Last week, I told my friend that Google uses goats to mow their lawns. She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “No way that’s true,” she said.
I pulled it up on my phone. It’s 100% true. Google rents goats from a company called California Grazing to eat the grass at their Mountain View headquarters. Her reaction? Priceless.
Technology is full of these bizarre, fascinating, sometimes hilarious facts that sound completely made up but are absolutely real. From the weird origins of everyday tech to statistics that’ll blow your mind, the tech world is way stranger and more interesting than most people realize.
Ready to have your mind blown? Let’s dive into over 50 technology facts that’ll make you the most interesting person at your next dinner party.
The Internet: Weirder Than You Think
1. The entire internet weighs about as much as a strawberry. According to physicist Russell Seitz, all the electrons in motion that make up the internet at any given moment weigh roughly 50 grams. Next time you’re browsing, you’re basically holding the entire internet in your hand. Kind of.
2. There are 5.56 billion global internet users as of February 2025. That’s 67.9% of the world’s population. We’ve gone from nobody being online to most of humanity being connected in just a few decades.
3. More people have internet access than clean water. This is both amazing and depressing. Technology has reached remote corners of the world faster than basic infrastructure. Think about that for a second.
4. About 30,000 websites are hacked every single day. And most of them are legitimate small business sites. That random mom and pop shop website? Prime target for cybercriminals.
5. 51% of internet traffic is “non human.” Only about half of web traffic comes from actual people. The rest? Bots, hacking programs, spammers, and malicious phishing. The internet is basically half robots.
6. The first website ever created is still online. Tim Berners Lee launched it in 1991, and you can still visit it today. It’s hilariously basic, just plain text explaining what the World Wide Web is. No images, no fancy design, just pure ’90s internet vibes.
7. There are 1.88 billion websites, but 75% are inactive. That means only about 200 million websites are actually active. The rest are digital ghost towns, parked domains, abandoned projects, or websites people forgot they even made.
8. Netflix users collectively watch 164 million hours every day. That’s equivalent to 18,812 years’ worth of TV and movies. Every. Single. Day. Suddenly watching shows all weekend doesn’t feel as bad as it used to..
Tech Companies: The Stories Behind the Giants
9. Google was supposed to be called “Googol.” The founders made a spelling error, and it stuck. Imagine if we were all “googoling” things instead.
10. The founders of Google tried to sell it for $1 million in 1999. Excite turned them down. That’s got to be one of the worst business decisions in history. Google is now worth over $2 trillion.
11. Apple launched a clothing line in 1986. It was described by others as a “train wreck.” Turns out, tech companies aren’t automatically good at fashion. Who knew?
12. Facebook’s blue color scheme exists because Mark Zuckerberg is color blind. He has red green color blindness, so blue is the richest color he can see. That’s why the whole platform is various shades of blue.
13. The Firefox logo isn’t actually a fox. It’s a red panda. Or is it a fox? Even Mozilla can’t seem to decide anymore. They’ve changed their story over the years.
14. Samsung makes weapons. Yeah, the same company that makes your phone is also a weapons manufacturer. Samsung is massively diversified, they do everything from smartphones to heavy industry to defense.
15. Global IT spending will hit $5.6 trillion in 2025. That’s a 10% increase from 2024. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the GDP of all but three countries.
Historical Tech: Wild Origins
16. The first computer bug was an actual bug. In 1947, engineers found a moth stuck in the Harvard Mark II computer. They taped it to their logbook with the note “First actual case of bug being found.” That’s where “debugging” comes from.
17. The first computer virus was kind of cute. Created in 1971, the Creeper virus just displayed the message: “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can!” It was made as an experiment to see how it spread. Now viruses cause billions in damage annually.
18. The first computer mouse was made of wood. Douglas Engelbart invented it in 1963, and it was literally a rectangular block of wood with a single button and two metal wheels. Compare that to today’s ergonomic wireless mice.
19. Apple’s first logo showed Isaac Newton under an apple tree. The original 1976 logo was super detailed with a phrase around the border: “Newton…A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought…alone.” They wisely simplified it later.
20. The Apollo Guidance Computer had less power than a calculator. The computer that helped land humans on the moon operated at 0.043 MHz with only 64KB of memory. Your smartphone is millions of times more powerful. How did they even do it?
21. Google’s search today uses more computing power than what sent astronauts to the moon. The processing, memory, and energy for just one Google search exceeds what NASA used for the entire Apollo program. That’s how far we’ve come.
22. The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow you down. On old typewriters, fast typing caused keys to jam. QWERTY spacing was created to prevent that. If you want to type faster, try the Dvorak keyboard, it’s designed for speed.
Wild Statistics That’ll Blow Your Mind
23. AI spending will reach $337 billion globally in 2025. We’ve moved from “AI is interesting” to “AI is essential” in about two years. That’s a massive amount of money.
24. By 2028, 33% of enterprise software will feature agentic AI. That’s up from less than 1% in 2024. We’re talking about AI that doesn’t just respond to prompts but actually acts autonomously.
25. Meta is investing up to $65 billion in AI infrastructure in 2025. That includes a data center with over 2-gigawatt capacity and acquiring more than 1.3 million graphics processors. They’re going all in.
26. The global datasphere will contain 175 zettabytes by 2025. Can’t even comprehend that number? Neither can I. For context, one zettabyte equals a trillion gigabytes. Now multiply that by 175.
27. Cybercrime costs will hit $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. That’s more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined. Cybercrime is officially the world’s third largest “economy.”
