Disruptor Digest

• 2014 CNBC Disruptor 50
• 2013 List
• Methodology

Pinterest lovers, rejoice.

Following Target's announcement this week that it is teaming up with three top pinners from the social media site to create exclusive party collections, experts say shoppers can expect more retailers to follow suit.

"I think that's a pretty easy prediction to make," said Ken Madden, head of digital at Shoptology, which powers websites for more than 80,000 retailers.

Google is buying Nest Labs for $3.2 billion, the search giant said Monday.

Google Ventures has been a major investor in Nest, which builds a smart thermostat and fire detector.

Nest was founded by Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, both of whom are former Apple employees. Under the terms of the deal, Fadell will continue to run Nest under its own brand.

The deal signals that Google aims to be a big player in the connected-home category.

"Clearly with Nest, the intention here is to move more into the 'Internet of Things,' and namely a consumer-facing application focused on the home," said David Garrity of GVA Research.

"While people have been talking about the battle for the living room and ... about various devices going through set-top boxes ... getting involved in metering and measurement devices in the home could be a way of getting in there as well," he said.

But Google must detail to shareholders the purchase's strategic rationale, Garrity said. It's not clear if that will come as soon as the fourth-quarter conference call, which is scheduled for later this month.

"It's not the $12 billion they paid for Motorola," Garrity said, adding that one could argue that Google got a lot of patents with that deal. "I think people are going to question to what extent they can actually monetize Nest Labs as quickly and as well as they may have monetized Motorola."

The latest news from the CNBC Disruptor 50 companies upending the status quo in the markets:

Thanksgiving is a time for considering the peace and love with which the Native Americans were met by European settlers to the New World. And, for those of you who actually read U.S. history and know the brutal, ceaseless campaign to destroy the native culture that actually took place over hundreds of years in this country, there's a good Thanksgiving parallel in the story of Aereo, pilgrim in the world of streaming television.

Thanksgiving is a time for considering the peace and love with which the Native Americans were met by European settlers to the New World. And, for those of you who actually read U.S. history and know the brutal, ceaseless campaign to destroy the native culture that actually took place over hundreds of years in this country, there's a good Thanksgiving parallel in the story of Aereo, digital native in the new world of streaming television.

This past week, the major television broadcasters—who so far have had very little success in the courts versus Aereo—got a helping hand from the biggest monopolies in America—the professional sports leagues. The NFL and MLB filed "friendly" briefs on behalf of the broadcasters who want the Supreme Court to take up their case against Aereo.

The sports leagues say they will be left with no choice but to remove all sporting events from broadcast TV if Aereo isn't stopped, and as usual, you the poor viewer will be the one to suffer (so you better support whatever they tell you to support).

Maybe you don't know the old African folk saying, When two elephants fight in the grass, it's the grass that suffers—but you probably have had some experience with a battle between a cable company and network that took some precious sports off the air for a few days.

In fact, in a recent example of that kind of spat, when Viacom and Time Warner were locked in a battle earlier this year, Aereo put itself out there as a way to still watch while the elephants fought. Speaking of the elephants in this battle, Aereo backer Barry Diller of IAC again said the service is completely and perfectly legal this past week at Bloomberg's Year Ahead conference. He said young people aren't going to pay one hundred bucks for cable.

So you young people, as Thanksgiving approaches and you get ready to gather around the 72-inch flat screen and take refuge from the minor social insanity that is the definition of family, we ask you—yes even you who have the 72-inch plasma and surround sound home theater system—to watch Turkey Day NFL games on an Aereo Internet stream. If it's available in your city, give thanks for it, because if the NFL and MLB have their way, the fledgling internet TV service is gonna be stuffed and dressed and carved up by the powers that be.

(Read more: The most hated teachers in America)

The latest news from the CNBC Disruptor50 companies upending the status quo in the markets:

I was never the handiest kid in the world, but I remember in those days of being forced to take shop class a particular assignment where we all had to make M&M dispensers out of a few chunks of wood and discarded jars of jam. I can still sense the supreme satisfaction—when all was said and done (and lathed)—of using my fingers to pull out, from the delicate wooden cylindrical slider piece that lay underneath the jar, one bright, little M&M ready for my nourishment. (All, no doubt, funded by a generous public school system grant from Mars Corp. to make sure that if we weren't already hooked on M&Ms, they had one more chance to get us.)

Well, the times they are a-changing when it comes to school projects—and for those who want to "generously" fund "a (insert product name here) for every student."

