Brain Teasers

Test your Internet I.Q. and maybe even learn something new! Try answering all the questions below, click the links for the correct answers then share this page with a friend and compare scores.

As a ProSite Web Design client, how many mockup revisions do you receive?
A. 1

B. 2

C. 3

D. None

Answer

B

2
According to comScore, what percentage did ecommerce increase last year?
A. 14%

B. 20%

C. 17%

D. 35%

Answer

A

14%
According to eMarketer estimates, how many US adults will redeem an online coupon or code for use either online or offline at least once?
A. 88.2 million

B. 4.3 million

C. 879,000

D. 100 million

Answer

A

88.2 million
According to research from customer relationship marketing agency Merkle, what percentage of Internet users checked their personal email daily in 2010?
A. 65%

B. 100%

C. 10%

D. 87%

Answer

D

87%
According to the U.S. Commerce Department, U.S. retail ecommerce sales reached $165.4 billion last year. What percentage increase was that from 2009?
A. 52.5%

B. 6.4%

C. 14.8%

D. 23.6%

Answer

C

14.8%
How much did the U.S. Commerce Department report online shoppers spent in 2010?
A. $165.4 billion

B. $202.3 billion

C. $1 billion

D. $5.6 billion

Answer

A

$165.4 billion
What acquisition amount did Groupon reportedly reject from Google to remain an independent company?
A. $100 million

B. $3.5 billion

C. $2.3 billion

D. $6 billion

Answer

D

$6 billion
On average, what percentage of New Year's resolutions are maintained after one month?
A. 28%

B. 64%

C. 31%

D. 73%

Answer

B

64%
What's the name for the Linux penguin mascot?
A. Petey

B. Orlando

C. Tux

D. Ping

Answer

C

Tux
Last month's massive attach on Twitter which sent users to Japanese porn sites and took out the White House press secretary's feed was caused by:
A. 98-year-old British retiree

B. A 17-year-old Australian boy

C. A nine-year-old American computer prodigy

Answer

B

A 17-year-old boy in Australia exposed a security flaw on Twitter that was quickly exploited by hackers.
Which of the following is not a transaction tracking service that broadcasts users' purchases to the community?
A. Blippy

B. Shopply

C. Swipely

Answer

B

Blippy and Swipely are social websites that offer people the chance to reveal their credit card purchases to the community automatically. Blippy displays prices with purchases, but Swipely displays purchases without prices.
How long will it take for the Internet to run out of IP addresses?
A. 1 year

B. 10 years

C. 100 years

D. 1,000 years

Answer

A

In one year, the American Registry for Internet Numbers estimates we will run out of IP addresses, the 32-bit number that gives a maximum of just over 4 billion unique addresses. But don't worry—a new protocol is being tested to expand the number of IP addresses available by adding more digits.
The creation stories of the Internet giants are legendary. But one of them was myth manufactured by the company's public relations department. Which one was it?
A. Google started off as a graduate school project founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin collaborated on as students at Stanford University.

B. Auction giant eBay started off as place for the founder Pierre Omidyar's wife Pam to buy and sell Pez dispensers.

C. Amazon.com began as an online book seller named Cadabra.com.

D. Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo.com as a guide to keep track of their interests on the Internet when they were Ph.D. candidates at Stanford University.

Answer

B

eBay's creation story was made up by the public relations department as a way to make the company's creation into a better story for the press. In truth, Pierre Omidyar started the auction site to create what he considered "the perfect market."
In May, Google posted a Java Script (not Flash!) version of Pac-Man on its main search page to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the video game. Which is not one of the Pac-Man ghosts?
A. Inky

B. Blinky

C. Pinky

D. Clyde

E. Sue

Answer

E

Sue is not a Pac-Man ghost. But double click on "Insert Coin" in Google Pac-Man, and you can play a version with Ms. Pac-Man. In the Ms. Pac-Man version of the game, the orange ghost is named Sue, not Clyde.
WiFi Rules! Which household product does Carnegie Mellon professor Jesse Schell predict will soon include a WiFi component?
A. coffee maker

