Google's $3,200,000,000 Purchase

I had to include the entire number in the title just to show how significant this is. 3.2 BILLION dollar purchase of Nest! (Read more from TheVerge.com) This is on top of other recent purchases including Calico, Boston Dynamics, and Motorola. Google has seemingly become a giant in nearly every industry these days, and must be planning big things for the future. Also think -- driverless cars and robotics are industries they have planted stakes in recently.

As we all know, Google is all about data. Here's an example of the data Nest will now be providing to Google. Energy reports. Month to month, hours used, differences caused by temperature change, tips, interesting facts, and much much more.

 This leads to the idea that Google is closing the gap on creating "Smart Homes". Quite an exciting thought. With Google's networks and connections, it would be great if they could use Nest's products to dramatically decrease America (and the Worlds) energy usage. It's about time super companies begin sustainability practices.

For those of you who don't know much about Nest, they are company formed in 2011 by Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, specializing in thermostats and smoke alarms. I've included images of their sleek and intelligent products with this post. Their products have raving reviews and are consistently best sellers. Furthermore, Google CEO Larry Page describes the team these men have created as "tremendous". Fadell, Philips Electronics developer and designer of the iPod, will continue to lead Nest separately from Google's operations. The deal with Google is set to close in the coming months.

Update on Cristiano Ronaldo

He's at it again!

If you look back my post from November, you'll see some information about soccer-stud Cristiano Ronaldo trying to market his name into the business world. His previous attempt entailed men's underwear, but now he's started his own social network! (Read more at Mirror Online).

Titled Viva Ronaldo, the site offers photos, games, community interaction, and opportunities to meet and play soccer with Ronaldo himself. The website offers connections to his Twitter and Facebook pages, so you can easily post/tweet to him, and the network is even available for download in the App Store. (Get it HERE)

It will be interesting to see an athlete take a "fansite" to the next level by creating a social network revolved around himself. Even more interesting to see if the network succeeds. For this international superstar, however, it may not be too difficult as he is the most followed athlete on Twitter, with 23,614,324 followers. That's a little more than twice what LeBron accounts for!

Winning the 2014 Ballon d'Or (given annually to the best individual soccer player in the world) may also help this ever growing superstar's popularity and reach extend just a little bit further. The 28 year old beat out Messi and Ribery to take home the prestigious award. Here he is, pictured emotionally holding the award.

Reddit - The Front Page of the Internet?

Many of you probably know of the popular website known as Reddit. The name comes from combining the words Read and It, who would've known? Myself being a Redditor, I can tell you first hand that the clever name is only the beginning of the clever and interesting things you can find on this domain. Honestly, it's the type of site you can get lost on, being that there are so many random and intriguing "sub-Reddits". For any of your interests (or pretty much anything you can think of), there is probably a sub-Reddit with humorous content and a dedicated community of Redditors interacting on the page. In turn, Reddit has also become a viable social media source of information as users crowd source news, and quickly seek out the proof that deems the news legitimate.

However, the Business Insider published a report this morning pertaining to Reddit's traffic stats from 2013. Author Jim Edwards states that although Reddit saw an 83% increase in traffic in 2013 (up to 731 million unique visitors), the site has dwindled to a much smaller amount of social media sharing traffic. Shareaholic found that Reddit's share of information given to publishers dropped around 36%.

This growth in overall traffic, but decline in shared information can only mean one thing - that Reddit has begun to horde its own information. Publishers are now beginning to "link in" to information from Reddit, whereas Redditors used to do a lot of "linking out" to information found elsewhere online.

For charts, graphs, and more information visit the Shareaholic link posted above. And furthermore, if you are interested, I invite all of you to go check out Reddit for yourselves!

Social Media Greatest Influencers

First of all, I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve! I'm excited for what 2014 may bring us!

The other day I was browsing my Twitter feed when I stumbled across an article from WSBTV about Georgia's 2013 social media influencers. It's definitely interesting to see which celebrities/Atlanta locals are piling up the most followers, or the creating the most popular content. 

In case you're too lazy to follow the link and see for yourself, the list goes as follows:

1. Jennifer Brett (@AJCBuzz)

2. Paste Magazine (@PasteMagazine)

3. Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) -- My personal favorite.

4. Clark Howard (@ClarkHoward)

5. Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks)

6. Jovita Moore (@JovitaMoore)

7. Atlanta Events (@ATL_Events)

8. Kim Severson (@KimSeverson)

9. Kasim Reed (@KasimReed)

10. 2 Chainz (@2Chainz)

So if you're from Georgia and enjoy social media, get on your Facebook or Twitter and give these people a follow. You'll be amazed with the kind of information and discussions they create. 

PS. Congrats Jennifer! Keep it up! (This is her Twitter avatar, go follow her!)