How It's Built
The rules, checks and design choices behind one shared number.
-
How One Shared Number Stays Honest
The database rules behind every click: why each write must be exactly +1 and why nothing can be deleted.
-
Bots, App Check and a Cooldown: What Protects the Counter
The three checks every click passes: database rules, Firebase App Check and a short pause.
-
How We Know Which Country Clicked Without Storing Your IP
Where the country on the leaderboard comes from, what a click saves, and what it leaves out.
-
Putting a Live Number on a Link Preview
How the share card is drawn on request with the real total, and why App Check forced a new way to read it.
-
Making a Page That Runs reCAPTCHA Load Fast
Fixing a page that jumped while loading, including the change that first made it slower.
-
One Counter on Many Websites
How the embeddable widget works, why it sits in its own frame, and why its clicks count toward the same total.
Context and History
Earlier experiments, country rivalries, and what the big numbers mean.
-
A Short History of the Internet Doing One Thing Together
Five earlier experiments where everyone on a page did the same small thing, from 2005 to 2024.
-
Flags Make People Click
What a national leaderboard changes about a simple button, from Popcat to the flags on r/place.
-
How Big Is a Million Clicks?
The milestone ladder as plain arithmetic: time at one click a second, and how many people a big number needs.