Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

Americans stressed by high grocery bills have one bright spot to look forward to in 2026. Value-minded grocery chain Aldi is coming to more cities around the country, with 180 new stores set to open in the U.S. this year. Aldi is a compelling option for grocery shoppers on a budget. Founded in Germany, the company envisioned itself as a discount grocery store from day one. Aldi’s aggressive U.S. expansion will meet the needs of more shoppers seeking a no-frills grocery experience without compromising on quality – a niche shared by Aldi competitors like Costco and Trader Joe’s. The budget grocery chain currently operates in 39 states across more than 2,600 stores i…

A cozy, neutral sameness defines our era of interior design. Velvet sofas. Bouclé armchairs. All-white living rooms. Beds layered with fluffy faux-fur blankets. Calming sage green kitchen cabinets. You see it in furniture catalogs, social media feeds, perhaps even your own home. And we’ve got algorithms to thank. A decade ago, social platforms shifted from chronological feeds to algorithmic ones, optimized to show users what they were most likely to engage with. As many cultural critics have pointed out, those systems reward what is broadly appealing and shareable. In interiors, that has meant rooms that are soothing and inoffensive—but largely devoid of personality. …

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba‘s cloud business unit has launched its second data center in Dubai, it said on Tuesday, nine years after its first, as it expands its global cloud computing services to meet growing demand. Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and artificial intelligence division, said in a statement the launch was part of the technology major’s pledge to invest 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years. No financial details were disclosed in Tuesday’s statement. “The Middle East’s advantageous position in fast-tracking AI adoption and its collaborative ecosystem are crucial enablers for private and public sector companies to thrive,” said E…

Chinese tech company Alibaba on Wednesday released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model that it claimed surpassed the highly-acclaimed DeepSeek-V3. The unusual timing of the Qwen 2.5-Max’s release, on the first day of the Lunar New Year when most Chinese people are off work and with their families, points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on not just overseas rivals, but also its domestic competition. “Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms … almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B,” Alibaba’s cloud unit said in an announcement posted on its official WeChat account, referr…

Alibaba’s net income fell 66% year-over-year (YOY) for 2025’s fourth quarter while it invested heavily in AI. In total, net income dropped from 46.4 billion Chinese yuan ($6.8 billion) to 15.6 billion Chinese yuan ($2.27 billion). The downturn is one of multiple disappointments in the Chinese technology giant’s latest financial results, announced Thursday, March 19. Alibaba also reported a 71% decrease in diluted earnings per share YOY. Higher cloud revenue, but not high enough Even Alibaba’s revenue, which rose 2% YOY, failed to meet expectations. The company reached 284.8 billion Chinese yuan ($41.4 billion) in revenue for quarter four, falling sho…

China’s Alibaba said that growth accelerated for both its artificial intelligence and cloud businesses in the latest quarter, driven by the AI boom, even though overall revenue rose just 3% to 243 billion yuan ($36 billion). Revenue from its Cloud Intelligence Group, which focuses on cloud computing and AI developments, jumped 38% in the January-March quarter from a year ago to 41.6 billion yuan ($6.1 billion). That was faster than the 36% and 34% growth in the previous two quarters, respectively. However, Alibaba recorded an overall of 848 million yuan ($125 million) loss from operations for the quarter, a key measure of profitability of its core operating busine…

Today, Alix Earle is launching a skincare line—but if you’ve been looking close enough you probably knew it was coming. For the last year, the influencer has been dropping Easter eggs across her social feeds in the lead-up to her debut venture. There were the vlogs from her dermatologist’s office. The un-get-ready-with-me posts featuring unnamed products in unbranded packaging. The puzzle-like billboard in NYC that popped up with missing pieces. Now today, Earle is finally revealing Reale Actives, a skincare brand that Earle developed for acne-prone skin but is “designed for everyone” launching March 31. Those who have been following Earle for years might say…

In a new bag from Freitag, every part—from the fabric to the zipper, straps, buckles, and the thread that holds everything together—is made from a single material. The product is the latest example of a “monomaterial” design approach that some brands are beginning to use for a simple reason: It means that the products can actually be recycled when they eventually wear out. Right now, a typical backpack or bag has components made from multiple different materials. Dismantling everything at the end of its life is too time-consuming and expensive to be feasible. But using one material makes it essentially as simple as recycling a plastic water bottle. “You can basically p…

