80 Amazing Facts about Technology and Social Media ( YouTube,Facebook,Pinterest,Apple,Nokia,etc)

Amazing Fact about Technology and Social Media.


1) Jean-Louise Gassee (1944- ), former executive of Apple Computer, suggested that the Apple logo is a symbol of lust and knowledge, “bitten into, all crossed with the colors of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldn’t dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy.” In 1997, Jobs replaced the rainbow color of the apple logo with solid white.



2) Privacy International in 2007 ranked Google as not only “Hostile to Privacy” but as also having the worst privacy policies among popular net firms. It criticized Google for the mass amounts of data it gathers about users and their activities.



3) Facebook users spend the most minutes on the Internet with over 250 billion minutes in May 2011. Microsoft and Google came in second and third with 204 billion and 200 billion minutes, respectively.



4) Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting,” “to help people to discover what they didn’t know they wanted,” and “to get people offline to do the things they love.’.



5) YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim was initially rejected by the computer science program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He wrote a letter back explaining why he would be a good fit for the program. He was then accepted. He later left the program to work at PayPal, a startup company in California. He would eventually finish his bachelor’s degree in 2004.



6) In 1983, the first mobile phones went on sale in the U.S. at almost $4,000 each.



7) Pinterest cofounder Ben Silbermann admired entrepreneurs like most people admire their favorite basketball players. He looked up to entrepreneurs such as George Eastman, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs.



8) The first month after its creation, YouTube had 3 million visitors. The number of visitors tripled by the third month (February 2006), and then tripled again by July to 30 million visitors. By the end of the site’s first year, the number of visitors reached over 38 million.



9) Apple Inc.’s founder, Steve Jobs, is a college dropout. He dropped out of Reed College in 1972, after attending only one semester.



10) Pinterest has been called “Digital Crack” for women.



11) The name “YouTube” and its motto “Broadcast Yourself” reflect the founders’ hope that anyone could use the site freely.



12) In August 2004, Google went public with opening shares at $85 per share. Google stated that during its IPO, it hoped to raise as much as $2,718,281,828, which is the first 10 digits of the mathematical constant “e.” It raised $1.67 billion.



13) Over 250 million Nokia 1100 devices were sold, making it the bestselling electrical gadget in history.



14) Apple’s iPhone has higher sales than everything Microsoft has to offer.



15) In January 2012, Pinterest drove more traffic to websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn—combined.



16) After high school, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley enrolled in Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Initially he majored in computer science, but later changed to fine arts, focusing on design and printmaking. During college, Chad ran cross-country and sold kitchen knives door to door.



17) In 1984, the Macintosh was introduced by the famous “1984” commercial, which showed a young, female rebel (Apple) striking a blow against corporate “Big Brother” (presumably IBM).



18) Scientists have developed a way of charging mobile phones using urine.



19) Pinterest started with three employees in 2009. It now has 180. Its world headquarters are on 7th Street in San Francisco, CA.



20) Time Magazine said that some of the comments on “YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.’.



21) Apple’s name recognition was so low in Japan in the early 1980s that refrigerated trucks were used to deliver shipments of Apple computers because workers thought that the boxes contained perishable fruit.



22) Among children under 18, Facebook was ranked third in the top 100 searches of 2009, behind YouTube and Google. Sex and porn rounded out the top five searches.



23) In 2013, a pin generated, on average, 78 cents in sales (an increase of 25% since 2012). Once Pinterest begins to advertise on its site, the potential for revenue will skyrocket.



24) Researchers have expressed concern that many Internet users assume the Google search engine represents reality, and that if some information is not on Google, it is either not important or it does not exist.



24) In 2013, Pinterest made available some of its real-time data software to developers to allow marketers to know which of their products’ pins were trending. Big names include Disney (DIS), Random House, Target (TGT), Nestle, Wal-Mart (WMT), and Zappos.



25) Google uses goats to eat brush and reduce fire hazard in fields near their California Mountain View headquarters.



26) In 2008, a Christian group sued Google for refusing to take its anti-abortion advertisements. Google claimed that it refused the advertisement because the company has a policy of declining sites that mix the issue of abortion with religious views. The suit was settled amicably out of court, and Google agreed to publish their ads.



