Checking train times, booking restaurants, donating to friends’ fun runs – the Internet has long since moved from being a tool purely for work. It is a fact that the Internet has completely reshaped our lives, both at work and at home. We use the Internet every day to do so many different jobs that we can no longer imagine how we coped before. But the technology and the story behind this now vital everyday tool is amazing. Here are 21 fascinating internet facts that you probably didn’t even know.

• The Internet was invented over 40 years ago, in a beer garden! Who says the best ideas don’t come over a drink!
• Right now, 3.6 billion people are using the Internet – that’s over half the world’s population connected to the world wide web just like you are.
• It may seem like only yesterday we were all dialled in for our Internet connection, but wireless internet was actually founded in September 1990! Wi-Fi is only a few years away from its 30th birthday!
• With a whopping 71% of mobile communications flowing over wireless Internet, Wi-Fi is now the biggest transmitter of communications worldwide.
• Previous names for wireless Internet were WaveLAN, FlankSpeed, DragonFly, WECA and IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence, before the more consumer-friendly Wi-Fi name was adopted.
• Interbrand invented the term “Wi-Fi” as a play on words of the term “Hi-Fi” or “High Fidelity”. However, Wi-Fi doesn’t actually stand for anything. What added to the confusion was the Wi-Fi Alliance’s use of a nonsense advertising slogan, “The Standard for Wireless Fidelity,” which lead many people to think that Wi-Fi was an abbreviation of “Wireless Fidelity”.
• With the global average Internet speed sitting at 5.6Mbps, South Korea is storming ahead as the fastest country globally, with an average Internet speed of 26.7Mbps!
• Wireless Internet signals generally emit from your router in a doughnut shape. Tasty.
• Ethernet – the most commonly used wired Internet – was invented almost half a century ago in the early 1970s, by Bob Metcalfe.
• In the early days of computer networking, coaxial cables were used, the same type of cabling that is commonly used for cable or satellite TV today.
• You may have only heard it recently, but the term Internet of Things (IoT) has actually been around for almost 20 years! It was first coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton, a British visionary and engineer.
• In 2016 approximately 7 billion people were living on the planet, and over 23 billion devices connected to the Internet – that’s an average of 3 devices per person.
• By 2020 it is estimated there will be over 50 billion Internet-connected devices worldwide being used by 7.8 billion people – over double the number of average devices per person!
• In 2016 over 15 billion Internet-connected devices were shipped across the globe! That’s a lot of techs!
• Some of the strangest devices connected to the Internet now include Walking Sticks, Umbrellas, Shirts, Water Bottles, Tails (for festival-goers) and Cutlery. We’ve left the particularly odd items off this list!
• 90% of consumers are being driven towards the connected smart home trend by better security for their homes and families.
• There are currently around 150 million smart homes worldwide – it won’t be long before Internet-connected homes are the norm.
• The average person now spends almost 10 hours a day online – we spend more time on the Internet that we do sleeping!
• 5 billion Google searches are performed on the Internet each day! What are all these people searching for?!
• China leads the most Internet usage – over 650 million users, making up a 5th of the total number of people online.
• Google is ranked as the most popular website worldwide, with Youtube coming in second and Facebook third.

It’s amazing how little we know about something we use for more than 10 hours a day! –  We’re just scraping the surface when it comes to incredible facts about the Internet, but now you can go and dazzle your friends with your new-found knowledge. Next time you are sat with a beer we expect you to show off that the Internet was invented in a beer garden. Next time you Google, you can think about your search joining the 3.5 billion other searches being performed that day. The Internet is a vast place – watch this space for more Internet facts from Fing in the future.

Learn more about our Home Network Security Device for protecting your Internet and WiFi.