Tests of ByHeart infant formula tied to a botulism outbreak that has sickened dozens of babies showed that all of the company’s products may have been contaminated. Laboratory tests of 36 samples of formula from three different lots showed that five samples contained the type of bacteria that can lead to the rare and potentially deadly illness, the company said Monday on its website. “Based on these results, we cannot rule out the risk that all ByHeart formula across all product lots may have been contaminated,” the company wrote. At least 31 babies in 15 states who consumed ByHeart formula have been sickened in the outbreak that began in August, according to …

Meghan Markle has been teasing the launch of her lifestyle brand, now called As Ever, for a while now, and Markle finally revealed its product line earlier this week. But while followers of the Duchess of Sussex are just now learning what her brand will offer, Markle’s fledging business has already faced its fair share of controversy. In the spring of 2024, Markle dropped the first hint at a potential business in the form of several artisanal jars of jam sent to various celebrity friends, each branded with the name “American Riviera Orchard.” The next update didn’t arrive until this February, when Markle announced on Instagram that she had scrapped the “American Riviera …

The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) just got a new logo, and there’s more to it than meets the eye. The updated logo dropped just in time for the upcoming Super Bowl, when an influx of out-of-state fans will bustle through MSY on their way to the Caesars Superdome arena. MSY is taking advantage of the increased publicity, using it as an opportunity to scrap its old logo—a blobby, clunky take on the fleur-de-lis that’s more of an eyesore than an homage—for a sleeker, more intriguing graphic. From left: The new logo outshines its predecessor [Image: courtesy Louis Armstrong International Airport] Called the “Plane de Lis,” the new mark is …

On a recent stroll by my local Allbirds store in Harvard Square, I had to do a double take. In the window, the brand was advertising its new Varsity collection: a ’70s-inspired sneaker line with a rubber sole and a feminine color palette that weaves together pink, olive green, mustard, and brick red. It’s an unmistakably fashionable shoe that wouldn’t look out of place at New Balance and Saucony, or even Valentino and Celine. Allbirds, which launched in 2014, isn’t known for chasing trends. It has always led with sustainability, starting with the “wool runner” that quickly became a cult sneaker in tech circles. Over the years, it hasn’t strayed far from this original …

When Liza Moiseeva first heard that Allbirds was pivoting to AI, she thought it was satire. “It belongs in an Onion article,” says Moiseeva, chief marketing officer at Commons, an app that helps people shop more sustainably, in part by rating brands. Moiseeva has worked in sustainability for about 15 years, and she’s been an Allbirds customer for more than a decade. Her family owns 10 pairs of the sneaker that once ruled Silicon Valley streets—and that had been a leader in sustainable fashion. Now, Allbirds is stepping away from its footwear business, pivoting instead to AI compute infrastructure and rebranding as “NewBird AI.” (The Allbirds brand and footwea…

After rising by more than 580% in a single trading session yesterday, shares of Allbirds Inc. (Nasdaq: BIRD) fell this morning in premarket trading, at one point more than 30%. The steep rise and now potential fall in the stock price followed the company’s unexpected announcement that it intends to transition from a sustainable shoemaker to an AI compute infrastructure provider. But while AI-obsessed investors initially cheered the odd move, history suggests the pivot may be a challenging one to pull off in the long run. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? Yesterday, San Francisco-based Allbirds, whose wool footwear had been popular with Silicon …

AI is saving workers more than two hours a day. That sounds like an unqualified win, and in many ways, it is. But beneath the productivity headlines, something more complicated is happening. Employees are getting faster, but some are also getting less confident, less skilled, and less certain they can do their jobs without a machine doing much of the thinking for them. That tension is the defining workforce challenge of 2026, and most companies aren’t prepared to address it. New research from GoTo, conducted in partnership with Workplace Intelligence, surveyed 2,500 global employees and IT leaders on AI use and sentiment. The findings tell a story about a workforce caugh…