27) The first words uttered on YouTube were “All right, so here we are in front of the elephants.’.



28) Both citizens and police departments are increasingly using Facebook to catch suspected criminals.



29) When Facebook changed its privacy setting in December 2009, Zuckerberg’s previously private photos—in which he was seen shirtless, holding a teddy bear, and looking “plastered”—became public.



30) A 39-year-old Pennsylvania father was arrested for openly asking his 13-year-old daughter for sex over Facebook.



31) In 1983, Apple entered the Fortune 500 at #411 after being in existence for only five years, making it the fastest growing company in history.



32) In September 2009, Zuckerberg announced for the first time that Facebook was cash flow positive, meaning Facebook made more money that it spent.



33) To raise capital for their new company, Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen van and Steve Wozniak sold his Hewlett-Packard scientific calculator for $500.



34) Both of YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim’s parents were scientists. His father, Naimul, was a Bangladeshi chemist. Christine, his mother, was a German professor of biochemistry at the University of Minnesota.



35) Environmentalists have criticized Apple for not providing a full-fledged computer recycling program, unlike its competitors.



36) Each month, more than 6 billion hours of videos are watched on YouTube. That’s about an hour for each person on Earth.



37) On average, each Pinterest user spends 15.8 minutes pinning. In contrast, YouTube users spend 16.4 minutes, Facebook users spend about 12.1 minutes, and Twitter uses spend 3.3 minutes on those sites.



38) Beacon, part of Facebook’s controversial advertisement system that broadcasted information about a user’s shopping activity on other sites, was the target of a class action lawsuit in 2009. The resulting settlement required Facebook to pay $9.5 million into a settlement fund.



39) Climate Counts, a nonprofit organization that ranks companies for climate-conscious consumers, ranked Apple last among electronic firms. Greenpeace criticized Apple in 2008 for failing to phase out hazardous material such as chlorinated plastic polyvinal chloride and brominated flame retardant in the iPhone.



40) Most of YouTube’s traffic – over 70% – comes from outside the U.S.



41) You Tube reaches more adults aged 18–34 than any cable network.



42) In 2007, YouTube cofounder Hurley told BBC News that one of the aims of YouTube is to entertain, inform, and empower the world through video.



43) YouTube’s viewers are approximately 44% female and 56% male. Most viewers are 12–17 years old.



44) Apple’s iPhone consumes US$0.25 worth of electricity per year if it’s fully charged once a day.



45) In May 2009, a Russian investment firm, Digital Sky Technologies, invested $200 million in Facebook in return for a 1.96% stake in the Web site.



46) Apple generated approximately $625 of revenue from each of the 40 million iPhones it sold in 2009. It generated $164 of revenue for every iPod sold, $1,279 for every Mac, and $665 for every iPad.



47) YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steven Chen, and Jawed Karim, former employees of PayPal, an online commerce website. They registered the domain name in February 2005. It was officially launched in December of that year.



48) There were 250 million iPods, 43 million iPhones, and 32 million iPod touches (a.k.a. iTouches) sold as of March 22, 2010.



49) Over 4 billion hours of video (over 450,000 years’ worth) are viewed each month on YouTube.



50) Pinterest is a “self-expression engine,” which “spills the beans” on what users are interested in to salivating advertisers. Recently, CEO Ben Silbermann revealed that Pinterest is working on creating a business model.



51) Rather than gaining traction in elite colleges or in California coffee shops that often function as the Web’s proving ground for new ideas, Pinterest’s popularity initially spread by word of mouth in founder Silbermann’s home state of Iowa. He notes that most early users came from Des Moines, Iowa, because he suspects “my Mom was telling all her patients.’.



52) The very first pin on Pinterest was in January 2010 by CEO Ben Silbermann. It was a picture of a Valentine’s gift.



53) In 2013, a pin generated, on average, 78 cents in sales (an increase of 25% since 2012). Once Pinterest begins to advertise on its site, the potential for revenue will skyrocket.



54) In its early attempts to popularize the site, YouTube offered $100 to attractive girls who posted 10 or more videos. The founders didn’t receive a single reply to this offer, which was posted on Craigslist.