B. curling iron

C. toothbrush

D. dishwasher

Answer

C

The toothbrush. Per a recent CNN report, an Internet-enabled toothbrush that would upload information about your brushing habits is predicted to hit the market within five years. Smile! Read CNN report.
What was the very first YouTube video uploaded April 23, 2005?
A. HaHaHa

B. Guitar

C. Me at the zoo

D. Grocery Store Wars (2005)

Answer

C

The first YouTube video was entitled Me at the zoo and shows founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo.
Who built an inkjet printer out of Legos?
A. Google co-founder Sergey Brin

B. Google co-founder Larry Page

C. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates

D. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg

Answer

B

Larry Page built an inkjet printer out of Legos while earning a bachelor's degree in engineering with a concentration in computer engineering at the University of Michigan.
Twitter enables users to send/read text-based posts or "tweets" of up to 140 characters. What was the very first "tweet?"
A. "just setting up my twttr"

B. "we'd like to start off in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"

C. "i tweet therefore i am"

D. "twttr test: short code 10958"

Answer

A

On March 21, 2006 Twitter creator Jack Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 p.m. PST: "just setting up my twttr."
How many reindeer are needed to pull Santa's sleigh?
A. 8

B. 9

C. 126,667

D. I don't believe in Santa.

Answer

A, B and C

Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" names 8 reindeer.

If it's foggy, you'll need to add Rudolph. So that's 9.

If you like math: Assume each of the world's 1.9 billion children each gets 2 lbs of gifts. And assume that a magic flying reindeer can pull 100 times the 300 lbs force of a normal reindeer. Then 126,667 reindeer are needed to pull Santa's very heavy sleigh.

Happy Holidays from the Gate.com Team!
The name Google was chosen to represent the immense amount of material indexed by the search engine. It comes from the word "googol" which is the number 1 followed by how many zeros?
A. 10 zeros

B. 100 zeros

C. 1,000 zeros

D. 1,000,000 zeros

Answer

B. 100 zeros A googol is the number 10 to the 100th power or the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.
One of Apple's three founders sold his shares back after only two weeks. That 10% stake in the company is now worth nearly $8 billion. How much did he get for it?
A. $800

B. $8,000

C. $80,000

D. $800,000

Answer

A. $800 Ronald Wayne, who created the logo, drew up the first contract, and wrote the Apple I manual, received $800 for his shares.
How many songs have been downloaded from iTunes?
A. 1 billion

B. 3 billion

C. 5 billion

D. 8 billion

Answer

D. 8 billion As of July 2009, 8 billion songs had been downloaded from iTunes with downloads estimated to hit the 10 billion mark by year end.
In 1969, the first email message was sent via ARPANET, the Defense Department's predecessor to to today's Internet. What was the one-word message?
A. Hello

B. Testing

C. Login

D. ARPANET

Answer

C. Login The "L" and the "o" transmitted without a problem, but then the system crashed. They successfully sent the full word, login, about an hour later.
In 2003 Harvard shut down a sophomore's site which placed fellow students' photos side by side and asked visitors to choose the hotter person. What was the creator's next site?
A. MySpace

B. Facebook

C. LinkedIn

D. Hot or Not

Answer

B. Facebook The shuttered site was known as Facemash.
Which online retailer got a boost in sales following its name change from Cadabra.com?
A. Potterybarn.com

B. Amazon.com

C. Qvc.com

D. Overstock.com

Answer

B. Amazon.com
The average YouTube video is 3.5 minutes in length. About how many minutes of video are uploaded to YouTube each week?
A. 3 million minutes

B. 6 million minutes

C. 9 million minutes

D. 12 million minutes

Answer

C. 9 million minutes

More than 9 million minutes of video are uploaded each week. That's roughly the equivalent of 86,000 full-length feature films.
Which is not one of the interface languages offered by Google?
A. Basque

B. Bork bork bork!

C. Pirate

D. Sumo

E. Tajik

Answer

D. Sumo

In preferences, Google offers you 124 options for your interface language. While made-up languages Pirate, Elmer Fudd and Klingon are on this list, Sumo is not.
How many laptops are left in U.S. airports each week?
A. 500

B. 2,500

C. 7,500

D. 12,000

Answer

D. 12,000

More than 12,000 laptops are lost in U.S. airports each week according to a 2008 study of 106 airports in 49 states. Approximately 7% are lost in restaurants, 9% in restrooms, 23% at departure gates and a whopping 40% are left at security checkpoints.

