This list provides a set of tools, no matter your level of expertise, which will further your understanding of SEO and what it is all about.  These tools provide you with quantifiable metrics on how effective your SEO campaign is so you can tweak it to best suite your needs.

10

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Google Adwords is a tool primarily used to calculate pay per click costs. It is a useful tool to determine the popularity of search terms and find out how much competition exists for those terms. Another useful feature is when you type in a keyword it will provide you with 100 alternative keywords and phrases. It even allows you to search based on region, category, language, and devices. By incorporating the right keywords in your content you can increase your search engine rankings and ultimately drive more traffic to your site.

9

Google Trends

Google trends displays search information from around the world on how often a particular keyword is searched for. If you go to the Google Trends website and enter in a keyword it will take you to a results page showing a graph of where most of the searches related to that keyword are coming from. Another valuable feature of this tool is it suggests to you related keywords so you can work them into your SEO strategy.

8

Hubspot Marketing Grader

Hubspot’s Marketing Grader is a great free tool that provides a detailed analysis of your website’s marketing effectiveness. All you have to do is enter your websites’s address and in a matter of a few seconds the Grader will provide you will an overall score on a scale from 1 to 100 on over 30 different factors. Best of all, it breaks down each way to improve into easily digestible chunks and gives you explicit action items on how to improve your SEO.

7

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is pretty much the same tool set offered by Google Webmaster Tools, but for the Bing search engine. Too many websites these days are missing out on the ability to capitalize on search traffic from Bing, which accounts for nearly 15% of all search traffic. In order to maximize your visitors you will want to make sure you are regularly tracking your ranking with Bing, as well as, Google.

6

Search Status

Search Status is a popular plugin available for Firefox. Search status provides an easy to use toolbar which provides you with valuable SEO metrics for each site you visit. When you visit a site the toolbar populates with information such as Google Page Rank, Alex rank, mozRank, and Compete Rank.

5

SEO Quake

SEO Quake is a plugin compatible with most major browsers including Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, which offers users a great set of SEO tools.  Essentially whenever you perform a search on Google it brings up a toolbar which lists common SEO related metrics for each site in the results. Some of the metrics it shows includes Google Page Rank, number of pages indexed by Google, number of backlinks, keyword density, overall rank, Twitter tweets, Facebook likes,  and the age of the domain for each result in the search. As a warning, doing a large number of searches with all the parameters selected in SEO Quake can result in a temporary ban from performing searches.

4

Open Site Explorer

Open Site Explorer provides a clean and lean way of checking a website’s backlinks. Out of the many other tools that exist that provide the same purpose, Open Site Explorer has one of the nicest and simplest interfaces and doesn’t have any annoying popups. It provides a number of filters for the search results showing you the top pages, linking domains, and the anchoring text. You can even compare backlinks and link metrics for up to 5 different websites, which can be a useful tool when comparing a site to its competitors. When trying to build quality backlinks, Open Site Explorer is a priceless tool to analyze the fruits of your labor.

3

Copyscape

Copyscape is a plagiarism checking tool. This tool essentially allows you to check for duplicate content and detect if articles are original. This is a great way to make sure people aren’t stealing the valuable content you have worked hard and invested time in writing. It is also a very useful tool if you allow guest writers on your site. You can run their articles through the check to make sure you aren’t violating any copyrights.

2

Google Webmaster Tool

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service provided to webmasters which allows you to check and monitor the indexing status of your site. Some of the tools offered include the ability to check and submit a sitemap, check how often the content on your site is crawled by Google, get a list of internal, external, and broken links on you site, and see what keywords people are using to reach your site and the average CTR (click-through rates) for those keywords. Recently Google Webmaster Tools has been integrated with Google Analytics, meaning once you sign up you can access the Google Webmaster Tools directly from your Google Analytics account. Perhaps most useful of all, Google Webmaster Tools shows you clicks and impressions for each keyword individually. With this information you can determine what keywords you want to target in your SEO strategy.

