View the ecosystem of global services, organizations, and agencies behind the internet

How the Domain Name System works and how it provides a directory for the internet

DNS translates domain names, such as join1440.com, into numerical IP addresses, such as 192.0.2.1, which computer systems use to determine what content a user is looking for across the World Wide Web, making navigation easier for the vast majority of users. Web outages can occur if the DNS servers making these translations become inaccessible.

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library of the Web

Founded in 1996, the Archive promotes open access and the digital preservation of online information and, as of 2026, contains more than 200 petabytes of content, including over one trillion web pages, 56 million books and texts, 13 million audio recordings, 1.3 million software programs, and other digital content.

The internet explained at five levels of difficulty, from protocols to internet flattening

Resembling a roadway with traffic laws that all cars must follow, the internet is the hardware that connects a source to a destination, and these connections must follow specific software rules. Although data had to travel through about 10 networks to reach a destination in the past, data centers increasingly consolidate traffic, just as a highway does for cars, to improve data speeds.

Learn how governments around the world restrict internet access for their citizens

Various countries around the world, including China, Russia, and Iran, control their local DNS infrastructure, allowing them to block access to online content by preventing the internet "phone book" from finding the IP addresses for specific URLs. Government-controlled internet service providers can also cut off access entirely or throttle specific traffic.

View major global infrastructure, including power plants, fuel lines, and water pumping stations

The Open Infrastructure Map displays data from the OpenStreetMap database, which aggregates information from freely licensed geodata sources, surveys, and photographic and satellite imagery. It also displays power lines, generators, substations, various chemical pipelines, telecommunications towers, data centers, and more in daytime and nighttime maps.

The history of the commercialization of the internet, from ARPANET to NSFNET and beyond

NSFNET was launched in 1986 by the National Science Foundation as the first network available to all researchers, connecting them to a system of supercomputer facilities. Despite growing from 2,000 computers in 1985 to 2 million by 1993, the rapid expansion of commercial internet services led to NSFNET's decommissioning by 1995.

The history of the Linux Foundation, a technology consortium supporting open-source projects

The nonprofit, founded in 2000 by IBM, HP, Intel, and others as the Open Source Development Labs, was established to build the infrastructure needed to scale with the growing development of Linux. Upon merging with the Free Standards Group in 2007, it rebranded as the Linux Foundation and, as of 2024, provides a "neutral home for code and collaboration" to almost 1,000 projects.

A breakdown of net neutrality, including its benefits and disadvantages

The principle dictates that all internet traffic should be treated equally by internet service providers and that they cannot block, slow, or charge more fees for access to specific webpages. This would help ensure equal access to the internet and prevent larger companies from paying to prioritize access to their content, but it would require greater government intervention.

Tech giants like SpaceX and Meta are increasingly behaving like sovereign powers

Companies now make unilateral decisions once reserved for nation-states, such as controlling satellite internet access in active war zones and influencing global information flows. Lawmakers and the international order are struggling to keep up with technological developments, let alone regulate them.

Explore metrics on the Tor network, the infrastructure of the dark web

While internet traffic within the network is concealed, public, nonsensitive data can be used to estimate the number of active users, the number of relay servers, network performance speed and reliability, etc. Researchers can use this data to indirectly identify political upheavals or censorship campaigns worldwide, such as the Arab Spring.

The Internet of Things refers to the connection of all devices to the cloud

These connections between everyday objects, each other, and data processing centers enable devices to adapt to user needs and improve their ability to respond to real-time data. IoT networks are designed to enhance the efficiency of homes, cities, and industries.

See how local, state, and federal governments divide the cost of public services

Federal, state, and local governments share responsibility for funding public services. Education, roads, and social programs are funded through a complicated mix of taxes and intergovernmental transfers.

International organizations exploit ultimate beneficial owner policies in different countries to shield bad actors

UBO policies help determine who owns businesses by evaluating who is making the decisions, regardless of the listed owner.

The Ethereum Foundation’s latest report

The Ethereum Foundation is a nonprofit organization supporting Ethereum in several ways. These include providing grants to developers who want to build on the blockchain, and hosting events promoting crypto’s future, like Devcon. This annual report grants a peek into the nonprofit’s role in Ethereum's operations and the values it seeks to support through its work. The nonprofit’s frontline involvement is another differentiating factor between Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.

Internet domain names can be worth millions of dollars

And yet, the mysterious man who owns Milk.com likely isn't selling his valuable site any time soon.

Here is a visualization of the creator economy as an ecosystem

From social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, to major advertisers paying influencers to promote their brands, to the consumers watching online content, quite a few engines have to keep firing to make the creator economy run smoothly.

The WEF’s Edison Alliance connected more than 1 billion people to digital services

By 2024, the World Economic Forum-backed Edison Alliance had delivered digital connectivity and access to financial, healthcare, and education services to more than 1 billion people, using public-private partnerships across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US.

Understanding how non-profit entities manage electric grids to ensure supply-demand balance

Independent System Operators in smaller areas and Regional Transmission Organizations that operate across multiple states run wholesale electricity markets. Electricity suppliers can submit competitive bids to meet estimated demand in day-ahead markets while keeping consumer costs low. ISOs and RCOs also inform markets of deviations in these estimates so that suppliers can adjust how much power they generate, which is then bought and sold in real time.

There are 6 primary governing bodies at the UN

The United Nations is structured around six main bodies: the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, International Court of Justice, and Secretariat. Each plays a distinct role in promoting peace, justice, and cooperation worldwide.

Explaining how open source systems like Linux can be secure, despite their public source code

While no computer system is immune to all cyberattacks and malware, the transparency of open-source technology means many thousands of developers can review and oversee the underlying code powering the software on an ongoing basis. This increases the likelihood of catching and patching vulnerabilities more quickly than smaller groups of cybercriminals looking to exploit them.

Nonprofits strive to replant the Amazon and slow global warming

This article explores the efforts of nonprofit organizations like Rioterra in reforesting the Brazilian Amazon to mitigate climate change. Their goal is enormous: reforest an area twice the size of Germany, costing over 20 billion dollars. In order...

Support groups are typically free, which makes them widely accessible

The groups are typically run by someone with the same illness or set of experiences and can provide clear, practical knowledge about navigating healthcare resources, bureaucracy, and more. Since they function on trust, however, there are no legal confidentiality prohibiting people from sharing what's discussed. What's more, group leaders may not be uniformly trained or certified.

Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform serves customers in 140 countries

Rather than owning and maintaining hardware on-premises, cloud computing enables users to access large reserves of storage and processing power over the internet, much like customers connect to a utility provider rather than generating their own electricity. This centralization also standardizes security tools and updates.

Card issuers are financial institutions that open credit to customers, while card networks facilitate purchases between merchants and customers

Card issuers give customers credit cards, set rate limits, and collect payments. Card networks, on the other hand, dictate where credit cards can actually be used by managing relationships between the network and merchants. These networks make money on interchange fees, which merchants pay to accept a specific card network at their stores.

The IMF was created to prevent the currency crises that destabilized the 1930s global economy

Founded in 1945, the IMF monitors exchange rates, promotes financial stability, and provides emergency funding to countries that cannot pay for their imports. It currently has 191 member countries and acts as a lender of last resort for struggling economies.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Explore the animals that populate the depths of the ocean, from fish and coral in the first few hundred feet, all the way down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The USPS spent $3.97B in 2024, accounting for .058% of the federal budget.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.