Travel tip: Tape your name and mobile phone number to the outside of your laptop, so security can call you back to the screening area to pick up your machine.
What was Google's original nickname?
Google began in 1996 as a research project by Larry Page who was soon joined by Sergey Brin—both Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Was the project's nickname:

A. GoTo

B. BackRub

C. SergeySays

D. Betelgeuse

Answer

B. BackRub

Page and Brin’s search engine was originally nicknamed "BackRub" because the system checked a website's back links to estimate the importance of the site.
Which concepts are part of cloud computing?
A. Virtualization

B. Software as a service

C. Hardware as a service

D. Online data storage

E. All of the above

Answer

E. All of the above

Cloud computing is one of the latest trends in Internet development. Increasingly, companies are looking for ways to make technology more efficient and cost effective. Cloud computing addresses each of those goals by leveraging services over the Internet for scalable solutions and outsourced maintenance.
What is the average savings hosted Exchange gives you in the first year?
A. $114

B. $1,140

C. $11,400

D. $114,000

Answer

D. $114,000

When you consider the initial hardware/software expenses, licensing fees, backup requirements, staff and hosting fees, the first year of running Microsoft Exchange in house totals about $115,238. Additional years are likely to cost about $34,200.
What is a podcasting feed?
A. The tool that allows marketers to download their podcasts to their website.

B. A website where podcasts play continually.

C. A subscription-based service that automatically downloads new podcasts to a subscriber's computer as soon as it's released.

Answer

C. A subscription-based service that automatically downloads new podcasts to a subscriber's computer as soon as it's released

A podcasting tool that makes it easy to upload audio files and create and manage feeds is included free in every Web hosting plan.
What is the name of Google's pay per click advertising program?
A. AdSense

B. AdClick

C. AdSearch

D. AdWords

Answer

B. AdWords

To launch a pay per click campaign on Google, you must sign up for an AdWords account. You get up to a $75 AdWords credit free when you order a Gate Web hosting plan.
What is the difference between the Internet and an intranet?
A. There is no difference, they can be used interchangeably.

B. An intranet is restricted to specific users whereas the Internet refers to all the computer networks worldwide that are connected together.

C. The Internet is restricted to specific users whereas an intranet refers to all the computer networks worldwide that are connected together.

Answer

B. An intranet is restricted to specific users whereas the Internet refers to all the computer networks worldwide that are connected together.

It’s easy to set up a company intranet with Gate's hosted Microsoft SharePoint plans. SharePoint includes built-in Web parts that can be toggled on and off to give you the exact mix of functionality your company needs.
What is the average time spent viewing a Web page?
A. One minute

B. Five seconds

C. Half a second

Answer

C. Half a second

People quickly scan websites for information—rarely do they take the time to read every word.

Source: Nielsen Online, February 2008
If you use a Windows computer, do you have to choose Windows Web hosting plan?
A. Yes. Microsoft's operating system makes it impossible to launch content to a Windows-based server from a Mac.

B. No. You can post and update your website content from any computer with Web access no matter which operating system you choose for your Web hosting plan.

C. No. You can choose a Linux plan if you use a Windows computer, but you won't be able to access your site.

Answer

B. No. You can post and update your website content from any computer with Web access no matter which operating system you choose for your Web hosting plan.

In fact, unless you use a database or script on your website that can only run on a Windows server, a Linux plan will give you all the functionality you need and save you money.

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