1

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the flagship tool for measuring and analyzing SEO. It allows you to track nearly all dimensions of visitor activity on your website. Each aspect is neatly categorized into different tabs. The audience report provides you with detailed information about your users such as where they are located geographically, what types of technology they are using to access your site, how many visitors are visiting your site with a mobile device, and how many of the visitors are new visitors rather than returning visitors. The traffic sources tab provides you with information about how visitors found your website. This includes whether the traffic was direct, a referral, or came from a search engine, the queries that visitors used to arrive at your site, the number of visitors that arrived as a result of a social media referral, and any advertising you may be performing. The content tab shows you what content your visitors are looking at. It will show you the number of page views for each page viewed on your site, the speed of your side, and whether users used any site search features you may have integrated in your website. Best of all it keeps a running history of all this information meaning you can perform reports based on varying time frames and can even compare weeks, perform year-over-year analysis, and setup custom goals to track.

Featured Image: Flickr by Jim Rush

10

“Any man can be a Father, but it takes someone special to be a dad.” - Anne Geddes

9

“The best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” - John Wooden

8

“A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.” - Unknown

7

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.” - Sigmund Freud

6

“Dad taught me everything I know. Unfortunately, he didn’t teach me everything he knows.” - Al Unser Jr.

5

“Good fathers make good sons.” - Unknown

4

“It is a wise father that knows his own child.” - William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice

3

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” - Jim Valvano

2

“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a song who thinks he’s wrong.” - Charles Wadsworth

1

“My father taught me to work, he did not teach me to love it.” - Abraham Lincoln

10

Bank of America

Assets: $2.12 trillion

Country: United States

Up until 2011, Bank of America was the largest bank in the United States until it was surpassed by JPMorgan Chase. It is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, but its presence is felt in more than 150 countries around the world. As of 2012, it is estimated Bank of America holds roughly 12.2% of all bank deposits in the country. Bank of America has 5,600 branch locations, operates 16,200 ATMs and serves 57 million customers around the world. Nearly 260,000 employees work for Bank of America.

9

JPMorgan Chase

Assets: $2.26 trillion

Country: United States

JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the Untied States. It is headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. JPMorgan Chase, together with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup are referred to as the Big Four Banks of the United States. It is also one of the biggest banks int he world in terms of employees. Globally, JPMorgan Chase employs more than 258,000 people.

8

Royal Bank of Scotland

Assets: $2.32 trillion

Country: United Kingdom

The Royal Bank of Scotland has around 700 branches throughout Scotland, England, and Wales. The bank was founded in 1727 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Fascinatingly, up until the middle of the 19th century, the Royal Bank of Scotland was allowed to issues their own banknotes and circulated freely as a means of payment.

7

Barclays Group

Assets: $2.43 trillion

Country: United Kingdom

Barclays has operations in more than 50 countries around the world and serves 48 million customers. It is also one of the oldest banks in the world. It was originally founded in London in 1690 where it still is headquartered today. It is currently the 22 largest company in the world and employs 150,000 individuals. A lot of people are familiar with them after they purchased the naming rights of the new NBA basketball arena in Brooklyn, New York called the Barclays Center.

6

Credit Agricole

Assets: $2.43 trillion

Country: France

With more than 161,000 employees, Credit Agricole is one of the largest employers in all of France. The bank is the largest retail banking group in all of France and is the second largest in Europe. The bank itself is majority owned by 39 French co-op retail banks. In 2010, the bank was at the center of controversy when it was fined Credit Agricole for colluding to charge unjustified fees on check processing.

5

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group

Assets: $2.44 trillion

Country: Japan

Better known as MUFG, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is by far the largest bank in Japan. It was founded October 1, 2005 as a result of a merger and is headquartered in Chiyoda, Japan. MUFG employs more than 80,000 employees and is one of the largest companies in Japan.

4

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

Assets: $2.45 trillion

Country: China

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is the largest bank in the world if measured by profit and market capitalization. It comes in 4th place based on net assets. It is widely to considered to be the largest public company in the world. It is a state-owned commercial bank and operators 18,000 outlets and 106 overseas branches globally. The bank serves 2.5 million corporate customers and 150 million individuals.

