Fresh statistics! Get your fresh statistics here! It was back in the good old days of 2015 that Redmond launched the Microsoft By the Numbers website, designed to offer interesting tidbits of information about the company and its products.
Fast forward a bit later, and the software titan shut down the page a few months after its launch.
For one reason or another.
The page, however, stayed online — even though it was not updated for the last couple of years.
However, life is once again back in the valley, and Microsoft has put up new statistics over at the website after a lengthy hiatus. And not just new numbers, but a shiny new interactive UI to go along with it.
Here are some highlights from the site:
- With a sound level of -20.6dB, Microsoft’s anechoic chamber holds the Guinness Record for “World’s Quietest Place”.
- Beyond a small amount of drinking water, Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus consumes zero water from municipal water supplies.
- Last year, Microsoft donated over $1.4 billion in software and services, helping nonprofit organizations around the world access essential technology and skills. Microsoft employees donated $156 million, volunteered 700,000 hours, and supported 19,550 nonprofits and schools, with the participation turnout being 75% of the total workforce.
- 5 billion Windows-powered PCs are used around the world.
- Microsoft used a branch of artificial intelligence called reinforcement learning to master the Atari 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man and get a maximum score of 999,990.
- Microsoft runs several labs around the world which specialize in the fabrication of quantum devices. Cryogenics are used to keep certain quantum components 200 times colder than the farthest reaches of outer space.
- Microsoft has made 137 “AI for Earth” grants to individuals and organizations in 47 countries, helping them use artificial intelligence to protect the planet in the areas of agriculture, biodiversity, climate change and water.
- Microsoft’s Rural Airband Initiative invests in partnerships with telecommunications companies with the goal of bringing broadband connectivity to 2 million unserved people in rural America by 2022.
- Every day, Microsoft analyzes over 6.5 trillion signals in order to identify emerging threats and protect customers.
- Since 2012, Microsoft has operated 100% carbon neutral around the world.
- Microsoft’s Seeing AI app, which helps people who are blind or have low vision to better navigate the world around them, has assisted people with more than 10 million tasks.
- Cortana, Microsoft’s intelligent assistant, has been asked 18 billion questions since launch.
- 189 million pounds of food, packaging and dining related items from Microsoft’s Puget Sound campus go somewhere other than a landfill every six months.
Hard to decide what I like more, the statistics or the new design.
But if you are user of Microsoft products and services, there is a lot of good stuff here, well worth a visit. The numbers are inspiring, obviously, but they are also presented really well.
Here’s hoping the company keeps this website updated with more information as it gets around to it.
Give it a visit here.
