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Clean Again

Chapter 7: EATEN ALIVE read on AO3 | previous chapter | tumblr chapter index make sure to check AO3 for this fic's playlist and other extras!

Corey and Reader consummate their relationship.

general warnings for this fic - angst, fluff, eventual smut (MDNI), canon-typical violence, canon-typical gore contents/warnings for this chapter - alcohol and tobacco consumption, stalking, jealousy, angst, smut - mild somno (fantasy only), female masturbation, foot tease, scratching, biting, hickies, fingering, PiV, semi-unsafe sex, pulling out

6,557 words

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After the first night, Corey stays every time he comes over. You don’t have to talk about it, it just feels right. He keeps clean clothes and an extra pair of coveralls for work in his motorcycle’s saddlebags. You offer to buy whatever hygiene products he likes when you go to the grocery store, but other than his own toothbrush, he declines. You think he likes using your body wash, his skin smelling like you all day while he rotates tires and replaces starters. You wish he would let you buy his preferred products so you could go to work smelling like him, finally figuring out what you’d been searching for after the first time you saw him.

He drops the pretense of coming over to fix things, but he doesn’t stop fixing things. He seems to like feeling useful, so you let him install a new shower head and disassemble your old DVD-VCR to clean 25 years of dust off the play heads and computer chip. Any project he can think of, you sit with him while he does it, watching the little micro facial expressions he makes while he thinks. You start doing repairs for him too, darning his socks, fixing the crude job he did attaching the patches embroidered with his name to his coveralls, re-hemming sleeves where the stitches have pulled out.

You try to get him to go out and do things instead of hanging around your apartment, but he’s always apprehensive. He doesn’t want to go bowling or see a punk show, he rejects the mall and the beach, says no to museums and mini golf. You wish he would come with you to more places, but you don’t press the issue. You just want to be around him. Besides, there’s a million movies he hasn’t seen, bands he’s never heard of, games he hasn’t played. So you put him on the Spotify family plan you share with some friends, and sit next to him on the couch late into the night, regurgitating what you learned in Intro to Film Studies when he asks what you mean by "diegetic," talking progressively more smack as his Smash Bros technique improves. You don't go inside his apartment often, but one day you notice an old 12-inch TV with a built in VCR that wasn't there before. The next time you climb the mossy steps to his little studio, you notice the wires that snake from the back of it to a beat up looking PlayStation 2 and smile to yourself.

You stand on the slab of concrete that constitutes your back porch with him while he smokes a cigarette. He lets it dangle with the cherry facing the ground and you lean in to take a drag from it, pressing your lips to his palm and looking up to keep eye contact with him. You let the smoke out in a perfect ring that expands and floats towards him, framing his stunned face.

He accidentally-on-purpose lets slip that he can do a wheelie on his motorcycle. Of course you have to see it. As terrifying as the idea of Corey doing something so dangerous is, it thrills you that he’s not scared, that he’s skillful (or stupid) enough to feel safe taking that risk. He puts his helmet on and you kiss his nose for luck before he flips his visor down. You stand on the gravel drive of your apartment building in just your socks, biting your thumb with anxiety as Corey rides down to one end of the street. He revs his engine, showing off, before starting towards you. With no hesitation he pops his front tire off the ground. He leans back further, and further, getting much more vertical than you expected. You can’t tell if you’re giggling or screaming. He maintains the wheelie all the way to the other end of the street. When he pulls back into the driveway you rush into his arms before he can even get his helmet off.

Sometimes, in the mornings, you notice his hard cock pressed against your back and you want nothing more than to wake him up by grinding on it. You have to extract yourself from his arms, coiled around you and heavy with sleep. One particular morning you wake to find your top has rolled down in the night and one tit is completely out. Corey’s already awake and you know he’s seen it. You quiver thinking about him staring at your body while you slept. Did he touch you? Broad, strong hand cupping and squeezing, thumb brushing your nipple, while you were unaware? He’s a good boy, you know he would never… But you get wet imagining that he did.

On nights he doesn’t stay over, you touch yourself to thoughts of him. Picturing what might happen if you got the courage to thrust your hips backwards against his morning wood. Or if he woke up to find both breasts popped out of your camisole. If you rolled your shirt down yourself after he fell asleep to make sure he had something to look at in the morning. Could he resist? You slide your sweatpants and underwear off, wishing your hands were his. If you made a move, which Corey would you get? Sweet, awkward Corey, turning bright red when he feels how wet you are for him. Aggressive, confident Corey, laughing and making you taste yourself on his fingers. You rub your clit furiously, imagining how pretty his cock must be, how it would feel stuffing you full. You cram your fist in your mouth so your neighbors won’t hear you calling out his name when he’s not even there.

Yet as badly as you want him, you’re not sure you’re ready to cross that line with him. Not just sex, but making things more permanent, more real. You’ve never had a problem keeping casual sex casual, but you feel, almost fear, that with Corey it would mean something. You’ve been single so long and so tepid about dating, you can’t quite imagine yourself in a relationship. Not having sex keeps him at a comfortable distance. You can tell yourself you’re not falling for him, that even though you've been sickeningly infatuated with him since the moment you saw him, what's happening between you is just a thing, as long as he’s never been inside you.

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Corey holds your bare feet in his lap. Today’s cultural education assignment is iconic music videos. This morning he could count on one hand the number of music videos he’d ever really seen. Now that number has nearly tripled. The next video you pull up has a warning before it, making you click a button saying you’re an adult. He only has to wonder why it could possibly have that warning for a few seconds. Grimy images of raw meat and butchered animals flash on the screen between shots of naked women.

He tries to follow the lyrics and realizes the song is very explicitly about sex. Heat rises to his face from under his collar. You press your toes into his thigh rhythmically, in time with the beat that reminds Corey of a train chugging down the tracks, dangerously close to his slowly thickening cock. He tries to keep his eyes on the screen. You slide your right foot up higher on his leg and he grabs your ankle, still refusing to look at you.

You wiggle your ankle free from his hand and put both feet on the back of the couch behind him instead. The skirt you’re wearing was already barely covering your panties, but with your legs up they’re totally exposed. He steals a glance out of the corner of his eye. He can see the outline of your lips through the fabric. He clears his throat. He wasn’t sure if you were teasing him on purpose, but the smile that cracks your face at the sound confirms it. The man singing in the music video is blindfolded and handcuffed to the ceiling. Corey’s now fully erect dick strains against his pants.

“They played this video on TV?” He asks you, voice coming out creaky.

“Heavily censored,” you say. “Do you know anything about the Manson Family murders?”

“Not really,” Corey says, turning in your direction and desperately trying to keep his eyes on your face, even as you pull your knees closer to your chest.

Murders. A topic Corey can’t seem to escape. He always thought that Haddonfield was uniquely obsessed with death because of Michael, but since he left he’s realized people are like that everywhere. But with your Carrie tattoo, your soft spot for maligned creatures, and the way you hunted him down at the library, you’re the one person in the world he might actually want to hear say something about murder.

“In 1969, a cult killed a pregnant actress and three of her friends in her home in Beverly Hills. They totally botched it, they made a huge mess and they all got caught super quickly. But they used her blood to write on the walls. This album was recorded in that house like, a little more than 20 years later.” You put one foot on his shoulder and drag your toes lightly down his arm.

He grabs your ankle again. He knows you’re playing a game with him, but he doesn’t know the rules. Do you want him to give in to you? To use your ankle in his hand to spread your legs open and place himself between them, pressing his face or the bulge in his pants against the crease in your underwear? He would do so in a heartbeat if you asked him to, but he’s scared to make the move without a clearer invitation. Or do you want him to resist you?

“What did they write?” Corey asks, releasing your ankle.

“One word,” you say, placing your foot extremely deliberately on his boner and pressing down. “Pig.”

In spite of himself, Corey rocks his hips, pressing his cock against your foot. With surprising swiftness you bring your other foot down from the back of the couch, planting it underneath you, and pushing yourself up. You slip the foot in his lap over the outside of his thigh and end up straddling him. He looks up at you in awe for a second before you slam your lips into his, kissing him aggressively, violently, grinding down on him. Invitation received.

He kisses you back, wrapping his arms around your waist. The way you feel rubbing against him, even through all those layers, is indescribable. His heart pounds. His breathing quickens. He has wanted you so badly since the first night you kissed, but he’s held himself back, letting you determine the pace of things, his respect for you and fear of pushing you away giving him strength when the curve of your neck or the touch of your hand makes him weak.

Corey presses up against you as you grind down. The sound you make is the most gorgeous thing he’s ever heard. He swipes his tongue across your bottom lip. You open your mouth more and he slips his tongue in. You put your hands on his chest, digging your fingertips in, using his collarbones like handles. With the way you suck on his tongue he can’t help but imagine how you might suck something else, a first he longs to share with you.

As if you read his mind, you start to slide backwards, sinking off his lap and towards the floor. He lets go of you, holding his hands out of your way as you rub your face on his chest and stomach on the way down. Corey expects you to kneel, parting his legs, pulling on his zipper. He swallows hard, anticipation building. But you never quite do what Corey expects, do you?