3

BNP Paribas

Assets: $2.54 trillion

Country: France

Headquartered in Paris, France, BNP Paribas is the third largest bank in the world in terms of net assets. BNP Paribas is known for escaping the 2007-2009 credit crisis unscathed and even even reported a $3 billion Euro net operating profit in 2008 when most of the world’s banks were falling apart. In 2013 BNP Paribas was awarded the Bank of the Year award by the prestigious International Financing Review.

2

HSBC

Assets: $2.55 trillion

Country: United Kingdom

HSBC is the largest bank in the United Kingdom and the second largest in the world in terms of net assets. The name HSBC comes from its founding name, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation since being founded in London in 1991. In a short 20 years, it has quickly become one of the key players in the banking industry. Shockingly, it is also the 6th largest public company in the world and serves 89 million customers in 85 countries around the world.

1

Deutsche Bank

Assets: $ 2.79 trillion

Country: Germany

Deuusche Bank is the largest bank in the world in terms of net assets. It is also the largest foreign exchange dealer in the world and has roughly 21% of the market share. The bank is headquartered in Frankfurt, but has a presence in nearly every country in the world. Worldwide, the company employs more than 100,000 individuals in more than 70 countries.

Featured Image: Flickr by gravitat-OFF

10

Da Vinci’s Demons

Season Premiere: April 12, 2013

Da Vinci’s Demons on Starz is one of the hottest new shows of the year. The show tells the fictional early life of Da Vinici as an artist, inventor, idealist, engineer, and genius intellectual. The show stars Tom Riley who plays Da Vinci, Laura Haddock as Lucrezia Donati, the main female character in the show, and Elliot Cowan as Lorenzo Medici. The show has already been approved for a second season.

9

Arrow

Season Premiere: October 2013

Arrow first premiered at the end of last year. The series follows a billionaire playboy named Oliver Queen played by Stephen Amell, who after being stranded for five years on a hostile remote island returns home and vows to fight crime and corruption as a secret vigilant, the Green Arrow. Of any of the news shows released in the last year or two, Arrow is one of the most popular. Anyone who loves comic books definitely needs to check this show out if you haven’t already.

8

The Vampire Diaries

Season Premiere: October 2013

Having just finished season 4 of the popular show, The Vampire Diaries leaves viewers with more questions than answers. The series follows Elena Gilbert, a 18 year-old girl, who falls deeply in love with a 160 year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore.

7

NCIS

Season Premiere: September 2013

After ten seasons, the show is still going strong. It was just recently voted as America’s favorite television show. The season finale of the 10th season attracted more than 18 million viewers, making it one of the most watched TV shows of all time. For any of those who are not familiar with the plot, it revolves around a fictional team of special agents fro the Naval Criminal Investigative Service which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

6

Supernatural

Season Premiere: October 2013

The 8th season of Supernatural just concluded leaving viewers wanting more. The show follows two brothers, Sam Winchester and Dean Winchester, as they hunt demons, ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural beings. The showrunner, Jeremy Carver stated he has goals for the show to complete at least 10 seasons total  in order to be able to progress the plot as planned.

5

How I Met Your Mother

Season Premiere: September 2013

It was announced this year that the next season will be the final season of the hit sitcom, How I Met Your Mother. The series revolves around the main character, Ted Mosby and his group of friends who live in Manhattan. The story is framed by being in the year 2030 where Ted is recounting the series of events that led him to meeting his son’s mother. The show is known for its unique structure and eccentric humor. The season finale drew more than 8.5 million viewers.

4

Criminal Minds

Season Premiere: September 2013

Entering into its 9th season, Criminal Minds continues to widely popular. The show is about a team of profilers from the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The show is different than the many other criminal dramas on TV by focusing on the profiling of the criminal rather than the crime itself.  The season finale drew an audience of over 11 million viewers.

3

The Big Bang Theory

Season Premiere: September 2013

The offbeat comedy of The Big Bang Theory continues to enthrall fans after 6 seasons. The season finale drew 15.48 million viewers from around the world. Don’t miss what craziness ensues in the next exciting chapter of this entertaining show.

2

Game of Thrones

Season Premiere: April 2013

Perhaps none of the shows on this list has created so much buzz as HBO’s Game of Thrones. It is one of the most popular TV shows not to air on mainstream cable networks in the history of television. The show itself is an adaption of George R. R. Martin’s fantasy novels called A Song of Ice and Fire. The show has quickly obtained an exceptionally broad and active international fan base. Well into the third season, the show is attracting more than 5 million viewers on a regular basis.

