[brutusborn]

I've never seen anything but 10^9 used for billions in the modern era, although it is in some >100 y.o. text books. Have you seen 10^12 in the wild lately?

[mendigou]

Everywhere in Europe. Every European language other than English (that I know of) uses "billions" for 10^12 and something like "milliards" or "thousands of millions" for 10^9.

[foobarian]

And to make things worse all the names after million are offset. Trillion, quadrillion, etc.