When you’re fully clear of his legs you stand, and back away from him, moving around the coffee table, a strange look on your face. He reaches out for you, and you let him clasp your hand for just a second before taking one more step back, out of his range. Confused and slightly hurt, he scoots to the edge of the couch and reaches for you again, with both hands this time. What are you doing? Did he take it too far? Wouldn’t you be saying something if he did?

He holds your hands in his hands and opens his mouth to check in, but you take another step backwards, slipping out of his grasp again. You give him The Smile. Then you turn around and walk away. The Smile. Corey understands the rules of the game now. He springs from the couch and takes two long strides towards you, closing the distance almost completely.

You quicken your pace to stay out of his grasp, and he quickens his to keep you in it. You jog into the kitchen, your movements hidden for a moment behind the wall. When he can see you again you’re on the other side of the kitchen island from him. You’re both still for a moment, each trying to determine which direction the other will go in. You break at the same time, but you successfully fake him out, making him take the long way around the island. You screech with laughter as you scamper away.

He’s faster than you and catches up to you as you go through the archway that separates the kitchen and the dining room. His speed doesn’t make up for your cunning, and you whip one of the dining chairs out from under the table and slide it in his direction without stopping. The obstacle slows him down just enough for him to whiff when he reaches out to grab you. You squeal at the near miss. He turns to go the other way around the dining table and comes within inches of catching you again in the other doorway. You change directions as you round the corner, tucking yourself into the book shelf that leans against the wall. Corey has too much momentum to respond to your maneuver, and loses precious time running back in the direction of the living room.

He looks behind him and you’re gone. He skids to a stop and smiles in spite of himself. You little vixen. He creeps back into the kitchen, peeking around the corner first. No sign of you. On tiptoe like a Scooby Doo character, he makes his way around the wall towards the dining room, certain you must be on the other side. You’re not there either. What the fuck? Corey thinks. Then he hears a door opening in the hallway.

He follows the sound. The only problem is that he doesn’t know which door it was, he couldn’t tell from the dining room. He stands in the middle of the hallway, thinking. He heard a door open. He didn’t hear a door close. From where he stands, the bedroom and bathroom doors both look completely shut. He turns and strides back up the hallway to the closet. The door is ajar. He’s got you now.

Corey flings the door open, prepared to hear you shriek in playful surprise. There’s no sound. He squints into the darkness and doesn’t see you. Hmmm. He reaches into the closet for the light switch on the wall and you grab his hand, appearing in the doorway.

He grunts and jerks back in surprise. You howl with laughter as you pull him into your arms.

“You should have seen your face!” You taunt him.

He can’t help but laugh with you, feeling that same excitement he felt in the library, floored by the way you played him up until the last second. He wonders again if you could survive an encounter with Michael. Then he feels guilty. Despite everything, Corey still harbors a fondness for Michael, his crooked mentor, a man so beautifully, perfectly free from what others thought about him. But he’d kill Michael with his bare hands before he’d ever let your survival be a question. He tightens his arms around you protectively.

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“So! Have you done it yet?”

“Oh my god, Veronica, are we in high school?” You ask, taking a sip of your drink. Your favorite bartender is working tonight, and they made it extra strong. You’re gonna have to pace yourself and leave a big tip.

“You’re taking so long it seems like you are,” she teases.

“I think you have it backwards. I fucked way sooner than this in high school.”

“Wait, who did you fuck in high school?” Veronica leans forward on her bar stool. “How did I not know this?”

“You don’t remember Matthew, he was a senior when we were juniors? Played trombone?”

“Oh yeah!” Veronica’s eyes light up in recognition. “I remember you guys dating. He was cool. I didn’t know you fucked him though!”

You nod your head. “I snuck him in through my window like, 4 days after our first date.”

“You little harlot!” Veronica says, laughing. “So what’s the hold up with Corey?”

You think about the other day watching music videos with him. How you’d teased him, testing him, testing yourself. How you’d walked right up to the line, and been desperate to cross it, but you couldn’t quite make it there. You can’t explain it to Veronica. You can’t explain it to yourself.

“We’re just going at our own pace,” you say finally, shrugging.

“A snail’s pace,” Veronica says.

You blow a raspberry at her as you hop off your bar stool. You hold your hand out to her and she deposits a pair of foam ear plugs. The first band of the night is your favorite local act, and you wanna stand right up front against the stage.

Outside the bar between bands, you lean against the wall, sharing a cigarette with Veronica. Neither of you really smokes, but sometimes after a couple of drinks a little nicotine buzz is nice. A couple of dudes approach. They’re both extremely standard issue punk dudes, from the rolled back brim of the shorter one’s baseball cap, down to the giant fiend skull tattoo on the taller one’s shin.

“Can we get a light?” The shorter of the two asks. Veronica hands over her lighter. They light their cigarettes, and the taller one pockets it.

“I saw that,” Veronica says, poking Tall in the center of his chest, then making a gimme motion with her hand.

“Oh sorry, bad habit,” he says, fishing the lighter back out. You don’t make eye contact with either of them, hoping they won’t feel invited to talk as they smoke. No such luck.

“Did you like the band that just played?” The shorter one asks.

“Yeah, we come out to see them all the time,” Veronica responds.

“Oh really?” They say in unison, then look at each other. “Nice,” Short adds.

“We’re actually in the touring band. We play third tonight,” Tall says.

You tune the conversation out. Veronica gets caught up flirting. She forgets to take the cigarette back from you so you finish it. You gather that the short one was assigned to you, he keeps looking over at you expectantly, saying “So…” You don’t engage. You just tap the burning end of the cigarette, now little more than a nub, against the bottom of your shoe and toss it into the trash can behind him.

Something catches your eye across the street. In the darkness under the portico of a closed bank, you think you see someone standing with their arms crossed. You know it’s crazy, but the silhouette feels so familiar. The slope of the shoulders, the cloud of hair. There’s no way it’s Corey, but you feel like you know it is. You strain your eyes scanning for details. You glance at all the vehicles parked on the sides of the street, but you don’t see his motorcycle.

“What are you looking at?” Short asks, leaning over your shoulder to follow your gaze.

“Nothing,” you mutter. “Just thinking about something.”

He opens his mouth to say something else, but you hear the next act taking the stage and turn away from him. You grab Veronica’s wrist to get her attention and you tilt your head towards the door.

“We’re going back inside now, nice to meet you!” Veronica says to Tall. You drag her away from them before they can say anything else. As you go through the door you look back at the bank, but you can’t see anything anymore.

“Let’s leave after this band!” You shout into Veronica’s ear.

“I wanted to see that guy’s band! He said they’re third!” She shouts back

“They’re gonna try to talk to us more!” You give her a pout that you hope conveys how you would rather eat glass than be stuck ignoring the shorter guy again. She rolls her eyes and you know you got through to her.

In the taxi home you call Corey. It goes to voicemail.

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“Hey! Show was lame, we left after two bands. It is… 10:33 right now. If you get this before 11:30 you should come over. If not, I’ll talk to you tomorrow…Okay. Bye.”

He gets your message at a gas station. After what he saw, he planned to ride all night, but he forgot to fuel up after work. He was tempted to keep going until he ran out, allowing himself to be stranded somewhere. But he knew the havoc that would wreak on his engine so, with some reluctance, he pulled into a station.

Who the fuck was that guy? When you’re out with Veronica is that what you do? Talk to guys? He’s watched you go home alone several times, followed your cab to make sure you were okay. But he’s never seen inside any of the places that you go, the bar windows are always blacked out or too foggy to see through. He feels stupid, gullible, impotent. The thought of going back to the bar and fucking that guy up crosses his mind.

He flexes his hands, trying not to remember how it feels to knock out a tooth or crack a cheekbone. Doing his best to push away the images in his head of skin splitting, blood pouring. Yet even as he seethes, glowing green with envy, he’d rather lose you to some asshole than to his own destructive nature. He could never forgive himself if you got caught up in his bullshit like that. Like she did, he tries not to think.

He wants to ignore you. To act like he didn’t get the voicemail until the morning. But as he waits to turn out of the parking lot, he thinks about your voice. Didn’t you sound warm when you said “you should come over”? Didn’t you pause a long time before you said goodbye, like there was something else you wanted to add? With a sigh he turns out of the lot and rides toward your apartment.

When he gets there he bangs on the door. He doesn’t mean to knock so hard, but he’s so wound up. He practically falls inside when it swings open.

“Corey!” You exclaim in surprise. He brushes past you and paces around the living room. You stand there watching him for a moment. Then you take a step to interfere with the path of his pacing, cutting him off between the coffee table and the couch. “Hey! What’s going on?”

He turns and goes back the other way. “The show was lame, huh?” He says in a gruff voice.

“Yeah. I mean, the hometown boys were good, they always are. But I didn’t wanna stick around for the touring acts. Are you okay? What’s going on?” You follow him around the living room with your gaze. When he gets close to you, you step in front of him again. “Corey?”