1

Grey’s Anatomy

Season Premiere: September 2013

Grey’s Anatomy focuses on the lives of surgical interns and residents as they gradually grow into season doctors while attempting to maintain personal lives. The series is currently the highest rated TV drama in the 18 to 49 year-old demographic. It is the fifth-highest revenue generating show on TV today and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon. Season 10 should be as exciting as ever.

Featured Image: Flickr by hrishikeshgk

10

Madison, Wisconsin

Home to the state’s best university, the University of Wisconsin, Madison has the highest proportion of college educated residents in all of the Midwest United States. Almost 48% of all residents hold some form of college degree at the Bachelor’s degree level or higher.  Many businesses are attracted to the Madison area to take advantage of the area’s high level of education. As a result, Madison is home to a number of large companies such as American Family Insurance Group, Sub-Zero & Wolf Appliance, Broadjam, CDW, and Full Compass Systems.

9

Charlottesville, Virginia

The University of Virginia at Charlottesville is considered to be one of the top public universities in the nation. A large concentration of medical professionals live and work in the region thanks to the cutting-edge University of Virginia Medical Center. Martha Jefferson Hospital is also another top employer.

8

San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California has become an economic powerhouse over the years as a result of its truly intelligent residents. Nearby University of California at Berkeley  San Francisco State University, and Mills College all fuel the labor pool. 43.4% of residents hold some sort of college degree and many hold higher professional degrees. It is also home to a number of large Fortune 500 companies including Gap, Wells Fargo, Visa, Charles Schwab, and the Gap.

7

Ithaca, New York

Home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, a whopping 7.9% of residents hold a Ph.D. Not only that, nearly 27.4% of the population holds at least a Master’s degree, well above the national average of just 8.9%. Also Ithaca consistently places on the list on the list of the top places to live in the United States.

6

San Jose, California

San Jose, home to Silicon Valley, makes the list with little surprise. It is home to dozens of high tech companies including Apple, Google, Yahoo!, and HP. Nearly 2.4% of the region’s population holds a Ph.D. Nearby, Stanford University and Santa Clara University pump out a continuous supply of top-level talent. It is home to the highest concentration of college graduates in the state of California. Nearly 45% of residents hold a college degree.

5

Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University of Michigan is one of the largest university in the United States. It is no wonder then why there are so may intelligent people living in the Ann Arbor area. Nearly 47.9% of the population holds a Bachelor’s degree and 4.6% of the population holds a Ph.D. It is also considered to be a very desirable place to living and consistently ranks in the top ten for the best cities to live in the United States. Ann Arbor is a booming area for high tech jobs, health service jobs, and biotechnology research jobs. The city also is home to a General Motors engineering office as well.

4

Boston, Massachusetts

With more than 70 universities and colleges, Boston is full of brilliant people. It also supports one of the nation’s most vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems. Companies in the city average more than $1.5 billion in annual R&D research making it one of the top places where new technology emerges.

3

Washington, D.C.

The home of the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. is always quick to adopt new technology. It is here where the private sector meets the public sector. 47.3% of all people 25 years or older have a college degree. The national average is roughly 25%. It certainly helps a number of the nation’s top rated universities are nearby including Georgetown University, Howard University, and George Washington University.

2

Durham, North Carolina

Durham benefits from a high concentration of university faculty due to nearby Duke University. Some of the largest employers in the Durham area include IBM with nearly 13,000 employees, Nortel Networks, RTI International, and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina. These high-profile employers tend to attract intelligent individuals and drive the local economy.

1

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder may be a surprising winner to many, but it is far from the ordinary university town. The 38,000 students and staff account for nearly half of the city’s population of roughly 100,000 people. The University of Colorado is one of the top public research universities in the country. Of its famous alumni are many NASA astronauts and successful businessmen. It is also a place where many graduates chose to stay when they are done with school. Boulder is widely recognized as a very exciting town to live in. It attracts young professionals and people who love the outdoors. NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) has more than 120 Ph.D researchers on staff and hosts hundreds of the world’s best scientists visiting from around the world. If that all isn’t enough, Boulder is emerging as one of the top tech start up areas in the country. Consequently, it has received the nickname silicon flatirons.