Makerbot founder and CEO Bre Pettis, a former schoolteacher himself, has become the latest "big-hearted" member of digital economy with a big dream about what every student in America needs: his product, of course! Whether it's Apple and its iPad; Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg "taking over" the Newark, N.J., school system by force of generosity; or Google Glass Class—the yet to be invented product that allows you to attend school in the corner of your eye while sitting in one of Google's self-driving cars—there's no shortage of Silicon Valley product placement. Makerbot has even figured out a way to work crowdfunding into the dimensions of this new effort, teaming with DonorsChoose.org to allow individuals and corporations to fund the purchases of 3-D printers for schools.

(Read more: What investors need to know about 3-D printing)

Charles Best, founder of CEO of DonorsChoose, said, "The impulse to construct is deeper than a teaching strategy. It's a human need." You just have to love how selfless and in touch with the human spirit and drive these tech guys are. Indeed, one could even say the need to construct a market for your still fledgling, much-hyped product is as great a demonstration of human need as any.

A 3-D printer in every classroom in America. Why just imagine the possibilities. For one, the NRA would no longer need to recommend armed guards and armed teachers in all of America's schools, because our kids could just print the guns on their own when the teacher isn't looking. Substitute teachers would be able to get in on the action, too, when they reach the point of such utter frustration and humiliation at the hands of borderline-evil teens. Smoking in the boys room? Print an ashtray, you slob!

I'd say at this point the only thing "safe" to say about this brilliant idea to rescue education is that whatever the 3-D printer spits out, it at least isn't likely to be any worse than school cafeteria rectangular blocks of pizza.

(Read more: Charts that changed the world)

The latest news on the CNBC Disruptor 50 companies upending the status quo in the markets:

Back during the halcyon days of the real estate boom, books on how to make your millions in residential housing were taking up plenty of real estate on nonfiction/self-help best-seller lists and in airports. Everyone could be a real estate agent if not also a real estate investor—it was just so damn easy! We all know how that went, but ... it won't be too long before The Airbnb Millionaire Real Estate Investor or How to Win Big and Make Millions in the Sharing Economy is published.

These titles are already being published in bits and pieces as it is. Whether these accounts will make Airbnb executives or their frenemy regulators more angry is yet to be determined, but accounts have started showing up in the press detailing the investment strategy known as "I made this much on Airbnb ... and you can, too!" Take Jon Wheatley's post on how to manage an Airbnb investment property remotely—he even included revenue figures for his "business."

Meanwhile, a man going by the name of Tom Slee—who claims to be a chemistry Ph.D. and who wrote the book No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart but we believe to be an automated blog program likely being funded by the New York lodging industry (just kidding, we hope!)—ran an analysis to show that arguments from Airbnb about how its users rent their apartments suggest that "today's Airbnb has nothing to do with the 'origin myth' that the company promotes."

Even the venerable New York Times has gotten in on the Airbnb action, though the old guard of the fifth estate just had to use the word "illegal" in its headline about Airbnb profits, didn't it? Leslie made $90,000 in a year and Joe $2,000 a month, and according to the New York Attorney General's office, the top 40 Airbnb hosts in New York have each grossed at least $400,000 over the past three years, a collective total of more than $35 million. The top 100 hosts in that time period have grossed $54 million.

And you can, too!

(Read more: The most hated teachers in America)

Twitter's underwriters plan to price its stock above estimates at $27 per share as long as the market momentum Wednesday continues, sources tell CNBC.

(Read more: Opening price for Twitter keeps on going higher )

The estimated price range was originally $23-$25 per share. However, the range increased to $27 per share, indicates demand is strong.

(Read more: What #TwitterIPO says about stocks may be a bunch of bulls )

Twitter's management will decide on the final price at the end of the day phone call.

Rett Wallace, Triton Research CEO, said he also heard whispers the company's share price would be pushed higher, as well.

As Twitter gets ready to go public, there has been a lot of speculation that Uber could be one of the next mobile apps to test the public markets.

Not so fast, says Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

"We have no interest in taking the company public anytime in the near future," he told CNBC in an exclusive interview. "Why should I?"

With the global taxi and limousine app in 50 cities around the world, Kalanick said, he is focused on aggressive global expansion. All you have to do is go to the Uber website to see dozens of international jobs available, from Bogota and Mexico City to Beijing and Mumbai.

Founded in 2009, the company is increasing revenue at a double-digit rate every month and recently closed another round of venture financing, he said.

Uber's most recent investors include Google Ventures and TPG Growth, which led its C Series round for $258 million. Early investors included Troy Carter, Lady Gaga's former manager; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions; Goldman Sachs; and Benchmark Capital. The company has raised more than $300 million to date.

Several venture capital investors tell CNBC that Uber's valuation is now approaching $4 billion.

"Going public is not on our minds, and we don't have any plans to do it," Kalanick said. With more than 1 million riders, the company hopes to offer service in the 500 biggest, global cities.