He starts to turn away from you, then stops. He hovers, hesitating, stuck between walking away and turning back to face you. Wanting to ask but not wanting to know. Afraid to out himself as following you.

“What are we?” He finally asks, looking at you in his peripheral vision. You try to put your hand on his face but he flinches away, finally deciding to turn and resume pacing.

“I don’t know,” you say quietly.

“Am I your boyfriend?” He asks, facing away from you.

“I… Do you want to be?”

A dark chuckle bubbles from his lips. “Are you talking to anyone else?”

“Not at all!”

“What about tonight?” Fuck it, he thinks. Might as well.

“Tonight?” You sound genuinely confused. Then you remember. “Oh… I thought I saw you! Across the street at the bank! What were you doing over there?”

“I wanted to surprise you.” He comes up with the lie as it leaves his mouth, chickening out of confessing at the last second. “To come to a show, finally join you on a night out. But then I saw you talking to that guy…”

You laugh out loud. It feels worse than if you’d slapped him in the face. He spins around to face you, angry and wounded. He opens his mouth to speak again but you cut him off.

“Corey, I was doing my best to get away from that guy. Veronica was flirting with his friend. They thought they could have one each, but I barely said a word to him. I made Veronica fucking leave early because I knew he was gonna try to talk to me again, and I didn’t even wanna have to let him down easy. I just wanted to see you.” You come to him and put a hand on his chest. He lets you touch him this time, but he still doesn’t look you in the eye. He wants to believe you so bad.

“How do I know?”

“I offered to keep the shampoo you like in my shower, Corey. You sleep in my bed like, three nights a week.” He finally looks at you. Your face holds a mix of emotions he can’t quiet parse. Pleading and amusement and… understanding? “I know that maybe doesn’t help. I lived with someone who was unfaithful. His shower was full of my shit. But I promise you, there isn’t anyone else. I only want you.”

He takes your face in his hands. “Tell me again.”

“I only want you, Corey. Just you.”

Your face still sandwiched between his palms, he pulls you in to kiss you. He doesn’t understand how he’s feeling. He’s a bow, fully drawn, straining to let go and make the shot. He shakes from the adrenaline he has no use for.

“Am I your boyfriend?” He asks again. The sound of his own voice surprises him. He sounds needy, almost like he’s begging. It’s embarrassing but it’s honest. He is needy. He needs to hear you say it. Twice isn’t enough. “Am I yours?”

“You’re mine. You’re mine and I’m yours.”

Without thinking, he takes your bottom lip between his teeth and bites you gently. Your hand on his chest turns into a fist, grasping his shirt, and you make a small humming sound. Your reaction spurs Corey on, and he kisses and nibbles you ravenously.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

You know it’s fucked up to enjoy Corey’s jealousy. You shouldn’t get any pleasure from someone else being upset, especially not the precious, volatile man you find yourself falling for. Can you even rightly say you care for someone if you find joy in emotions that bring them pain? And it doesn’t escape your notice that his jealousy is a huge red flag. He shouldn’t feel so possessive of you, least of all before you’d officially agreed to be exclusive.

Still, it makes you swoon. It plays to your hard little cheated heart to be wanted so badly, wanted by someone you want too. Hearing him beg to be yours, you sense on some level it’s a demand as much as it’s a plea. It unlocks something inside you. It makes you feel wild. A heady combination of powerful and powerless.

“What’s the hold up with Corey?” Veronica had asked. You didn’t have a satisfactory answer. Not for her and not really for yourself. You couldn’t put a name to the why . Some nebulous insecurity, a fear of being the second choice again, something cowering that you wouldn’t admit to yourself that you harbored. It doesn’t matter anymore. When it comes out of your mouth it becomes true. You’re mine and I’m yours. No more apprehension. You’re ready.

When he bites your lip, it’s such a surprise, you grab his shirt and a little groan escapes. You instantly feel a hot rush of wetness as your clit starts to throb. His hands move from your face to your waist, squeezing you and pulling you in as he kisses you, more voracious than you’ve ever seen him. You’re more than happy to let him eat you alive. You kiss back eagerly, using your fist full of his shirt to hold him close, closer.

He takes a step forward, keeping you pressed against him, but pushing you. He backs you across the living room to the couch, never taking his lips off you for more than a second, moving from your mouth to your jaw to your throat. His teeth scrape you tenderly and he presses his tongue against you like he wants to taste your blood through your skin. You feel the bright sting of hickies forming.

The couch hits the ditches of your knees and takes your feet out from under you. You squeal as you fall and Corey chuckles against your collar bone, coming down with you, landing on his knees with one leg between yours. He pushes that thigh forward, shoving your dress up around your hips. You accept his invitation, grinding into him, hard. With his hands he drops the straps of your dress off yours shoulders and the bodice slides down to reveal your tits.

He cups them, just like you imagined, squeezing the softness, brushing your nipples with his thumbs. His hands are so warm and your nipples are so sensitive, you could drown in the flood it causes. He moves his mouth from your throat blossoming red and purple, back to your lips. You moan into his kiss. One of your hands runs through his hair, raking his scalp with your nails. Your other pushes his shirt up and explores his chest and back, enjoying his skin and gripping him for leverage to assist your aggressive grinding. You feel his cock on your leg through his pants and try to position yourself so your thigh rubs against it. You know you’re successful by the way he whimpers your name.

Corey’s whining sends a new wave of arousal crashing over you. Both of your hands fly to the waistband of his jeans. You need him out of these pants, now . You yank them off his hips and his boner pops over the top, his boxers stuck to the head in the center of a giant wet spot. You try to wrap your fingers around his shaft but he catches your hand and pins it next to your head.

“Not yet,” he breathes in your ear, sending a pleasant shiver down your spine. Then he backs off completely, letting go of you and standing up. Your hands follow him, trying to bring him back, but he’s just out of your grasp. He hurriedly takes off his shoes, his jeans, then his flannel and t-shirt, leaving him in just his boxers. You drink in the sight of him, his broad shoulders flecked with freckles, his scars, the little patch of red hair between his pecs, his flushed face. God, he’s gorgeous, you think as your pussy clenches.

He sinks to his knees. You sit up and slide forward on the couch, planting one foot on either side of him. He looks up at you, his brown eyes full of wonder. He takes the hem of your dress in his hands and you raise your arms over your head, allowing him to pull it off you. He presses his face to your chest, chin nestled between your breasts.

“I haven’t done this very many times,” he whispers hoarsely.

You drop your head so your mouth is right next to his ear. “We can fix that,” you purr. He smiles against your skin before going back to devouring you, placing open mouth kisses on your face, your shoulders, your chest, your tits. You use your legs to keep him pinned to you and drag your nails up and down his back, leaving long red welts. His fingertips dig into your thighs. He mumbles something through his kisses.

“What?” You ask, pushing him away just enough to be understood.

“Can I touch you?” He drags a finger along your inner thigh to show you what he means. His pupils are enormous.

You nod enthusiastically. “Please.” You lift your hips off the couch and Corey peels your panties off you, dropping them to the floor. Your clit aches, you need him to touch you so badly. But you’re still not prepared for when he does. The dry spell has been long, and you’re not sure you’ve ever been with anyone you liked as much as you like Corey. He places his whole hand over your vulva. Just the sensation of his skin against yours makes you gasp and sigh. He spreads his fingers, spreading you apart with them, opening you up. The cold air hits your exposed wetness and makes you shiver. Then he slips a finger between your lips.

“Holy shit,” he groans, feeling the way you’re drenched for him. He slides his finger up and down, all the way from your hole to the top of your slit a few times before landing on your swollen clit. He rubs you with a skill that makes you suspicious of his claim to be inexperienced. “Is this good?” He asks, fingertip circling.

Is this good? You almost laugh at the question. As if the way you’re practically sobbing isn’t enough for him to know. “It’s so good,” you manage to squeak out. You’re getting close, breathing heavier and heavier as the pleasure builds up in the space behind your clit.

You lean forward, pressing your forehead against his, both hands in his hair. You can’t help yourself, you pull it a little as you writhe against his hand, and he seems to like it. You pull harder, trying to confirm and distract yourself, delaying your orgasm just a little longer. But the sound he makes when you yank on his curls, guttural and whiny at the same time, does you in. You moan his name as you cum, head thrown back, thighs involuntarily clamping closed on his hand, whole body shaking.

You keep his hand pinned for a few seconds after you cum. You look into each other’s eyes. Corey looks so awestruck you can’t help but giggle. The instant you let go of his hand he’s pushing you, guiding you to lay on your back as he climbs onto the couch, kissing you ferociously. Still in his precum soaked boxers, he lines himself up and rubs his cock against you through the fabric. It feels good but it frustrates you. You need to feel his skin, you need to feel him inside you.

When he moves his lips away from yours to take a breath you put a hand on his chest, preventing him from leaning back down. “Fuck me, Corey,” you say. Your voice echoes his from earlier, that combination of begging and commanding.

“Yeah?” He asks breathlessly.