Featured Image: Flickr by roger4336

10

Spiders are insects.

Although not everyone thinks this, and quite a few people know better thanks to better education and access to information these days, spiders are not insects. Although both very small, spiders are arachnids, not insects. The two groups are actually extremely different biologically.

9

Removing a spider from your house is better than killing it.

To be honest, most of the species of spiders you find in your house live in the house because they cannot survive outside. Gently relocating the spider outside does it no favors. Most typical spiders you find in the house are completely harmless and can’t do anything to hurt you. With that said, it is best for the spider just to leave it alone. If you absolutely cannot live with the fact of having a spider in your house, it is best to simply put it out of its misery and kill it rather than moving it outside and giving it a prolonged death.

8

Black widows females kill the males after mating.

This myth isn’t entirely untrue, but it is greatly exaggerated and taken without context. Black widow females will sometimes attempt to eat their mates if they are hungry, but this is not always the case. The male spiders of this species are less than one quarter of the size of the females so escape can be difficult when the female is set on consuming their partner. Additionally there are many different types of black widows and only a select few even perform this practice. This one is thanks to pop culture and the attribution of the term black widow to evil women.

7

All spiders make webs.

Webs are created by spiders to catch prey. Only about half of the species of spiders in the world catch their prey using webs. Many other species actively hunt their prey or sit around and wait for their prey to come to them. Other species can shoot their webs at prey to trap them.

6

Tarantulas are extremely dangerous or deadly to humans.

This myth has been propagated by Hollywood over the years. It probably has to due with the fact they are large, hairy, and frankly are somewhat scary looking. In reality, the venom of tarantulas is considered to have a very low toxicity to humans. They can certainly bite you, but in all honestly the pain from the bite has been compared to that of a bee sting.

5

You are never more than a yard from a spider.

This particular myth originates from a statement famous archaeologist Norman Patrick made in an article in 1995 where he said, “Where you sit as you read these lines, a spider is probably no more than a few yards away.” Various news stations and other media reported it as fact and  without context. Sure if you are laying in a grassy field, there may be hundreds of small harmless spiders around you, but in a cement parking lot or in your house, this is not true whatsoever.

4

A deadly spider has been found living under toilet seats in airports and airplanes.

This myth originated as an email hoax back in the mid 90′s, but has been found recirculating recently on Facebook. Nothing about the story is true. The species of spider referred to in the story doesn’t exist, there was never a confirmed case of a deadly spider bite from sitting on a toilet, and no investigation as a result of the non-existent event.

3

Spiders can lay their eggs under human skin.

Unfortunately for spiders, but fortunately for us, the human body does not make an ideal site for a spider to lay its eggs. There are no documented cases found in scientific or medical literature referring to a case where an individual had spider eggs under their skin. For the most part spiders chose to lay their eggs in quiet hidden areas to give their young the greatest chance of survival.

2

The daddy longlegs has the world’s most powerful venom, but its fangs are too small and can’t bite humans.

This is nothing more than an urban-legend. Several common species are often grouped together to be called daddy longlegs. These include harvestmen, which do not have any venom at all and technically are not spiders, crane flies, which also don’t have any venom, and pholcid spiders, which have extremely weak venom.

1

On average a person will swallow eight spiders per year while they are sleeping.

This myth has been traced back to an email from a woman who started sending out emails warning people that if they weren’t careful they would swallow spiders while they were sleeping. She claims she did so because people were too gullible and willing to believe anything they read online as fact. In reality, it would be extremely rare if you swallowed a spider. They wouldn’t particularly want to be in or around your mouth.

