sent a mass email to 400 accounts on ARPANET and voila, Spam was born. But Spam wasn’t called Spam yet – THAT honor goes to Joel Furr, who first coined the phrase in a Usenet posting around 1993.
The use of the word Spam brilliantly refers to both the ham-based-processed-meat-in-a-can (named by Ken Daignean who won a $100 contest in 1937), and to a skit by the British Comedy Troupe Monty Python, where Vikings appear from nowhere and chant “Spam Spam Wonderful Spam!” drowning out everyone else in the scene.
9| Most Facebook “Likes” in 24 Hours: Lil’ Wayne
Rapper Lil’ Wayne broke the Guinness Record for the most number of Likes in a 24-hour period .In one day, 588,243 were registered on Lil’ Wayne’s status.
8| Most Expensive Domain Name: Insure.com
If you think Sex sells, think again. It’s insurance that’s the big cash-grabber. In 2006, it earned the top spot by commanding $16 million dollars, topping Sex.com’s $14 million sale in Oct. 2010. Fund.com and Porn.com are next in line, no-brainers of course. But the luckiest in the bunch? The Farm Bureau, who sold FB.com to Facebook for $8.5 million.
7| Country With Fastest Internet: South Korea
South Korea really is wired. By 2006, 96% of South Korean cellphone users had Internet access and today’s users connect at a blazing fast 17.5 Mbps. In a distant second place is Japan with 9.1, tied with Hong Kong; the Netherlands and Latvia are each a notch below that. Where is the United States? A distant 13th place with 5.8 Mbps. How is the Internet doing as a whole? A mere 2.3 Mbps on average worldwide, a drop of 14 percent from 2011.
6| Most Followed News Online: The Royal Wedding
When Prince William married Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011, it seemed like the whole world was watching. And they were, as an estimated 2.5 billion people watched the nuptials in some way, shape or form. Approximately 1.6 million people streamed it live via Internet, surpassing the 2010 World Cup record. Yahoo alone received 40,000 requests per SECOND for video data. But not only did they watch, they clicked on news stories at a rate of 5 million page views per minute at its peak, surpassing Michael Jackson’s funeral.
On Twitter, the top 10 trends all related to Will and Kate, and on Facebook 6.8 million people posted a wedding-related status update within 24 hours, resulting in 9.4 million comments. If they had streamed the honeymoon, they would have broken the Internet.
5| Highest Webcam on Earth: Mount Everest
In this world of ubiquitous surveillance, it is now even harder to avoid the camera’s probing eye. Even Sherpas are now being watched, as the Italian Scientific Committee has placed a webcam at an altitude of 5643 meters atop a peak overlooking Mt. Everest, the highest spot on Earth.
4| Llanfairpwllgw- yngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-Llantysiliogogogoch.com
One of the silliest Internet Records is for the longest one. Technically, a domain name can have up to 63 characters (not including sub-domains or suffixes). Sure, there are loads of stupid ones – technically the “longest” domain name on record is http://www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com/ – followed closely by http://www.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk.com/ – a free email service for annoying people. But the winner is Llanfairpwllgw-yngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-Llantysiliogogogoch.com which is the website of an actual single-word town in Wales.
3| Oldest site on Internet: Symbolics.com
On March 15, 1985, Symbolics Computer Corporation made history byregistering the first domain name. That year, there were just five websites in existence. Fast forward to today, where there are over 192 million domains registered and more than 2.1 billion users worldwide, mostly based in Asia. Symbolics.com was bought in 2009 and now hosts a bunch of useless-but-interesting facts.
2| Most watched video on YouTube: Justin Bieber
Call it Revenge of the Bieber. While Justin may only be Number Two in the Twitterverse, Biebs is top of the pops here on YouTube with 755,479,979 views of hit his Baby as of 7/6/2012.
Speaking of babies, what is the most popular NON-MUSIC video of all time? Charlie Bit My Finger – Again! with 464,588,601 views – proving there’s nothing like the power of a good sequel.
1| Most Number of Twitter Followers: Lady Gaga
Sorry, Biebs – Gaga gotcha. Say what you will but the Queen of Pop Charts is also Numero Uno in Twitterverse with 26,823,122 followers (as of July 2012) to Justin Bieber’s paltry 24,687,443. Rounding out the top 5 are Katy Perry (22,869,592), Rhianna (22,232,112), and Britney Spears (22,232,112). Number 6? President Barack Obama (17,381,203) who is the only other male in the Top Ten.
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