(Read more: Wealthy Chinese gobbling up Silicon Valley homes)

The latest news from the CNBC Disruptor50 companies upending the status quo in the markets:

Uber's whiskered whisk

Private car serviceUber has run afoul of regulators all over the transportation map. It's hired a small army of lobbyists to fight (or cozy up to) the establishment, but this past Tuesday it found a better way to ingratiate itself. This past Tuesday was National Cat Day, and Uber got into the feline act by partnering with popular meme site Cheezburger to deliver kittens in New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, according to a report on CNET.

Uber's app included a "KITTENS!" option on Tuesday between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Philosopher Emmanuel Kant said you can measure a man's morality in how he treats animals (or something like that) and so, maybe you can measure the true heart of a disruptive start-up in its ability to match on-demand car service with on-demand cats.

(Read more: Amazon State, Apple U, Google College)

The latest news on the CNBC Disruptor50 companies upending the status quo in the markets:

Instagram and Tumblr fleeced?

Forty is the new 30, and 80 is the new 60, and in the land of capitalist milk and honey—otherwise known as Silicon Valley—is $4 billion the new $1 billion?

Pinterest just wrapped up a gargantuan round of funding, $225 million, that values the company at $3.8 billion. For that, Pinterest offers not even a single dollar of revenue, at least not yet. But it has a plan for world domination, and that's all that matters.

When Monsanto bought agricultural algorithm start-up Climate Corp.—founded by Google engineers—for $930 million recently, you could almost hear the screams in Silicon Valley for leaving $70 million on the table and ruining a sure billion-dollar thing for everybody else. It seems the billion-dollar payday given the likes of Instagram, Tumblr and Waze is downright cheap in the app arms race.

Pinterest's latest round was almost double its valuation in a fundraising earlier this year, but at least it's not like investors with a low risk tolerance are exposed to this type of bet: The lead investor was Fidelity Investments, one of the biggest managers of individual investor retirement assets in the U.S.

(Read more: 11 ways your daily routine will never be the same)

The latest news on the CNBC Disruptor 50 companies upending the status quo in the markets:

Rebel yell

For many years, The Beatles resisted making their catalog available on iTunes, but the times eventually changed, even for Paul McCartney. In fact, Sir Paul's much-misunderstood and recently re-released '70s album "Ram" went straight to Spotify, and his new album, "New," is also available on the streaming music service. Likewise, geriatric grunge rockers Pearl Jam's new album, "Lightening Bolt," was on Spotify from Day One. Are the elder statesmen of rock warming to Spotify? Depends which old man you ask.

Thom Yorke of Radiohead hasn't minced his words. He can't seem to stop finding new words and metaphors to show his dislike. Now Yorke has some company, another rebel yell from an anti-Spotify talking head from rock's old guard: Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. Apparently, the streaming music service stopped making sense to him, because like Yorke, Byrne has pulled as much of his catalog as possible from Spotify and wrote in a Guardian opinion piece: "The Internet will suck all creative content out of the world."

But Byrne didn't get the last word: 57-year-old frontman for seminal post-punk rock band Gang of Four, David Allen, got The Guardian to allow him to gang up on Byrne and Yorke and write a piece on why they are wrong.

(Read more: 11 ways your daily routine will change)

Save the short-term renters!

We reported last week on New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's attempt to subpoena the entire world ... of Airbnb hosts in New York, roughly 15,000 people. Airbnb didn't like that, and didn't wait long to put the power of the sharing economy to work, with a petition going out from a New York-based Airbnb-er, Mishelle, to take down the AG.

The company lent its support to the petition: Airbnb's New York users got an email from the company asking them to "make your voice heard." The Gothamist suggested that the Airbnb petition was a clever ruse of the company's creation, but Mishelle promised to personally deliver the petition to Albany if it got 20,000 signatures. It had more than 21,000. The conflict gives new meaning to the age-old battle between landlords and tenants. But some argue, like Jim Epstein in The Daily Beast, that the NY AG's legal maneuvering is a "petty war."

But it's going to be OK if Airbnb is shut down by the status quo regulatory regime: a new rental service, Tansler, tells Forbes it's got a better model anyway, based on a public auction model.

The four-hour theory of Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a huge success, but in the same way that a baseball player who gets a hit one every three times at bat is an all-star. A majority of Kickstarter projects fail. In fact, a new study finds that you can tell if a Kickstarter project will make it within four hours of launch.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne decided to give Kickstarter project starters a hand by seeing if they could predict the likelihood of success. Their new algorithm claims to predict the ultimate success or failure of a fundraising attempt with 76 percent accuracy within four hours of a campaign launching. The researchers based their findings on a nine-month study of some 16,000 Kickstarters, according to a report on Mashable.

(Read more: Can a drone find Bigfoot?)