You nod your head and reach down with the hand not on his chest to pull his boxers down. He leans back and lets you sit up so you can remove them more easily. You finally get your first glimpse of his cock. It’s just as pretty as the rest of him, pink and glistening, perfectly proportioned as if carved by an artist, gently curving back towards stomach. His reddish brown pubes are curly and luxuriously dense like the hair on his head. You let out a little sound of appreciation. You can see it get to him, embarrassing him at first, then giving him confidence. He smiles a cocky little smile.

He moves his hips so the head of his cock just brushes your sensitive labia before sliding between them. He rubs his length up and down on the outside. It feels incredible. The soft slickness of his shaft is glorious, but waiting is agonizing. Just as you're about to ask again, getting desperate, he slips it in. Both of you moan at the sensation. He pauses with just the tip inside, then sinks all the way into you. He’s the perfect size, stretching you just right, hitting the depth you love. Like you were made for each other.

Corey thrusts slowly, looking down at you with his eyebrows pinched together. You can tell from his facial expression that he won’t last long, but the way he’s made to hit that spot, you know you won’t either. You let your hands wander his body before coming together, fingers laced behind his head. You pull him down to kiss you. Kissing makes him thrust faster and you wind your legs around him to keep him from slipping out in his haste.

“You feel so good, Corey,” You moan in his ear. He grunts and tries to reply but it comes out unintelligible. His pink face looks almost pained. He slows his pace back down, but he increases the force of each thrust, resting more of his weight on you. He’s not the biggest man in the world, but he’s so heavy. You feel like if he wanted to he could squish you like a bug. He pounds you into the couch. Oh, fuck. Your mind goes blank, no thoughts at all, just the sensation of him hammering, right there. It’s too good to resist. You cum again, grabbing his biceps on either side of you and digging your nails in, thrashing underneath him and crying out.

Then suddenly there’s nothing inside you, and with a whimper from Corey, you feel something hot and wet land on your stomach. He collapses on top of you, panting. You hold each other for a few minutes, bodies weak and tingling from how hard you came.

“Sorry I pulled out without warning you,” he groans. “I didn’t know what you’d be okay with and I didn’t have time to ask.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that you thought about that,” you tell him. It’s a small thing, just basic respect really, but something so lacking in other people you’ve been with that it touches you. “I’m on the pill though, so you can finish wherever you want. Next time.” Next time.

He peels himself off of you. He does his best to clean you off with the take out napkins scattered on your coffee table, but it’s hopeless. You rinse off in the shower together, and for the first time the two of you sleep next to each other naked.

#corey cunningham #corey cunningham x reader #halloween ends #mine #smut #fan fic

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makuojinanwa · 2 months

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How To Create A Content Marketing Strategy For Your SaaS Business

Whether you're starting conversations that engage your target audience, sharing information that positions your SaaS business as an industry leader, or simply drumming up business for your SaaS product, you need an effective SaaS content marketing strategy.

Why you may ask?

Because 63% of customers cite web pages during their evaluation process. And on the average, companies that blog receive 434% more indexed pages. If, on an industry-wide scale, you have nearly 10 times more leads from long form blog posts than short ones, then content marketing is a priority if you want to grow your SaaS business long term.

In this guide, we'll discuss SaaS content marketing strategy. And by the end, you'll know what content strategy is, why you need one and when to apply it. Then you'll get a step-by-step process of creating a content strategy unique to your SaaS business.

Defining SaaS Content Strategy

If you don't understand content strategy, we'll explain what it is before we get to the why and when.

So what is content strategy?

Content strategy is simply all the content processes a business employs to get prospects to buy their product or service. There's

#Audience Research

#Business Model

#Content Ideation

#Media Platforms

#Content Creation

#Distribution &

#Evaluation

And as a SaaS business owner, SaaS content strategy is simply a content strategy that accounts for your SaaS business model.

SaaS companies like Canva, Buffer and HubSpot have executed robust content marketing strategies that have scaled their lead generation and subscription efforts.

Specifically, Grammarly has a blog that educates their readers on writing styles and technique. Their blog has over 100,000 subscribers and their content has over 5 million views.

These readers get freemium access to their editing tool. They number 30 million users. And a good number of these readers end up paying for their editing software.

As a SaaS business owner, you can aim for similar success, cheap and exponential business growth, with an effective SaaS content strategy.

Benefit Of SaaS Content Strategy

Focus stands out amongst content strategy benefits like exponential growth and cheap lead generation. Joe Pulizzi stressed the importance of content strategy and expanded on focus as a SaaS content strategy benefit when he said this…

"We need to create a business strategy for our content. That means saying no to many channels and content types, and focus on where we can build an asset, an audience, overtime."

- Joe Pulizzi

A good SaaS content strategy saves time and energy that would otherwise be spent talking to the void. Strategy quickly gets you closer to what works. By studying your target market, you discover not just what to say, but where and when to say it.

Let's take HubSpot for instance here.

HubSpot's blog posts are comprehensive guides to unlock business growth via sales and marketing. Their blog content has a strong bias towards explaining theories and practices. But on their Instagram page, we observe something different. Content is more conversational and personable. Learning takes a back seat to experience and entertainment.

Their blog readers and Instagram followers are different. And even when these audiences overlap, we see different attitudes for different platforms. And in this case, the same lead is in a different mindset depending on which platform they consume HubSpot's content.

We can see that HubSpot's approach to content creation and distribution considers platform culture when talking about the same topics. These content strategy insights come from studying market behavior on search engines and different social media platforms.

So now they don't have to work mindlessly. They have knowledge and a plan on how to use relevant content to generate leads and sales.

This is the process of creating a content strategy and you can do the same for your SaaS business.

When To Use SaaS Content Strategy

From time to time, I find founders and aspiring entrepreneurs asking when to use content strategy in their business.

My answer?

Start as soon as you can. In fact, you should have started yesterday even if you don't have a product or market. Surprised? Let me explain.

Early Stage SaaS Companies

You see, a content strategy is valuable because of what it makes you do. You can't have a strategy to engage a market if you first don't know your core service or product, and who would need your offer.

Say you're a digital marketer helping e-commerce stores increase website traffic. And you hope to sell software services to e-commerce store owners in the future. You could use a content strategy where you document your process of helping e-commerce websites grow their traffic.

Now you're engaging your market while figuring out other problems they may have that would be worth a SaaS tool. Before UberSuggest, Neil Patel ran his digital marketing blog for many years. He offered educational content to digital marketers and online entrepreneurs on how to grow their businesses. Now his SaaS tool, UberSuggest, helps entrepreneurs with keywords for their content marketing efforts.

Established SaaS Companies

On the other hand, established SaaS businesses can improve the value of their business by having another option to generate leads and sales. Outbound processes like cold calling and emailing can be effective and sustainable. But adding inbound processes like content marketing to the mix increase lead gen options and strengthens outbound processes too.

Regardless of where you are in your SaaS journey, creating a good SaaS content strategy keeps you in touch with your product and market.

Now having understood what a SaaS content strategy is and can do, let's get into the weeds of creating one.

Defining Your Market

All effective SaaS content strategy starts out with a defined market. As a SaaS business owner, ask yourself these questions…

Who needs what you sell?

Why do they have this need?

What would they feel like when said need is satisfied?

What else do they do outside finding said satisfaction?

These questions give you an opportunity to understand your market. Say you sell business software to freelance writers and content creators. Freelance writers and content creators need high paying clients and commercial success with their audience respectively.

But is that all?

It isn't. Dig deeper.

For a freelance writer, higher paying clients mean

Reduced Anxiety

Meaningful Work &

Time Freedom

And for the content creator, a profitable product they own means

Income Stability

Creative Freedom &

Work Satisfaction

As an owner of your business software, you now know what your editing or invoice software actually means to your market. You know their needs and what they'll feel like when satisfied.

So it's time to find them.

SaaS Content Strategy Platforms

We've answered the above questions for your hypothetical software business except for what content creators and freelance writers do outside their core jobs.

Answering the last question brings up more questions…

Do they consume business content from online gurus?

Do they take courses from fellow writers and bloggers?

What about search and social groups where they interact with fellow content creators and freelancers?

Remember, we're trying to find out their hangout spots online. So wherever they spend their time online is a potential content strategy platform. Content strategy platforms are places that shape your tone and approach to creating engaging content that converts prospects.

You can speak with your customers to get an idea of how they spend their online hours when they're not working. Of course you can't go around asking awkward questions like

'Where do you spend your time online?'.

Instead, you can say something like

'What's your most inspiring piece of educational content in the last 2 months?'

'Who's making content that gets you excited?'

'What obstacles do you face that often hinder your productivity?' (By the way, whoever is offering courses or creating content to solve that problem is a potential content strategy platform.)

Get a list of these content strategy platforms and go to work studying your market. You'll find yourself in reddit channels, comment sections of Instagram accounts and YouTube channels. You'll pick up Twitter trends and read blog comments.

Before long, the picture of your market becomes clear. You'll be full of content and distribution ideas for your content marketing campaign. Your SEO keyword search would be much more robust instead of staring at keyword software charts with frustration.