Featured Image: Flickr by cybershotking

10

“Lust’s passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes.” - Marquis de Sade

9

 ”It’s always times like these when I think of you and I wonder if you ever think of me.” - Vanessa Carlton

8

“Sex in the consolation you have when you can’t have love.” - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

7

“Love begins with an image; lust with a sensation.” - Mason Cooley

6

“Lust is easy. Love is hard. Like is most important.” - Carl Reiner

5

“If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.” - Alfred Lord Tennyson

4

“Why do they call it a “crush”? Because that’s how you feel when they don’t feel the same way in return.” - Unknown

3

“The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can’t have them.” - Unknown

2

“Of all the worldly passions, lust is the most intense. All other worldly passions seem to follow in its train.” - Buddha

1

“Lust is the craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.” - Frederick Buechner

10

Twitter has grown by more than 44% in the last year.

Twitter is currently the fastest growing social media platform. The micro-blogging site, is perfect for sharing information in easy to digest bite-sized portions. It is also unique in interactions between Twitter users can be one-way. So if you want to stay up on your favorite celebrity you can follow them without having them follow you.

9

6 billion hours of video are watched every month on YouTube.

An astonishing 6 billion hours of video are watched on YouTube every month. That is equivalent to 250,000,000 days. In less than a year, the number of hours of video watched on the site has increased by 50%. Every month YouTube posts statistics about the website on their official blog.

8

The fastest growing age demographic on Twitter are users 55 to 64 years-old. 

Twitter isn’t only for young tech savvy people. The fastest growing age demographic on Twitter is currently individuals who are 55 to 64 years-old. This is a testament to how easy it is to pick up and use. For Twitter to be as popular as it is across a wide variety of demographics world-wide it needs to be user-friendly and useful. It has certainly accomplished both of these requirements.

7

Facebook has more than 1.1 billion monthly users.

Every single month 1.1 billion users use Facebook. This is equivalent to roughly to 15% of the entire world’s population. Of those 1.1 billion users, nearly 751 million of them access the site using their mobile device every month. As a result, the Facebook mobile platform generates nearly 30% of the company’s ad revenue.

6

YouTube reaches more adults aged 18 to 34 than any cable network on television.

Less than 20 years ago, when you wanted to watch a video you popped in a VHS tape into your VCR, or when it became available watched a DVD. Now, nearly anything you want to watch is available at your finger tips. It is available on your mobile phone, tablets, video games consoles, and your computer. The fact more 18 to 34 year-old people watch YouTube than any single cable network in television is a testament to the technology.

5

64% of LinkedIn users are located outside the United States.

The expanse of social media is quickly expanding beyond its traditional boundaries in the United States. In fact, the majority of LinkedIn users are not located within the United States. The valuable career-oriented social media site is quickly becoming the number one tool job recruiters use when searching for viable talent.

4

YouTube has over 1 billion unique monthly visitors.

Considering there are more than 1 billion unique monthly visitors and more than 6 billion hours worth of videos are watched every month, each visitor, on average watches 6 hours worth of video per month. Divide this out by weeks and each visitor watches 1.5 hours worth of video per week. With how busy people are in this day and age, that is quite an impressive number. Besides, sleeping, eating, and working, there aren’t many other things in life we average 6 hours a month doing.

3

Facebook has more than 665 million unique users who visit the site on a  daily basis.

Of the 1.1 billion people who are active on Facebook every month, nearly half of them interact with the social media giant on a daily basis. Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. We depend on it to solicit ideas and share thoughts. We keep in touch with our family and friends through it and network with new people.

2

Google + has 359 million active users on a monthly basis.

Although newer to the game than the other established social media sites, even Google + amazingly has more than 359 million active users on a monthly basis. It is also one of the fastest growing social media sites around. Based on studies, it appears Google + is used more as a professional social media site than than the family and friend oriented Facebook is. It is also easier to setup the concept of social circles with Google + to separate the different people you interact with.

1

Nearly 1/3 of the world’s population uses some form of social media.

All in all, social media engages nearly 1/3 of the Earth’s population and will likely grow as the availability of the internet and computing devices expands into less developed countries. By 2020 it is estimated that at least 1/2 of the people on Earth will be some form of social media presence. If none of the other facts and statistics impressed you, this one should. In order to stay competitive in the 21st century, companies will have to embrace social media and integrate it into the core of their marketing strategy. More and more jobs specifically tailored to social media are appearing every day. Nearly all tech companies have some sort of social media team whose entire job is to manage the company’s image on social media sites. Maintaining personal social media images is also becoming increasingly more important. A lot of employers look at potential candidates Facebook and Twitter profiles to make sure the image they project is consistent with what is portrayed on social media. The uses for social media are endless. Data analysis can be performed to figure out what people care about, what motivates them, what brands and companies they support, and ultimately how to motivate them into action.