Google-parent Alphabet beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as both its core advertising business and cloud computing unit showed steady growth. Shares of the company rose 6% in extended trading. The company reported total revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $99.89 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. The cloud services and AI giant raised its capital expenditure forecast for the year to between $91 billion and $93 billion, compared with the estimates of $80.67 billion. Google Cloud remained one of Alphabet’s fastest-growing segments, benefiting from surging enterpris…

Google‘s corporate parent on Monday announced an agreement to buy data center energy specialist Intersect for $4.75 billion as part of its effort to secure the vast amounts of electricity needed to power artificial intelligence technology. Alphabet, which depends on Google’s search engine and other online services for most of its revenue, is buying out Intersect in its entirety after purchasing a stake in the San Francisco-based startup a year ago. Intersect had previously raised $2.1 billion from Google and other early investors. After the acquisition is completed during the first half of next year, Alphabet intends to allow Intersect to operate independently whi…

Shares in Google’s parent company, Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG), are down nearly 7% in premarket trading at the time of this writing. The fall comes a day after Google announced its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings results. Here’s what you need to know about those results and the likely reasons why GOOG stock is falling this morning. Google Q4 2024 results were a mixed bag Google saw both its revenue and earnings per share (EPS) increase in Q4 versus the quarter a year earlier. For the Q4 2024 quarter, Google posted nearly $96.5 billion in revenue—12% growth from Q4 2023. However, in that previous Q4 2023 quarter, Google’s revenue growth had been 13%, suggesting that growth…

Google’s transition into the era of artificial intelligence continued to pay off for its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc., which on Wednesday announced another quarter of stellar growth that helped to more than double its already lofty market value during the past year. Alphabet earned $62.6 billion, or $5.11 per share, during the January-March period, an 81% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 22% from last year to $109.9 billion. Both numbers easily surpassed the analyst projections that steer investors. Alphabet’s stock price rose more than 6% in extended trading after the numbers came out, setting up the shares to hit a new high during Thursd…

The great power competition in the AI Age will probably be between OpenAI and Google, and one of the main battles may be over advertising dollars. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemed to describe the world in those terms during an appearance on the Big Technology podcast Monday. OpenAI, which is not yet profitable, is reportedly getting set to sell ads within ChatGPT in an effort to monetize the many free users on its platform. ChatGPT now has an impressive 800 million weekly active users, but only 35 million of them buy subscriptions. The ads, which could help pay for OpenAI’s plan to spend $115 billion on infrastructure by 2029, could show up as soon as early 2026. As …

How is it that no matter how much you intend to get to bed earlier, you never do? And morning mercilessly comes at the same time no matter how little sleep you’ve gotten. If you struggle with the evening slide where you stay up too late to get things done, or to have some “me” time, you’re not alone. It’s a common issue that I see with my time management coaching clients. Here are three of the strategies that I’ve found most effective to stop the evening slide, get to bed on time, and still get everything done. Keep the Dominos Up Getting to bed late is often the final block in a chain effect that began much earlier in the day. So to beat the evening slide, you need to…

Michael Long is not the typical neuroscience guy. He was trained as a physicist, but is primarily a writer. He coauthored the international bestseller The Molecule of More. As a speechwriter, he has written for members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, presidential candidates, and Fortune 10 CEOs. His screenplays have been performed on most New York stages. He teaches writing at Georgetown University. What’s the big idea? Dopamine is to blame for a lot of your misery. It compels us to endlessly chase more, better, and greater—even when our dreams have come true. Thanks to dopamine, we often feel restless and hopeless. So no, maybe it’s not quite accurate to call it the “…

Anyone who knows me knows I’m an optimistic, joy-seeking, recovering workaholic committed to leading a joyful rebellion against stress and burnout. So when friends started tagging me in posts about U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu’s joyful gold medal win at the Winter Olympics in Milan, I paid attention. Because this isn’t just a sports story. It’s a leadership story. When Liu stepped away from competitive figure skating at the height of her career, it wasn’t because she lacked grit. It was because pushing harder was costing her joy. That choice runs against everything we tend to praise in high performers: Push through. Power through. Never quit. In an interview with the As…