Back to our hypothetical software business. Your market research would take you to content strategy platforms like Ali Abdaal, Dan Koe, Zulie Rane, Gary Vee and Roberto Blake. These creators serve the typical content creator and freelance writer. Observe how they talk and what they talk about in the comment sections of these influencer accounts.

Now you know exactly what your market wants and you know how to create content for them.

It's time to engage and convert.

Engaging And Converting Your Audience

Many SaaS companies get it right up to this point but skid off track at this crucial bend. They lose because they want to engage their prospects on the company's terms. Don't make that mistake.

Remember our earlier conversation about HubSpot's approach to their blog and Instagram accounts?

Good.

They observed that business owners on search engines such as Google, have search intent to learn about new information and products to solve business problems. So HubSpot's blog attracts them with big prominent blog titles and small author bylines.

Blog Titles

Picture of HubSpot's SERP

Blog Titles and Author Bylines

Picture of HubSpot's Blog Post

You get the sense that it's ideas first before people. On the other hand, business owners and professionals who want to unwind while being social on Instagram, dictate HubSpot's Instagram approach to content creation. Here, social interaction and entertainment are priority over ideas and education.

Personality Over Theory

Picture of HubSpot's Instagram account

It's not enough to create content, you have to do so native to each platform. This is where strategy bleeds into tactics. Let's talk team building.

Building A Content Team

Having understood what it takes to create a practical SaaS content strategy, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to tactics. You could start solo but at some point, you'd need to build a team.

We'll examine 4 factors that determine the success of your team. They're

Vision

Roles

Collaboration &

Accountability

We'll begin with vision.

Vision

Your vision is volume and creativity. You have a SaaS content strategy and ideas to engage your prospects. But to get results, you need to create and distribute as much content as possible.

We're talking 20-30 social media posts daily with at least 3-10 social engagements per post. Write blog posts, record podcasts and YouTube videos on a daily basis. Repurpose your long form posts for social. You want to find what sticks.

This is hard work but that's the real secret to content marketing success.

Especially at the beginning, you have to find out what actually works. So volume and creativity is the vision when hiring a content marketing team. At such volume, in 3-5 years, you'll evaluate content activity and do more of what engages your market. And consistent sales roll in.

There are no shortcuts to this game. It's not a sprint or a marathon, it's both. The long hard road is the easiest and shortest one. Get to work. As entrepreneurs, we instinctively understand that outbound processes like cold calling are a numbers game but we don't apply it to content marketing.

There are so many intangible content marketing skills that can only be mastered via the fire hose approach. So when building your content marketing team, your overarching vision is that big is better.

Roles

You want big and better, so it's time to get you a content marketing team who can achieve your goals. I'd say that there are 3 major content marketing roles.

Director

Manager &

Creative

When you were creating your content marketing strategy for your hypothetical SaaS company, you played the director role. In addition to setting the vision for content strategy, a director of content analyses and adjusts content efforts to achieve customer and company goals.

The manager is in charge of content production and adjacent processes. They hire creatives, supervise them and build systems that guarantee the right flow of content creation and distribution.

Creatives create content assets, engage with professionals within your business and prospects via content strategy platforms. They also collaborate with both manager and director to improve their creative processes.

Collaboration

Team collaboration with each other and the larger organization decides success. On the director level, they have to find a balance between customer satisfaction and company goals.

When creating a content strategy, these 2 criteria guide the content strategy process. Many times, the director is the link between C-suite and the content marketing branch of the company.

The manager, in many ways, is the middleman. They make strategy, from the director, and tactics from creatives, align. Giving strategy legs, and tactics direction, leads to a successful conveyor belt of content assets and development of customer-company relationships.

Creatives who collaborate effectively with their managers, get to do meaningful and result-driven work.

Accountability

Accountability is probably the only way to see through projects. We'll look at 3 ways to hold both you and the team accountable for your roles.

I. Set Realistic Goals

At the beginning you want the team to start with small achievable goals. A social media content creator who hasn't done more than 5 posts a day shouldn't start their first day on the job creating 30 social media posts daily.

II. Set General Guidelines And Standards

Something as simple as adequate communication during work hours should be basic. Team chats and emails shouldn't be left unattended for 3 days without prior notification of a new development. Team members should attend meetings.

III. Assign Specific Tasks To Individual

A good example here would be creatives being in charge of content creation and distribution. They're not responsible for engagement results. That's the responsibility of the manager and director.

Conclusion

As we draw this guide to a close, it's important to note that content marketing strategy will always be worth its business results. And since ever-changing markets affect business results, you'll always have to evaluate your tactics and strategy.

At the beginning of your content marketing efforts, a strategy, content schedule and distribution map, should be the goal. It isn't about the number of views as it's about the number of content pieces you create. And that's why volume is important.

A year or 2 into this flurry of activity, all content strategy platforms would show noticeable patterns of engagement. Some content pieces would have more engagement than others. This is where evaluation comes in.

Ditch what doesn't work and do more of what does. Scaling what works at this point would grow views and traffic. Just as we discussed, content marketing strategy is the first in a series of steps to generate leads and sales for your business.

If you have further questions about SaaS content strategy or content marketing in general, leave a comment below and it'll be addressed.

#contentmarketing #content writing #marketing #saas technology #b2b saas #saas #saasmarketing #saas solutions #saas software #content strategy #content marketing

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yumi007 · 11 months

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This July, no one can escape the "Barbie Pink" frenzy!

Even before the movie "Barbie" hits the screens, the fashion industry has already gone crazy for it. The two lead actors, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, embarked on a promotional tour in June, and fashion inspired by "Barbie" has been widely discussed since then. Stylist Andrew Mukamal took pink as the main theme and drew inspiration from Barbie dolls' historical wardrobes to create outfits for the stars.

Barbie has become one of the most influential fashionable IPs in modern times, naturally leading to the fashion industry's frenzy for the movie "Barbie." Brands such as Emilio Pucci, Schiaparelli, and Vivienne Westwood have provided custom clothing for Margot Robbie, while Moschino and Versace have opened their archives for the stylist team to select vintage styles reminiscent of classic Barbie doll outfits.

Chanel, where Margot Robbie has been announced as a brand ambassador, has taken it a step further by not only showcasing its own designs on the red carpet but also incorporating them into the Barbie wardrobe in the movie. Even in relatively relaxed settings like the airport, the brand can find opportunities for exposure, as long as the clothing's main tone is pink. As the release date of "Barbie" approaches, the fashion trend is not limited to brands alone. The dressing style known as "Barbiecore" has gained popularity on social media platforms overseas, with the hashtag receiving over 500 million views on TikTok. As depicted in the movie, this style primarily focuses on exaggerated and dreamy outfits with pink hues.

In an analysis article, Bloomberg points out that the Barbiecore style has replaced the dominance of the "old money" style and aligns with the resurgence of vintage trends in recent years. However, if we broaden our perspective, Barbie pink has been popular for quite a long time, not just because the movie is about to be released.

The most prominent case is Valentino's "Barbie Pink," which became a sensation in 2022, with designer Pierpaolo Piccioli giving it the name "Pink PP." The intention was to push for an image transformation, but the vivid color left a strong impression amid controversy. On the fashion index engine Lyst, searches related to pink fashion have increased by 80%.

Although this trend has persisted for a long time, leaving a lasting impression when everyone jumps on the bandwagon is not an easy task. It is evident that many brands have simply swapped their packaging for pink. Consequently, many Barbie collaboration series launched by beauty brands received a lukewarm response. Barbie dolls themselves are famous for their rich clothing choices and diverse "dollhouse" settings, with little emphasis on specific makeup looks, and at times, criticized for promoting stereotypical appearances like blonde hair and blue eyes.

On TikTok, a platform full of creativity and fashion, Orolay brand seized the opportunity and launched a series of fantasy-colored down jackets, offering users a visual feast. These dreamy-colored down jackets are full of fairytale-like imagination, each emitting a unique magical ambiance. From soft pinks and purples to vibrant blues and greens, each color represents a different dreamy world, immersing people in a magical wonderland.

In addition to the dreamy-colored down jackets, Orolay cleverly paired them with whimsical and diverse accessories, making the overall styling more rich and varied. For instance, cute pink hats, dreamy pink skirts, and other accessories added a playful touch to the down jackets' styling, enhancing the overall sense of fashion and individual charm. These accessories not only added a sense of fun but also elevated the overall fashion appeal and personal charisma.

Through this series of fantasy-colored down jackets and creatively matched whimsical accessories, the brand demonstrates its unique understanding of fashion and keen grasp of fashion trends, offering users more exciting fashion choices. This innovative approach further solidifies Orolay's position in the fashion industry, allowing the brand to have a wider influence among young users.

Please note that this translation is provided for informational purposes and may not be a direct word-for-word translation but rather a contextual interpretation to convey the meaning of the original text in English.

#barbie #barbie 2023 #barbie movie

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viviangohcn · 8 months

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Is Blogging Still Relevant in the Age of TikTok and Instagram?

What is blogging?