With that said, please take a few moments to follow us on Twitter @10everything and like us on Facebook! Thank you.

Featured Image: Flickr by ivanpw

10

HIV

Annual Cost: $25,000

Human Immunodeficiency Virus, better known a HIV, is a very serious condition. Essentially it causes the progressive failure of the immune system. As a result, the body becomes ever more susceptible to opportunistic infections. Ultimately it isn’t HIV that kills you, it is the various infections that occur as a result. The expensive aspect of treating HIV is the massive daily regimen of vitamins, antibiotics, and other medications.

9

Cancer

Annual Cost: $49,000

At nearly double the annual cost of treating HIV, cancer is a very difficult condition to treat. Several common treatments are surgical removal of the cancerous masses, blood transfusions, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Unfortunately, all of these treatments come at a very high cost.

8

Organ Transplant

Annual Cost: $51,000

The cost of an organ transplant is typically quite high. This actual transplant occurs during surgery, typically by highly skilled and trained doctors. Consequently, these doctors come at a very high price. Also, many follow up appointments, antibiotics and pain medications, physical therapy, and sometimes blood transfusions occur for many months following the surgery.

7

Stroke

Annual Cost: $61,000

The high cost of having a stroke comes with the fact nearly 40% of people who have a stroke experience severe impairments and require special care. The majority of the costs of having a stroke are incurred during the first 90 days after having it.

6

Hemophilia

Annual Cost: $62,000

Hemophilia is a group of hereditary genetic disorders that impair the body’s ability to control blood clotting or coagulation. These disorder is actually quite a bit more common than people realize. About 1 in 10,000 people are born with this hemophilia. Besides being very expensive, the good news is, thanks to modern medicine, the disorder can be controlled and a person can experience a high quality of life.

5

Heart Attack

Annual Cost: $72,000

A heart attack, known as a myocardial infarction to doctors, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart muscle, causing heart cells to be damaged or die. This happens usually from a blockage of a coronary artery. A heart attack requires costly emergency medical attention and months of follow ups with doctors. Nearly 50% of heart attacks are caused by smoking, obesity, and lack of exercise.

4

Coronary Artery Disease

Annual Cost: $75,000

About 1 in every 4 deaths in the United States are ultimately linked to coronary artery disease. Ultimately it can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Some of the largest contributing factors to coronary heart disease include diabetes, being overweight or obese, poor diet, being physically inactive, and excessive alcohol use.

3

Neonate

Annual Cost: $101,000

The average of cost of having a baby has dramatically increased over the last decade. All of the medical costs associated with having a baby including pre-birth visits, the actual process of giving birth, and in the months following, add up to more than $100,000 per year. Fortunately for those who have insurance many of these costs are largely covered.

2

End-Stage Renal Disease

Annual Cost: $173,000

Renal disease is a medical condition in which the kidneys stop adequately filtering the blood. The disease manifests itself in two main forms, acute-injury and chronic kidney disease. Typically the end-stage treatment option, if available, is kidney transplant. Up until then usually dialysis is required, which is a machine that filters you blood externally. All of these medical services come with a very high price.

1

Respiratory Failure

Annual Cost: $314,000

A complete respiratory failure refers to not being able to breath on your own anymore. The only treatment solution is to hook someone up to a ventilator, which is a machine that breaths for you. It is required to be hooked up to the machine 24 hours a day and under medical supervision. It isn’t difficult to figure out why this is such a costly medical condition.

Featured Image: Flickr by morrissey

10

The Xbox One will have a Blu-ray disc player.

Finally, the decision on which console to buy won’t be based on what type of media it plays. When the Playstation 3 was released many people bought it over the Xbox 360 because of its ability to play Blu-ray discs. Admittedly, the decision probably isn’t nearly as important as it was several years back, as stand-alone Blu-ray players have dropped dramatically in price and with the advent of cloud-based services, more and more people are accessing their media from the internet.