55) Pinterest cofounder Ben Silbermann admired entrepreneurs like most people admire their favorite basketball players. He looked up to entrepreneurs such as George Eastman, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs.



56) Some Web researchers note that Google helps prop up Wikipedia as an information source since more than 50% of the traffic to Wikipedia is generated from Google searches.



57) In 2010, Google admitted that for the previous three years, it mistakenly collected information people sent over unencrypted wi-fi networks.



58) Pinterest user Jennifer Chong has twice as many followers on Pinterest as San Francisco has people. She has more than 2 million followers, 4,000 pins, and 54 boards. She is the second most popular user on Pinterest, second only to Jane Wang.



59) The most searched words on Google are always changing, but the following words receive the highest search requests: Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Google, and sex/video.



60) Before Silbermann created Pinterest, he created an iPhone app called Tote. After that failed, he tried a pin board product, and Pinterest was born. Pinterest gained little traction initially. Silbermann was embarrassed to tell people he had failed, so his friend continued to work on the site. Today it has over 20 million users.



61) Though the concept of a GUI (graphical user interface) was initially developed by Xerox, Apple was the first company to mass market GUI-based computers. While Apple’s first GUI-based computer, Lisa, was a commercial failure, the Macintosh released a year later was a success. Before GUI, computers were controlled by complicated key combinations and typed commands.



62) Google uses over 1 million computers for is operation and handles over 1 billion search requests—per day.



63) Google’s employee perks are famous. For example, at one time they offered a $5,000 hybrid car subsidy to encourage cleaner technologies. It was eventually killed to reduce company costs during the economic downturn.



64) IPhones account for 39% of Apple’s overall revenue.



65) The late Steve Jobs said he would be willing to “go thermonuclear war” against Google, a company he thought was guilty of “grand theft” when it launched its Android operating system.



66) More video content is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the three major U.S. television networks created in 60 years.



67) Time called Pinterest one of the five best sites of 2011, along with Google+ and Klout.



68) Pinterest’s CEO and cofounder Ben Silbermann is from the Midwest. He notes that to this day, the Midwest and Iowa in particular are disproportionately represented given its population on Pinterest.



69) The “Chief Culture Officer” is an actual job title at Google. His or her main responsibility is to retain the company’s unique culture, which includes flat organization, lack of hierarchy, a collaborative environment, and keeping Googlers happy.



70) A 20-year-old IBM employee in Canada lost sick leave benefits from her insurer because her Facebook page showed “cheerful” photos while she was on paid sick leave for depression.



71) After graduating from college, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley was hired at Confinity, the company that created PayPal. He designed a PayPal logo as part of his job interview, which became PayPal’s official logo. He was the company’s first designer and its 10th employee. During his early days at Confinity, Chad slept on a friend’s floor.



72) Apple stores each sell an average of $93,150 worth of products every day, which is equivalent to $3,900 an hour or $65 a minute every day of the year.



73) Pinterest was founded by three friends—Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp—who liked to collect things and who thought it would be fun to do collecting on the Internet. It is managed by Brew Labs and is funded by as small group of investors and entrepreneur.



74) Pinterest reached the 10 million-visitor mark faster than almost any social media site in history. It is the fastest-growing independent site in the history of the Internet.



75) On average, there are more than 400 tweets per minute contain a YouTube link.



76) Google offers full-on gourmet meals three times a day for its employees. Free food is so tempting that Googlers risk the “Google 15” weight gain, which is similar to the “Freshman 15.’.



77) A TODAY Moms’ survey of 7,000 U.S. mothers show that 42% of them report suffering from “Pinterest stress,” or not feeling crafty or creative enough.



78) Pinterest CEO and cofounder Ben Silbermann says that “You don’t have to be witty or a good photographer to use Pinterest. . . . you just have to pin your interests to an online pin board.’.



79) TecheBlog reports that the Macbook Air Platinum is the most expensive Mac laptop ever, at a whopping $486,616. Its unibody enclosure is made from solid platinum. The MacBook Air Platinum is limited to just 5 units.



80) Lawyer and photographer Kristin Kowalski sparked a firestorm when she blogged about her concerns that Pinterest was letting its users publish other people’s content without explicit permission.