Writing and posting content to a blog is referred to as blogging. A blog is an online platform where people or organizations may express their opinions, insights, and knowledge on a variety of subjects. Bloggers often publish to their blogs frequently, adding text, photographs, videos, and other multimedia components to entries. People can connect with others, express themselves, share information, and potentially monetise their material through advertising or other methods by blogging.

TikTok

TikTok is a short-form video hosting service owned by ByteDance since 2016. Users can make and distribute videos that can last anywhere from three seconds to ten minutes. Both the App Store and Google Play offer a mobile app for TikTok (Apple Inc, n.d.). The app is intended to be a gathering place for engaging, unplanned, and sincere mobile films. Users can see, interact with, and share films that feel individualized for them. TikTok offers a variety of entertainment, including sports, animal videos, comedic videos, and more.

For making and sharing short videos, TikTok has gained popularity, especially among younger audiences. In other nations, the app has also been used to spread hate speech against race and religion as well as to develop cuisine trends and recipes. On Google Play, TikTok has received over 59 million reviews and has been downloaded over 1 billion times (Apple Inc, n.d.).

Instagram

According to (Wikipedia contributors, 2023), Instagram is a social media platform for sharing pictures and videos that is run by the American business Meta Platforms. Users of the app can upload media that can be altered using filters, categorized by hashtags, and geographically tagged with a specific place. Public or pre-approved followers may share posts. Users can view trending content, like photos, follow other users to add their stuff to a personal feed, and browse other users' content by tags and places.

So, is it still relevant?

Yes, in the era of TikTok and Instagram, blogging is still relevant. Even though social media sites like Instagram and TikTok have become very popular, blogging still has its own perks and benefits.

In contrast to the constrained structure of TikTok videos or Instagram posts, blogging enables users to delve deeper into issues and provide more extensive information. This is especially useful for topics that call for in-depth examination, lessons, or thorough explanations (Corinne, 2023).

Second, blogs are more visible in search results. Google and other search engines index blog entries, making them accessible through pertinent search searches. On TikTok or Instagram, where content is mostly driven by algorithms and social sharing, this may make it harder to achieve organic traffic and long-term visibility (Tiffany, 2021).

Additionally, blogging offers more revenue-generating alternatives. Bloggers can experiment with a variety of revenue sources, including advertising, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, and direct sales of goods and services. TikTok and Instagram both have monetization options, but blogs provide you more freedom and control over how you make money (Corrine, 2023).

Blogs also provide evergreen content. Due to the rapid stream of new posts, TikTok and Instagram material frequently has a short shelf life, whereas blog entries can continue to be relevant and draw readers over time. Because of their duration, bloggers can create a collection of useful information that readers can access and enjoy for a long time (Panorama, 2022).

While TikTok and Instagram have their own benefits, blogging is still a useful and relevant medium for content producers, companies, and people who want to offer in-depth information, establish their expertise, and interact with a loyal following. The final decision about a platform comes down to personal objectives, target market, and content choices.

References

Apple Inc, (n.d.) TikTok - Apps on Google Play. (n.d.). <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?gl=US&hl=en_US&id=com.zhiliaoapp.musically>.

Panorama, B. T. (2022). 6 Reasons That Make Blogs Remain Relevant In The Age Of Reels And TikTok. Beyond the Panorama. <https://beyondthepanorama.com/6-reasons-that-make-blogs-remain-relevant-in-the-age-of-reels-and-tiktok/>.

Corinne. (2023, September 5). Is blogging dead? The rise of Instagram and TikTok. Skinnedcartree. <https://skinnedcartree.com/2021/04/is-blogging-dead-the-rise-of-instagram-and-tiktok.html>.

Tiffany. (2021, May 13). Social Media Strategy 2021 (TikTok, IG or YouTube?) - Tiffy Cooks. Tiffy Cooks. <https://tiffycooks.com/social-media-strategy-2021-tiktok-ig-or-youtube/>.

Wikipedia contributors. (2023). Instagram. Wikipedia. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram>.

#MDA20009 #DigitalCommunities #Week4

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bopinion · 1 year

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Amazing Numbers

20.000.000.000.000.000

According to a study by the University of Würzburg, the earth is populated by an estimated 20 quadrillion ants. They thus have a biomass similar to that of all wild birds and mammals combined - twelve megatons of carbon.

5.000

That's how many different hats have been documented from the late Queen Elizabeth II. The British hat industry is now likely to have a sales problem. Unless Charles III decides to hide his ears.

Is the mathematical result of the degree-square sum of any geometric shape. Huh? Okay: a circle has 360 degrees: 3+6+0=0. A semicircle has 180 degrees: 1+8+0=9. A quarter circle has 90 degrees: 9+0=9. An eighth circle has 45 degrees: 4+5=9. And so on. Works also with all other shapes. Like with the square, which angles have 90 degrees: 9+0=9. Or the Pentagon: it's angles have 108 degrees, so 1+0+8=9. Or the decagon, you never heard about: 144 degrees, 1+4+4=9. (Thanks, Sofien Kaabar on cantorsparadise.com)

6.000.000

That's how many beech trees have to grow for 80 years to absorb the CO2 that is produced annually in Germany alone in the production of ammonia: six million tons.

Yes, this is a number. An imaginary number to be precise. The definition of an imaginary number is that its square result is a negative one. What? How can the result of a multiplication become negative? See...

1.000.000.000

A billion microbes live on every single square centimeter of human skin. Don't scratch now!

Hundred

The word "hundred" comes from the ancient nordic word "hundrath". That means actually 120. And not 100.

411

That's how many days a 59-year-old Briton was positive, that is, sick with an active coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 infection. That's when "Long COVID" takes on a spooky alternative meaning. It's not over!

Ten duotrigintillions

This is a 1 with 100 zeros. Better known as googol. The inspiration for the name of an internet search engine to indicate that it is capable of indexing a very large number of internet pages.

is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.

#numbers #funny #amazing #42 #the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy #googol #google #long covid #hundred #microbes #imaginary numbers #beech tree #ammonia #geometry #queen elizabeth ii #ants #wow

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dertaglichedan · 11 months

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Looking To Buy? New Report Forecasts Housing Market Affordability Set To Return In 2025

Consumers are facing the most severe housing affordability crisis in a generation. Tens of millions of folks have been priced out of homes in the last year, primarily due to skyrocketing borrowing costs and a shortage of housing supply that has pushed prices to mind-numbing levels. We have documented the quick collapse of the 'American Dream' in "Housing Crisis Worsens As Affordability Reaches Record Low" and "Housing Affordability Worsens As Homeownership Out Of Reach For Anyone Making Under $100k". In June, the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com published a report that found over 75% of the homes listed on the market are too expensive for the middle class. Thanks to a rapid surge in the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate from 3% to over 7% and a 40% rise in national home prices during the pandemic era.

Millions of consumers are on the sidelines, searching Zillow and other realtor websites for the perfect starter home. But what prevents many from buying a home has been high borrowing costs during two years of negative real wages. So many are wondering: When do mortgage rates fall? We may have found that answer.

Morningstar has published a new housing report that forecasts the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is set to peak around 7% and then trend lower in the back half of the year, with an average rate for the year around 6.25%. Morningstar's forecast model shows 5% for 2024 and even 4% for 2025.

"The Fed has engineered a massive increase in interest rates in order to combat high inflation. We expect it to cut the federal-funds rate aggressively in the coming years, driving the [Federal funds] rate down from 5% currently to below 2% by 2025," economists from Morningstar wrote in the report.

"Once the Fed wins the battle against inflation, its priority will shift to jump-starting economic growth, which will require much lower interest rates, in our view," they said.

Morningstar continued, "Regardless of what happens in the next few years, we expect interest rates to ultimately settle back down at the low levels that prevailed before the pandemic. The low-interest-rate regime will resume once the dust settles from the pandemic economic volatility."

And they noted, "Our long-term interest-rate projections are driven by secular trends. Factors such as aging demographics, slowing productivity growth, and increasing inequality have acted to push down real interest rates for decades, and these forces haven't gone away."

Morningstar expects rising incomes and sliding home prices will improve housing affordability.

The good news for home prices is that Case-Shiller's National Home Price Index turned down in April for the first time since April 2012.

CONTINUED

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royalteachitchat · 2 years

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😎👊🏻💯👇👇👇

I’m about to de-google my life.

This is some good info.

Copied pasted

“Google is so powerful that it "hides" other search systems from us. We just don't know the existence of most of them.

Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information.

Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.”

Credit: Edward Clark

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mariacallous · 1 year

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Finding out Taylor Swift was her 11th cousin twice-removed wasn’t even the most shocking discovery Cher Scarlett made while exploring her family history. “There’s a lot of stuff in my family that’s weird and strange that we wouldn’t know without Ancestry,” says Scarlett, a software engineer and writer based in Kirkland, Washington. “I didn’t even know who my mum’s paternal grandparents were.”

Ancestry.com isn’t the only site that Scarlett checks regularly. In February 2022, the facial recognition search engine PimEyes surfaced non-consensual explicit photos of her at age 19, reigniting decades-old trauma. She attempted to get the pictures removed from the platform, which uses images scraped from the internet to create biometric “faceprints” of individuals. Since then, she’s been monitoring the site to make sure the images don’t return.