28. The average cost of a data breach in the U.S. is $9.36 million. And it takes an average of 204 days to even identify a breach, plus another 73 days to contain it. Nearly nine months from breach to fix.
29. DNA can store up to 215 petabytes per gram. Scientists have successfully encoded text, images, and video into DNA sequences. Your genetic code is basically the ultimate hard drive.
30. The world’s largest hard drive is 60TB. And it’s solid state. Remember when a 1GB drive seemed massive? Technology moves fast.
Mobile & Social Media: By the Numbers
31. There are 5.78 billion mobile phone users worldwide. That’s 70.5% of the global population. More people have phones than have consistent access to electricity in some regions.
32. 94% of internet users also use social media. If you’re online, you’re probably on at least one social platform. Social media has basically consumed the internet.
33. ChatGPT ranks 8.57 on average among the top 100 most downloaded apps. An AI tool is competing directly with established social media giants. That’s how fast AI adoption happened.
34. 86% of students globally use AI for studies. And that jumped from 66% in 2024 to 92% for university students in 2025. AI went from “some students use it” to “basically everyone uses it” in a year.
35. In Monaco, there are more mobile phones than people. Mobile phone penetration exceeds 100%. Apparently, even pets might have their own phones there.
36. 40% of couples who got together in 2017 met online. Meanwhile, meeting through friends dropped 13% from 1995 to 2017. Dating apps work, apparently.
37. About 40% of Facebook users have between 0-200 friends. Another 38% have 200-500 friends. Only 20% have over 500 friends. So if you have 1,000 Facebook friends, you’re in a tiny minority.
Emerging Tech: The Future is Here
38. The 5G market will hit $797.8 billion by 2025. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 65.8%. Remember when 4G seemed fast? We had no idea.
39. The IoT market will reach $1.38 trillion by 2025. The Internet of Things is about to be everywhere, your fridge, your car, your watch, your thermostat. Everything’s getting connected.
40. The blockchain market will hit $62.4 billion in 2025. Beyond just cryptocurrency, blockchain is being explored for supply chain management, healthcare, and finance.
41. The AR and VR market will reach $110.2 billion by 2025. Virtual and augmented reality are moving beyond gaming into enterprise training, remote support, and healthcare.
42. Quantum computing could unlock $10 trillion in global economic value by 2030. From materials science to finance, quantum computing will transform fields we can barely imagine.
43. Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are being developed to power individual data centers. AI’s massive energy demands are driving innovation in nuclear power. Microsoft is even reopening a reactor at Three Mile Island.
44. Structural battery composites could make electric vehicles way lighter. Instead of batteries being separate components, they’d be integrated into the vehicle structure itself, like making the car’s body the battery.
45. Scientists are turning bacteria into medicine factories. By programming bacteria with genetic code, they’re creating living systems that produce therapeutics inside your body. Sounds like sci fi, but it’s real.
Quirky & Weird Tech Facts
46. Google pays a minimum of $500 for reporting security vulnerabilities. And that’s just the starting point you could earn more. So if you find a bug, you might get paid for it.
47. The word “emoji” has nothing to do with “emotion.” It comes from Japanese: “e” (picture) + “moji” (character). The similarity to “emotion” is pure coincidence.
48. Bluetooth was named after a 10th century king. King Harald Bluetooth united Norway and Denmark. The technology “unites” devices. Get it?
49. 28% of IT professionals hide their career from friends and family. Why? To avoid giving free tech support. “Sorry, can’t help you, I am a… uh… accountant now.”
50. TIME Magazine named the computer “Man of the Year” in 1982. Not a person, the computer itself. That’s how significant technology had become.
51. The Dustbuster came from NASA moon missions. The cordless vacuum technology was developed to collect moon samples during the Apollo program. Your countertop crumbs are being cleaned with space tech.
52. Technical information doubles every two years. So if you start a four year tech degree, half of what you learn will be outdated by graduation. Keeping up is a constant challenge.
53. NASA’s internet speed is 91 gigabytes per second. Meanwhile, I’m over here waiting for a 2MB image to load. Must be nice.
54. 9 programming languages were invented by women. Yet women remain underrepresented in tech. History tells a different story than current demographics suggest.
55. Digital technology could reduce global carbon emissions by 20% by 2030. That’s equivalent to eliminating 100% of China’s emissions plus an extra 1.5 billion tons. Technology can be part of the climate solution.
Cloud Computing: Invisible but Everywhere
56. 63% of global cloud spending goes to SaaS. Software as a Service dominates. Most businesses use cloud tools for communication, CRM, project management, and more.
57. AWS commands 31% of the global cloud market. Amazon Web Services leads, with Azure and Google Cloud competing for second place. The cloud wars are real.
58. 94% of businesses report improved security after moving to the cloud. Counter to what many people assume, cloud can actually be more secure than on premises systems.
59. Companies see a 20% reduction in IT costs after migrating to cloud. Plus a 10% increase in revenue. The cloud isn’t just about cost savings, it drives growth.
The Final Reality Check
Technology moves faster than we can sometimes comprehend. The facts above aren’t science fiction, they’re happening right now, in 2025.
Some of these facts are hilarious (goats mowing Google’s lawn). Few are concerning (cybercrime profits). Some are inspiring (DNA storage, bacteria medicine). But all of them remind us that we’re living through one of the most transformative periods in human history.
The tech world is weird, wonderful, and wilder than most people realize. Next time someone tells you a tech fact that sounds too good to be true, don’t automatically dismiss it. In this industry? It just might be real.
Now go forth and share these facts at parties. You’re welcome.
