Top 10 technology Guinness
World Records

Of the thousands of animals which could be searched for on the internet, the most popular according to the Guinness Book of World Records is… drumroll… the domestic cat.

That would certainly cause Harbor (pictured) to prick up his ears. Although, as the world record title holder of the longest ears on a dog, it’s unlikely he’d be able (31.1 cm for the left and 34.3 cm for the right).

To celebrate Guinness World Records day we bring you 10 top tech-related world records (in no particular order) to impress your friends with.

1. Most expensive internet address domain name

The domain name insure.com was sold in October 2009 to internet marketing firm Quinstreet for $16 million (£9.6 million). In the summer of 2010, the same firm paid $35.6 million for the insurance agency insurance.com, and although this sale included the entire site it did not include the actual agency, leading many analysts to conclude that the domain name was the primary asset.

2. Largest Internet café

The largest Internet café is ChamsCity Digital Mall with facilities in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria, each offering 1,027 computer terminals, as verified in November 2008.

3. First tweet

Twitter was invented by Jack Dorsey (USA) as a microblogging and social networking tool. The very first tweet was posted by Dorsey at 9:50 pm PST on 21 March 2006, and read “just setting up my twittr”.

4. Most comments on a Facebook item

As of 10 November 10 2011, the most comments on a single Facebook item is 552,695, in response to a post made on 10 January 2011, on Roberto Esposito’s (Italy) Facebook page.

5. Largest encyclopaedia online

The largest online encyclopaedia is Wikipedia, which was launched on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger (both USA) as a free online encyclopaedia edited by users. As of 1 March 2007 it contains 6,628,781 articles.

6. Most lines connected to one telephone number

Between 11 and 12 March 2005, the donation telephone number in the UK for Red Nose Day was connected, via call centres, to 14,368 live agents. The event was organised by Comic Relief, with the technology provided by BT.

7. Worst internet blackout

In just one week during January 2008 no less than four undersea Internet cables were cut causing loss of connection for millions of users in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Some experts have blamed ships dragging their anchors across the sea floor while others suspect intentional sabotage by unknown agents.

8. First telephone call

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell (UK), who devised a way of converting human voices into electrical impulses, then back to voices. He filed his patent for the telephone on 14 February 1876 at the New York Patent office. The first intelligible call occurred in March 1876 in Boston, Massachusetts, when Bell phoned his assistant in a nearby room and said “Come here Watson, I want you”.

9.Thinnest laptop

The Windows 7 Dell Adamo XPS ranges in size from 9.7 mm (0.38 in) at its slimmest point to 10.3 mm (0.41 in) at its thickest – an average of 9.99 mm (0.39 in). For comparison, an iPhone 4 is just 9.4 mm (0.37 in) thick. The Adamo stays skinny by repositioning key components and enclosing the keyboard fully inside the 34 cm (13.4-in) display area.

10. First computer virus

The earliest computer program that replicates itself surreptitiously was demonstrated by Fred Cohen (USA), a student at the University of Southern California on 11 November 1983. Cohen described his creation as “a program that can ‘infect’ other programs by modifying them to include a… version of itself”. Today, over a million such viruses exist.
 

GWR day is an annual event which sees thousands of people all over the world attempting to secure a Guinness World Record during a 24 hour period. It’s still not too late to complete a record….

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