In January, she noticed that PimEyes was returning pictures of children that looked like they came from Ancestry.com URLs. As an experiment, she searched for a grayscale version of one of her own baby photos. It came up with a picture of her own mother, as an infant, in the arms of her grandparents—taken, she thought, from an old family photo that her mother had posted on Ancestry. Searching deeper, Scarlett found other images of her relatives, also apparently sourced from the site. They included a black-and-white photo of her great-great-great-grandmother from the 1800s, and a picture of Scarlett’s own sister, who died at age 30 in 2018. The images seemed to come from her digital memorial, Ancestry, and Find a Grave, a cemetery directory owned by Ancestry.

PimEyes, Scarlett says, has scraped images of the dead to populate its database. By indexing their facial features, the site’s algorithms can help those images identify living people through their ancestral connections, raising privacy and data protection concerns, as well as ethical ones.

“My sister is dead,” Scarlett says. “She can’t consent or revoke consent for being enrolled in this.”

Ancestry spokesperson Katherine Wylie tells WIRED that the site’s customers maintain ownership and control over their data, including family trees, and that its terms and conditions “prohibit scraping data, including photos, from Ancestry’s sites and services as well as reselling, reproducing, or publishing any content or information found on Ancestry.”

Giorgi Gobronidze, PimEyes’ director, tells WIRED: “PimEyes only crawls websites who officially allow us to do so. It was … very unpleasant news that our crawlers have somehow broken the rule.” PimEyes is now blocking Ancestry’s domain and indexes related to it are being erased, he says.

Ancestry’s database is the largest in the increasingly expanding genealogy industry, with more than 30 billion records—including photos and documents from public records—covering 20 million people. Users can access these records to make family trees. Whenever a user makes a family tree public on the site, deceased people’s photos can be seen by any registered user. Living people aren’t viewable in family trees unless tree creators authorize specific accounts to see them. Users can decide what is private or public on their profiles, which are searchable in Ancestry’s member directory.

PimEyes positions itself as a tool for people to monitor their online presence. The company charges users $20 to find the websites where their photos have been found, upwards of $30 a month for multiple searches, and $80 to exclude specific photos from future search results.

The company, which has trawled social media for images but now says it scrapes only publicly available sources, has been criticized for collecting images of children and accused of facilitating stalking and abuse. (Gobronidze, who took over PimEyes in January 2022, says that this criticism predates his tenure at PimEyes, and that the company’s policies have since changed.)

“They are clearly crawling all sorts of random websites,” says Daniel Leufer, a senior policy analyst at digital rights group Access Now. “There’s something very grim, especially about the obituary ones.”

The dead aren’t generally protected under privacy laws, but processing their image and data isn’t automatically fair game, says Sandra Wachter, a professor of technology and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute. “Just because the data doesn’t belong to a person anymore does not automatically mean you are allowed to take it. If it’s a person who has died we have to figure out who has rights over it.”

The European Convention of Human Rights has ruled that pictures of dead people can have a privacy interest for the living, according to Lilian Edwards, professor of law, innovation, and society at Newcastle University in the UK, who says that using photos of the living mined from the web without consent can also be a potential violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which prohibits the processing of biometric data to identify people without their consent.

“If in some way the picture of the dead person … could lead to someone living being likely to be identified, then it could be protected under the GDPR,” says Edwards. This can be done by putting two bits of information together, she adds, such as a photo from PimEyes and information from Ancestry. PimEyes makes itself available in Europe, so it is subject to the legislation.

Scarlett worries that PimEyes’ technology could be used to identify people and then dox, harass, or abuse them—a concern shared by human rights organizations. She says her mom’s name, address, and phone number were just a reverse image search and three clicks away from the family photo scraped from Ancestry.

While it positions itself as a privacy tool, there are few barriers stopping PimEyes users from searching any face. Its home screen gives little indication that it’s intended for people to search only for themselves.

Gobronidze tells WIRED that PimEyes launched a “multistep security protocol” on January 9 to prevent people from searching multiple faces or children; PimEyes’ partners, however, including certain NGOs, are “whitelisted” to perform unlimited searches. PimEyes has so far blocked 201 accounts, Gobronidze says.

However, a WIRED search for Scarlett and her mother—conducted with their permission—retrieved matches unchallenged. WIRED also found evidence of online message-board users with subscriptions taking requests from others to identify women with pictures found online.

Gobronidze says the system is still in the “training process.”

In Washington state, Scarlett filed a consumer complaint about PimEyes to the state’s attorney general and has opted out using its “opt out” form, which promises to remove people’s data from its system, twice—once in March 2022 and again in October after her face reappeared.

Scarlett’s mother also opted out in January 2023, she says. However, searches by WIRED revealed both their faces were still surfaced by the platform on March 1.

Gobronidze says that PimEyes erased over 22 results of Scarlett after her first request and 400 after the second, and performed a search using the photo she opted out with, failing to locate any images of her in its database. However, if a user opts out with a specific photo, other images may still appear. The “opt out engine will not work with 100 percent efficiency always,” Gobronidze said.

Legal scrutiny is intensifying for AI companies that populate their databases by crawling the web for faces. Clearview AI, a company that mainly sells facial recognition services to law enforcement, is facing a class action in Illinois and fines for breaking data protection laws across Europe, including the UK, where the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), an independent watchdog, ordered the company to delete all residents’ data. Clearview has denied misconduct and argued that it shouldn’t be subject to neither European data protection laws nor the jurisdiction of the ICO.

In November, UK-based rights group Big Brother Watch submitted a legal complaint about PimEyes to the ICO for “unlawful processing” of people’s data. Germany’s state commissioner for data protection has opened proceedings against the site for processing biometric data. Gobronidze says the company has been “proactively submitting” information to the ICO.

Gobronidze says it is “absolutely impossible” to establish identities using its database. “We gather index data, which connects photographs not with human individuals but to the URL addresses which publish those photographs.” PimEyes says it indexes photos but does not store the images themselves. Gobronidze adds that PimEyes does not process photos to establish identities but to find website addresses. “PimEyes does not identify human beings but only URLs,” he said.

Leufer, however, says PimEyes is “significantly enabling and facilitating the process of identification of people” based on photos. “While I think he’s correct to say that PimEyes won’t directly through their website give you that person’s identity, you’re a click away from a website that does have their name on it,” he says. “It’s going to give you a load of URLs which in many cases will allow you to identify that person.”

Scarlett fears those links could expose entire families to privacy violations.

“I used [Ancestry] for what it’s intended for—to find out where I come from. It was really exciting until it wasn’t,” she says. “Nobody is uploading photos into Ancestry thinking that they’re going to be enrolled into a biometric identifier for facial recognition software without their knowledge or consent … It just feels incredibly violating.”

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signedsonder · 1 year

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Knowledge is Power

Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

https://www.refseek.com/ - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

https://www.worldcat.org/ - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com/ - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

https://www.bioline.org.br/ is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org/ - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

https://www.science.gov/ is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

https://www.pdfdrive.com/ is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

https://www.base-search.net/ is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

#books #ya books #adult books #teen books #free #free book #informative #information should be free #kindle #hoopla #overdrive #libby

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knowledge-and-learning · 2 years

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Google The Great - Interesting read

Google was founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. Together, they own about 14 percent of its shares and control 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering (IPO) took place on August 19, 2004, and Google moved to its headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. In March 1999, the company moved its offices to Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. The next year, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords.[16] In order to maintain an uncluttered page design and increase speed, advertisements were solely text-based. Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bidding and click-through rates, with bidding starting at five cents per click.[17][18] This model of selling keyword advertising was first pioneered by Goto.com (later Overture Services, now part of Yahoo!), one of the most successful companies in the 1990s. Google raised $1.67 million in three rounds of funding in 1998,[19] $25 million in 1999,[20][21] and $100 million in 2000.[22][23][24] An August 2005 secondary public offering raised an additional $4.18 billion,[25] making the total IPO proceeds to date $23.1 billion.[26][notes 1]

In January 1996, Andrei Broder published a paper on the AltaVista search engine providing details of how he had gathered the web crawler data which became the basis for ALIWEB.[27]

In June 1998, Brin and Page presented their paper "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine" to the Seventh International World Wide Web Conference in Brisbane, Australia.[28] Since then, Page and Brin have been frequent keynote speakers at conferences and symposia. Over the years they have made several other important contributions to the field of information retrieval, including the establishment of the PageRank algorithm,[29] still used by Google today.

During their research project they had noted that webpages with high citation scores (links from other, well-cited webpages) tended to be ranked higher by conventional search engines. They realized that if they could develop a system that could crawl the web and create an index of all the pages it found, it would be possible to provide much better search results than existing techniques. This became the motivation behind their work.

