Powell and The Fed don’t know what they’re doing.
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NearMemo #99
-You don’t own Google but you do own your processes - make them work
-AI & Automation is now officially a thing in SEO & not just for writing
-Generative AI will increase fake reviews, now what?
w/ &
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Google is investing $300M in Anthropic, an OpenAI rival (yet it already owns DeepMind)
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My "can Yahoo revive search" survey had 631 votes (thanks for the RT). Somewhat surprisingly, 56% thought it was possible.
Quote Tweet
Yahoo is planning to "relaunch" search. Is there a chance to revive it?
Show this poll
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As always, today's newsletter is 100% human-generated: AI will make the fake review problem much worse; local online inventory can change online shopping; Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple playing the Wall Street expectations game.
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OpenAI is charging $240 per year for ChatGPT plus. ChatGPT has 100M users (2 months after launch). If 5% of users convert that's $1.2B in revenue.
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Here's what it's like to desktop website now: Block notifications, close pop-up, manage/decline cookies, turn off auto-play video. Then you can read the content for 5 seconds before moving on.
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There are structural changes in the economy causing labor shortages, and a strong labor market. The Fed is a using blunt instrument and old thinking as it pushes for recession as a cure for inflation.
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Bill introduced to block people under 16 from using social media (but define social media).
This is a metaphor for the end of an era at tech companies in which employee values and well-being were important.
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Today's newsletter Yahoo is ready to climb "search mountain"; AI chat can dramatically improve the current sorry state of chatbots; consumers want to shop local but often buy online.
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I released this yesterday afternoon PT so worth a RT for the Yandex-obsessed twitter.com/localseoguide/
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Google testing AI chat competitors, also "new search page designs that integrate the chat technology."
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Rumor/report: Bing to incorporate ChatGPT into search in "coming weeks."
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OpenAI's new AI Text Classifier (tool to catch AI content) isn't yet very good. I tested multiple chat GPT generated outputs and it didn't flag them; best it did was "possibly AI-generated" in a couple of cases. platform.openai.com/ai-text-classi
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Yahoo is planning to "relaunch" search. Is there a chance to revive it?
- Nope. DOA43.7%
- Depends on UI/UX26.6%
- Yes. Now is the time29.6%
631 votesFinal results
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Most people (in the US) reading this are probably too young to remember when Disneyland had A - E tickets for each ride -- not an unlimited pass. All the AI tools using credits as currency has triggered that memory.
Our post-Yandex leak newsletter is here: How close are the Yandex factors to Google's algorithm?; the "enshitification" of platforms like Meta, Amazon and TikTok; the end of the nice-to-have economy.
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Social media is dying as a traffic referral source for news content (and more categories). Finding: "social referred less than 10% of an article’s traffic." Plus: social engagement doesn't translate into traffic. memo.co/blog/social-li
Gallup poll: Nurses, teachers seen as most ethical, ad purveyors -- not so much.
Congressional antitrust action is dead until at least 2024
Near Memo Ep 98:
-Mailchimp’s Campaign Manager-sophisticated tool w/ misaligned marketing
-Growing visibility of copyright issues of generative AI
-Google’s GBP forums provide insights into bugs, practices & policy
W/
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Yandex's ranking algorithm source code was "hacked" and is now all over the internet. If Google were hacked or voluntarily disclosed its algorithm (as some regulators want) it would ...
- Result in better content0%
- Make SERPs more spammy66.7%
- Have little or no impact6.7%
- No way to predict26.7%
15 votesFinal results
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Friday's newsletter: A new plan to save local news proposes an online ad subsidy; TikTok drives offline sales (and more); getting rid of workers to boost productivity? ... think again.
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How are the people so relentlessly posting on Twitter, Mastodon, LinkedIn getting any actual work done?
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Google Post Insights are heading to the trash can, officially. twitter.com/JoyanneHawkins
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Rebuild Local News plan suggest tax credits for SMBs who advertise in local media (including online). $5K in year one and $2.5K for for years thereafter.
Twitter sued in Germany over hate speech to force company to moderate content.
DoNotPay AI legal defense threatened by human lawyers and withdraws.
Google Business Profile Forum: Support Avoidance Strategy
Google has long held to the motto of "release early and release often."
The motto should probably instead read: release buggy products and externalize their costs.
Proof lies in plain site
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Look beyond the “principled” statements… This is an entirely self-interested move by Facebook.
"Release buggy products and externalize their costs." explains how Google is avoiding support costs by using volunteers in the GBP Forum.
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Trump reinstated on FB and Insta. (This will look especially bad when Georgia indicts him.) Dilemma: go to where the audience is and kill Truth Social or stay on TS with much smaller reach? He'll come back.
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NYT offers a long but very anecdotal take on the state of fake reviews (mostly in hospitality segment). Brings more awareness but little new light to the discussion
