Since I was in high school, I’ve been a fan of the Guinness Book of World Records. In the last couple of years though, I haven’t bought a single copy because most of the stuff are already available online. Still, sometimes it’s more pleasant to sit and and read a book than to stare at the LCD screen. So, during a recent visit to the National Book Store, I grabbed a hardbound copy of the 2008 edition.

The section on “Internet” only got 2 pages and wasn’t even that surprising. Most of the stories there aren’t new except for a few…

• Paris Hilton and Orlando Bloom took the top spots for the most popular online news searches in 2006 but the most popular terms was “Bebo”, the social networking site akin to Facebook.

• Largest video sharing service is Youtube with 6.1 million uploaded videos, 45 terabytes of data. Ghyslain Raza’s “The Starwars Kid” clip is the most popular ever with an estimated combined 900 Million views, followed by Gary Brolsma dancing to the tune of Numa Numa (Dragostea din tei) with 700 Million views.
• NTT Docomo’s I-Mode of Japan is the largest Wireless Internet Provider with 45,687,117 subscribers by the end of January 2006. Interestingly, Smart now also offers the I-Mode to select Nokia phone models.
• Having befriended 1.6 Million MySpace users, Tila Tequila is the most popular friend in the social networking world.
• Blogger Kyle MacDonald holds the record for the most successful internet trade — that’s after he got a house at Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada in exchange for his red paper clip in 2006.

The largest prize won for an “online bingo” was for $283,099 by Jo Collins in the UK back in April 2006. So, the next time you get an email to join an online bingo, think twice before hitting the “Spam” button. You might be in luck and land an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records.

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