In March 2001, at Stanford, Brin and Page presented "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine", describing Google as "[...] a new kind of search engine".[30] This paper has been cited over 8,800 times.[31][32] Their initial idea was to sell Google as a commercial license to larger companies, but potential customers were not interested. To make Google available to everyone, they set up a charitable corporation, and by the end of 1998 Google was running on 2,000 desktops at Stanford.[33]

The following year, Sergey Brin named Larry Page as the new CEO of Google. Eric Schmidt, who had been hired as Chairman of the Board in 2001, took over as CEO in April 2011. In March 2015, Page once again became the CEO of Google. Marissa Mayer, a former executive at Google, replaced Schmidt as chairman.[34]

Over the years, Google has made several acquisitions to expand its reach into new markets. In February 2003, it acquired Pyra Labs, owner of Blogger, a web logging service. Google acquired Picasa in July 2004, a web-based photo sharing service.[35]

In October 2006, Google announced that it had acquired the video-sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.[36][37] The acquisition brought 400 million new users to Google and helped fuel further growth of the company. In April 2007, Google reached an advertising revenue sharing agreement with MySpace, which was owned by News Corporation at the time.[38]

In May 2010, Google acquired Agnilux, a secretive startup working on chips and hardware systems for servers.[39] That same month, the company also announced the acquisition of AdMob, a mobile advertising company,[40] for $750 million.

In August 2010, Google announced the acquisition of LabPixies, a Mumbai and Israel-based company that created interactive content such as games, widgets, and greeting cards.[41]

In October 2010, Google acquired Metaweb, a web of data that includes Freebase, a database of more than 12 million entities.[42][43] The acquisition was aimed at improving search results by better understanding the meanings and relationships between entities.

In April 2011, Google announced the acquisition of Admeld,[44] a display advertising platform that helps publishers increase revenue from their ad inventory. That same month, the company also acquired PushLife,[45] a mobile content management system.

In July 2011, Google announced the acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion,[46] its largest acquisition to date. The purchase was made in order to gain access to Motorola's portfolio of patents and mobile devices. In August 2011, Google announced the acquisition of Frommer's,[47] a travel guidebook series.

In January 2012, Google acquired Wildfire Interactive,[48] a social media marketing company. That same month, the company also announced the acquisition of SketchUp,[49] a 3D modeling program used by architects, engineers, and graphic designers.

In May 2012, Google announced the acquisition of Quickoffice,[50] a mobile productivity suite that allows users to create and edit Microsoft Office documents on their smartphones and tablet computers. In June 2012, Google announced the acquisition of Waze,[51] a social GPS navigation app.

In September 2013, Google announced the acquisition of Bump Technologies,[52] a company that develops mobile apps that allow users to share contact information and files by bumping their phones together. In November 2013, Google announced the acquisition of Makani Power,[53] a company that is developing energy kites, which are tethered wings that generate power from wind.

In January 2014, Google acquired Nest Labs,[54] a manufacturer of smart thermostats and smoke detectors. In May 2014, Google announced the acquisition of SlickLogin,[55] a company that is developing technology that allows users to log into websites and apps using their smartphones or other devices.

In January 2015, Google announced the acquisition of DeepMind,[56] a company that is developing artificial intelligence technology. In February 2015, Google announced the acquisition of Jaiku,[57] a social networking service.

In September 2015, Google announced the acquisition of Makani Power, a company that is developing energy kites, which are tethered wings that generate power from wind.[58]

In January 2016, Google announced the formation of Alphabet Inc., a holding company that would house Google and its other businesses.[59] Under the new structure, Page became the CEO of Alphabet and Sundar Pichai became the CEO of Google.[60]

In October 2016, Google completed the sale of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.[61][62]

In December 2016, Google acquired Owlchemy Labs,[63] a virtual reality company that is best known for its Job Simulator and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality games.

In January 2017, Google announced the acquisition of AIMatter,[64] a startup that is developing artificial intelligence technology. In February 2017, Google completed the sale of its satellite imaging business to Planet Labs.[65]

In September 2017, Google announced the acquisition of HTC's Pixel smartphone division for $1.1 billion.[66] The deal will see Google acquiring HTC's engineering team that worked on the Pixel smartphones.

As of October 2017, Google has made over 200 acquisitions,[67] with the most notable ones being the acquisitions of YouTube, Android, Motorola Mobility, and DeepMind.

In January 2018, Google announced the acquisition of Viewpoint Robotics,[68] a company that is developing technology for robots to navigate autonomously in unstructured environments. In February 2018, Google completed the acquisition of Xively,[69] a cloud-based Internet of Things platform from LogMeIn.

In May 2018, Google announced the acquisition of ITA Software,[70] a flight search and planning company, from American Airlines and other investors for $700 million. In June 2018, Google announced the acquisition of Velostrata,[71] a cloud migration startup.

In September 2018, Google announced the acquisition of Disqus,[72] a blog comment hosting service. In October 2018, Google completed the acquisition of Sigmoid Labs,[73] the company behind the AppSheet mobile app development platform.

In January 2019, Google announced the acquisition of Looker,[74] a data analytics startup, for $2.6 billion. In February 2019, Google announced the acquisition of Fitbit,[75] a fitness tracker company, for $2.1 billion.

In June 2019, Google announced the acquisition of Alooma,[76] a cloud data migration startup. In August 2019, Google announced the acquisition of Toontastic,[77] an educational cartoon creation startup.

In November 2019, Google completed the acquisition of Fitbit,[78] a fitness tracker company, for $2.1 billion. The deal was first announced in October 2018.[79]

In January 2020, Google announced the acquisition of Elastifile,[80] a cloud file storage startup. In February 2020, Google completed the acquisition of Looker,[81] a data analytics startup, for $2.6 billion. The deal was first announced in June 2019.[82]

In March 2020, Google completed the acquisition of Stackdriver,[83] a cloud monitoring and logging service provider, from Amazon Web Services for an undisclosed sum. In May 2020, Google announced the acquisition of North,[84] a smart glasses company.

As of June 2020, Google has made over 240 acquisitions,[85] with the most notable ones being the acquisitions of YouTube, Android, Motorola Mobility, DeepMind, Looker, and Fitbit.

Sundar Pichai

Sundar Pichai is an Indian American business executive. He is the CEO of both Google and its holding company Alphabet Inc.[3]

Pichai was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, in 1972.[4][5] His mother Lakshmi was a stenographer and his father Regunatha Pichai was an electrical engineer at General Electric.[6][7][8] He grew up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.[9][10] He earned his degree from IIT Kharagpur in metallurgical engineering.[11]

Pichai worked as a materials scientist at Applied Materials and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company before joining Google in 2004.[12] He led the product management and innovation efforts for a suite of Google's client software products, including Chrome and Chrome OS, as well as being largely responsible for Google Drive.[13] He was then appointed the vice president of product development in 2013, overseeing the design and development of all consumer products, such as Search, Maps, YouTube, and Apps.[14][15]

In October 2015, Pichai gave a keynote about Google's plans for the future at the Internet Association's policy conference in Washington D.C.. In this presentation he stated that "Mobile as a computing platform is where personal computing was in 1980."[16][17]

Pichai was named the CEO of Google on 10 August 2015 after former CEO and co-founder Larry Page announced that he would be creating Alphabet Inc., a new holding company for Google with Pichai as its CEO.[18][19] As the CEO of Google, Pichai oversees all of its Internet products and services, such as Search, Maps, YouTube, Apps, and Android. He also oversees the technical infrastructure of the company.[20]

In December 2019, it was announced that Pichai had been awarded a $240 million stock grant which will vest over four years. The grant is performance-based, meaning that if Google meets certain financial targets during that time, Pichai will receive the full value of the grant. If not, he will only receive a portion of it. This grant is in addition to the $1.9 million salary and $380,769 bonus that he received in 2019.[21]

Pichai has been described as a "thought leader" on technology issues.[22][23] He is also an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry and has spoken about the need to increase the number of women and minorities in tech.[24][25]

In 2017, Pichai was ranked #9 on Forbes' list of the World's Most Powerful People.[26] In 2018, he was ranked #4 on Fortune's list of the World's Greatest Leaders.[27] And in 2019, he was once again ranked #9 on Forbes' list of the World's Most Powerful People.[28]

Pichai has been married to Anjali Pichai since 2004. They have two children together.[29][30]

The tech giant plans on adding more content to the site in order to make it a one-stop shop for all things Google. This includes everything from how-to videos and product demonstrations, to user generated reviews and even a Q&A section where users can ask questions and get answers from experts.

In addition to adding new content, Google also plans on redesigning the existing website to make it more user friendly and easier to navigate. The goal is to make it simpler for users to find the information they need, without having to search through multiple pages or clicks.

This brings the question of where is Bing, Ask.com, or maybe even DuckDuckGo? Google has the majority of the search engine market share. Experts state that "Google's dominance in search is unquestioned, but the company has been under pressure from antitrust regulators in Europe."[31] This could be due to the fact that "In March 2015, Google was hit with a record $57 million fine by the European Union for violating antitrust laws."[32]

The new content and redesign of their website is a way for Google to show that they are still the top dog when it comes to search engines. They want to keep users coming back to their site, and this is one way to do it.

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