The internet is vast and unpredictable, similar to how Hermione’s magical bag works. It holds a variety of content, from amusing cat memes to long videos about organizing fridges. You can find quirky quizzes that reveal which sandwich matches your personality and even Google Maps reviews of random rocks. This is just a small glimpse of what’s available online. You don’t need to search various websites to enjoy the chaos of the internet. The Facebook group “All Things Strange And Unusual” gathers much of this randomness in one place, filled with funny and unusual images. Below are some of the highlights.
Trying to understand the internet’s size can be as challenging as grasping the universe’s vastness. There is so much content that it can feel limitless. However, the internet isn’t infinite, even if it sometimes seems that way when you scroll through it. Determining its exact size is more complex than expected.
One might wonder what exactly to measure: the number of websites, the data stored online, or the total number of users? The International Telecommunication Union reported that around 6 billion people were using the internet in 2025, which is about three-quarters of the global population. Every day, these users continue to add to the vast collection of online content.
For comparison, Netcraft’s survey in July 2026 identified nearly 1.5 billion websites on the internet. This number is astonishing, especially since a single website can have thousands of pages. The figures are constantly changing as new sites come online and others are taken down. Even if it were possible to count every page today, that number wouldn’t remain accurate for long.
Google also does not have a complete view of all online content. Its search index contains hundreds of billions of web pages, but many online resources are not included in search results. Google employs programs known as crawlers, which move through links on various pages to gather information. So when someone uses Google to search, they are accessing this massive collection of web information.
All these websites and pages must get to our devices somehow. Interestingly, although we often feel connected wirelessly, much of the internet’s infrastructure depends on physical cables that run along the ocean floor. According to TeleGeography’s 2026 submarine cable map, there are 694 cable systems, including both operational and planned cables. It’s surprising to think that a meme you just saw might have traveled to your device via an underwater cable.
There is even more happening behind the scenes when a website is opened. As explained by Cloudflare, information is sent across the internet in small segments called packets. These packets navigate through networks and are reassembled by your device when they arrive.
What do you think about the way the internet works?
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Source: Bored Panda, by Mindaugas Balčiauskas