9

The Xbox One will feature full voice control.

The next gen console will feature a full set of voice controls for operation of the system. It is similar to what is found in the first generation Kinetic, but greatly improved. One of the coolest new features is the ability to turn on the console with voice activation. It can also be setup to turn on your TV, peripheral devices, and even a cable or satellite box. It will be one of the first devices ever to feature such technology.

8

The Xbox Live service will be dramatically improved.

The current Xbox Live service runs on 15,000 dedicated servers around the world. The new service is said to be backed by over 300,000. That is a 20x improvement in terms of infrastructure. As a result multiplayer games will not be limited to the typical 16-32 players as they are now.  Supposedly, the new Live system in combination to the improved hardware will support multiplayer matches up to 128 players.

7

The Xbox One will feature a new controller design.

The same familiar layout that gamers have learned to love about the Xbox 360′s controllers will return, but greatly improved. To start, the often clumsy directional pad has been replaced with a distinct four button directional pad to provide greater control and sensing capabilities. Each trigger now features its own rumble motors, a feature Microsoft is calling “Impulse Triggers” and allows game developers to program directional vibrations. The new controllers have also been weight-balanced to ease the fatigue placed on the hands when playing hours on end and they no longer has a protruding battery pack, making it easier to hold.

6

The Kinect sensor for the Xbox One has been completely overhauled.

One of the first differences between the new Kinetic sensor and the old one is the new one is capable of capturing full 1080p video. This enlarges the sensor’s field-of-view by approximately 60%, making it quite a bit more accurate.  The accuracy of the sensor is almost mind-blowing. it is now so sensitive it can measure a person’s pulse by monitoring skin pigmentation on a person’s face combined with infrared light variations. The old sensor mapped a room by using structured light and looked at the deformities created. The new one essentially uses radar technology and echolocation. Oh yeah, the ability to Skype will be included out of the box.

5

The graphics performance of the Xbox One is 8x better than the Xbox 360.

The graphics chipset of the Xbox 360 was roughly 500 million transistors. The number of transistors in the Xbox One’s graphic chipset is 10x that at 5 billion. It was announced the graphics processor would reside on a single chip with the CPU, memory, and the controller logic to decrease heat throughput and increase performance. The CPU and the GPU are both being supplied by AMD.

4

Xbox One will sync installed games and achievements to the cloud.

Using Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, allows gamers to access their games and achievements on any Xbox One system. With ever increasing internet connection speeds, another future possibility to offload the processing of cutting-edge games to the cloud service.

3

The Xbox One will function as a video pass-through device.

Essentially, the Xbox One has an input HDMI port which allows you to plug in your cable or satellite box into your Xbox. What this does is allows the Xbox to overlay screens onto your regular TV feed. This enables you to use the Xbox’s electronic programming guide, have scroll bars setup to see what friends are online while you are watching your regular programming, and synchronization with Xbox SmartGlass which allows you to have a second-screen on your tablet or smart phone where you can pull up the guide and change the channels with like a remote. Channel changing is also promised to be fully integrated with the new Kinect, meaning you can verbally tell the Xbox to change the channels to a specified station, such as “Change the channel to ESPN.”

2

So far, there are 15 confirmed games going to be available within the first year.

Microsoft has confirmed there will be at least 15 confirmed games available for the Xbox One within the first year, including 8 which they claim will be entirely new franchises. Some of the games announced were, Madden 25, FIFA 14, UFC, NBA Live 14, Forza 5, Quantum Break, and a fan-favorite Call of Duty: Ghosts.

1

The Xbox One strives to be a living-room experience.

Perhaps most importantly of all, the Xbox One strives to create a whole living-room experience rather than just being a game console. With the Xbox 360′s updates over the years we have seen a gradual progression toward this goal, but with the Xbox One, Microsoft will be taking a quantum leap forward. It is aimed at being the device to consolidate all of your home entertainment needs. Its goal is to revolutionize something as simple and as taken for granted as watching television. The appeal of the system will no longer be just for gamers. The system will even appeal to regular people who take no interest in gaming. If this device is any indication of the future wave of technology, it will surely be a fantastic “one” (pun intended).

Featured Image: Flickr by netzkobold