How unique is a GUID?

128-bits is big enough and the generation algorithm is unique enough that if 1,000,000,000 GUIDs per second were generated for 1 year the probability of a duplicate would be only 50%. Or if every human on Earth generated 600,000,000 GUIDs there would only be a 50% probability of a duplicate.

How are GUIDs used?

GUIDs are used in enterprise software development in C#, Java, and C++ as database keys, component identifiers, or just about anywhere else a truly unique identifier is required. GUIDs are also used to identify all interfaces and objects in COM programming.