Image: iStockphoto/SweetyM
About This Quiz
It's hard to believe that only about 20 years ago, the Internet was a strange, new world. And now it's difficult to imagine life without it. But how much do you really know about the Internet?
Al Gore invented the Internet.
fact
fiction
Yes, we're already opening up that can of worms. But no, it's not true -- nor is it true that Gore ever made the claim.
almost fiction: It was actually Tipper. Shhhh, don't tell.
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About a quarter of the world's population uses the Internet.
fact
According to Advanced Micro Devices, 1.5 billion people -- or about a quarter of the world -- have Internet access.
fiction
almost fiction: About a quarter of the people on Earth use computers, but they don't all have Internet access.
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As of June 2009, there were about 18 million domain names in existence.
fact
fiction
almost fiction: There are 180 million domain names out there.
At the end of the first quarter of 2009, there were 180 million domain names. Quick -- how many can you name?
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One of the most important predecessors of the Internet was a network called NETLINX. It started in 1979 with a connection between Harvard and MIT.
fact
fiction
All false, actually. The network was ARPANET, it was 1969, and the schools were Stanford and UCLA.
almost fiction: The schools were Yale and Princeton.
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The Samsung i5000, which came out in 1996, was the first cell phone with Internet access.
fact
fiction
almost fiction: Right year, but it was the Nokia 9000 Communicator.
It was the Nokia, but it didn't really catch on because of its price and the fact that networks weren't quite developed enough yet.
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The first widely used Web browser was called Mosaic, which was introduced in 1993.
fact
True -- but it was only about a year before Netscape Navigator came along and took over.
fiction
almost fiction: Mosaic rolled out in 1989.
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March 10, 2000, is the date of the infamous dot-com "bubble burst."
fact
Yep. March 10 was the day the NASDAQ reached its peak, and it was a long slide downhill after that.
fiction
almost fiction: It was May 10, 2000.
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After July 1, 2009, all computers sold in China will come with software that won't allow users to type sexual keywords.
fact
fiction
almost fiction: True, but it also blocks other stuff, like anti-government sites and anything related to the Tiananmen Square protests.
Yep, it's called "Green Dam" software, and it blocks pornography and any sites that are critical of the Chinese government. All Chinese PCs sold after July 1, 2009, will have it.
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By some estimates, "cyberslacking" costs companies around the world $1 billion a year.
fact
True. Don't ask us how they figured it out -- or how much time we've spent cyberslacking.
fiction
almost fiction: It's more like $10 billion a year -- yikes.
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If you forward this quiz to 10 of your friends in the next 10 minutes, Bill Gates will give you a free trip for two to Disney World!
fact
fiction
Yeah, that was lame. But admit it -- it worked back when you first got on the Internet back in 1996!
almost fiction: You'll actually get a $25 gift certificate to the Gap!
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You Got:
/10
iStockphoto/SweetyM
