I emailed IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) earlier today to ask about the new content on example.com. To my surprise, their VP replied. Here is the email: I am happy to try and answer any questions you have. The changes we make to the site from time-to-time are usually informed by a desire to either reduce the overall bandwidth demands of serving the site, or improve its utility. At its heart it is a placeholder...
probably a hell of a lot. I do a lot of travelling for work and thus I’m always connecting to open wifi spots (with a vpn naturally) and many times my browser won’t pick up the capture portal automatically so I use example.com or neverssl.com to trigger the capture portal. It’s also the site I use to a very quick/dirty internet test.
I imagine most people use it the same way.