Blog, YouTube & Content Monetization

In early March, New York City subway riders noticed a new development at the West 4th Street station, near Manhattan’s Washington Square Park. Construction workers for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority were photographed removing a bench on the station’s platform and replacing it with a curving metal structure. Looking a bit like an oversized shaving razor with two handles, the metal object is known as a leaning rail or a leaning rail. Its horizontal face, slightly tilted and about three feet off the ground, is intended as a place for subway riders to lean their backsides while they wait for a train. Comment byu/thrilsika from discussion innycrail G…

There’s a focus on protecting our personal data now, perhaps more so than ever before, be it from foreign powers, Big Tech, or Elon Musk’s DOGE. Consumers are wary about where their data is going, what it’s being used for, and how, or if, they can put up safeguards, especially while using tech tools like search engines or AI assistants. With several AI tools and assistants hitting the market over the past couple of years—Microsoft’s Copilot and Meta’s Llama, among many others—much of our data, queries, and summaries are being fed to large tech companies, used to train their artificial intelligence models. While some users may not mind, it could turn others off, w…

Detroit-based fintech platform Rocket Companies (NYSE: RKT) has reached an agreement to acquire the Seattle mortgage services company Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN) in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.75 billion, the companies announced on Monday. Each Redfin share will be exchanged for 0.7926 shares of Rocket’s Class A common stock, with the deal expected to close in mid-2025, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. Following the announcement, Redfin’s stock soared nearly 70%, reaching $9.91 in premarket trading. This surge came after Rocket Companies agreed to acquire Redfin for $12.50 per share, representing a premium of 63% over Redfin’s recent average price…

An influx of copy-and-pasted Christian messages has recently taken over TikTok’s comment sections. Over the past several days, comments about Jesus Christ have surfaced among the top comments on a wide range of unrelated videos. There’s no obvious connection between the accounts posting them, but the pattern is hard to miss. “Jesus died on a cross for you. He defeated death, he defeated your sins. He did this for you, and he gave us the Holy Spirit. Spread the word,” reads one of the most frequently repeated comments. Others follow the same script: Jesus died for our sins, we’ve been given the Holy Spirit, and now it’s our job to evangelize. Some even admi…

According to new research from Whop, a marketplace for digital products, one in three Gen Z consumers now make purchasing decisions based on recommendations from AI-generated influencers. The report gathered survey data from 2,001 Americans 12-to-27 years old and found the trend particularly strong among college-aged consumers. Nearly half of 19-to-21 year olds follow AI influencers, with 47% of young men following these accounts, compared to under 40% of women. While many have argued that AI influencers lack the authenticity needed to sell products, that might not matter—especially to Gen Z. Authenticity vs reach Previous research backs this up. Nearly h…

Over the course of its 40-year history, J.Crew has explored all kinds of design collaborations. Last year, for instance, it partnered with the designers Christopher John Rogers and Maryam Nassir Zadeh. But if you walk into a store, you might also come across slightly more unexpected collaborations. On a recent visit to J.Crew’s Columbus Circle store in New York, I found a collection of kids’ clothes emblazoned with the logo of the Fire Department of New York. In February, to celebrate The New Yorker magazine’s centennial anniversary, J.Crew created a special line of sweaters, rugby shirts, and baseball caps featuring the magazine’s logo. And last summer, it dropped wo…

U.S. TikTok Shop employees received a memo on Tuesday, recommending staff to work from home Wednesday ahead of “difficult decisions.” The memo, which was earlier reported by Bloomberg, told staff they would be updated on “organizational and personnel changes” via email, followed by HR outreach, suggesting possible layoffs. TikTok Shop, the Chinese-owned company’s marketplace feature launched in 2023 in the U.S., allowing users to shop for products in the app. The marketplace—which hosts everything from popular US brands like Crocs, to third-party merchandise in the likes of Temu and Shein— hit $100 million in single day sales on Black Friday alone. “TikTok Sh…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. National home prices have risen by 2.1% year-over-year from February 2024 to February 2025, according to the Zillow Home Value Index. That’s a deceleration from the 4.6% year-over-year rate last spring. However, not every housing market is seeing rising home prices. Among the 300 largest metro area housing markets, 42 markets are seeing falling home prices on a year-over-year basis. That’s up from last month when just 31 of the nation’s 300 largest metro area housing markets had falling year-over-year home prices. While home prices continue to r…

Adobe will be giving its priciest subscription tier an AI-first rebrand—and adding an even higher price tag. Adobe’s Creative Cloud All Apps subscription, which includes access to more than 20 Adobe apps, will soon be known as “Creative Cloud Pro,” the company announced last week. The renamed subscription plan will give users expanded access to Adobe’s AI-powered tools and apps, but for a price: For subscribers on an annual plan, the cost will increase from $59.99 to $69.99 monthly, or from $659.88 to $779.99 annually. Beginning on June 17th, any members of Creative Cloud All Apps will be automatically opted into Creative Cloud Pro. According to Adobe’s announceme…

The plight of the middle manager has taken a turn for the worse since the pandemic, leaving many in the role prone to burnout as they juggle competing expectations with limited support from their employers. Managers were already tasked with addressing low morale and absorbing additional work as companies have been hit with layoffs in recent years—but now a number of employers are more pointedly culling their ranks, too. A dwindling force Amazon is reportedly cutting thousands of middle managers by the end of this month, following in the footsteps of other tech companies like Meta and Google that have sought to flatten their workforces. Additionally, Gartner analys…

OpenAI is introducing image generation directly within ChatGPT. Powered by its flagship multimodal model, GPT-4o, the chatbot can now create visuals straight from the chat interface. The feature will initially be available to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Team, and free users. Enterprise and Education tier users will get access soon. “Today we have one of the most fun, cool things we have ever launched . . . native images in ChatGPT,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at the beginning of a video stream Tuesday. Altman acknowledged that the feature had been highly anticipated—especially since competitors like Google Gemini have offered integrated image generation since mid-2024. …

OpenAI launched a research preview on Friday of what it’s calling its most capable AI coding agent yet. Codex, a cloud-based software engineering agent, can write features, answer questions about a codebase, fix bugs, and propose pull requests for review. Several tasks can run simultaneously, and users retain full access to their computers while the agent takes anywhere from one to 30 minutes to complete a task. Since it’s still in research preview, the tool remains in early development. The company said in a blog post that it “currently lacks features like image inputs for frontend work, and the ability to course-correct the agent while it’s working. Additionally…

What’s in your office starter pack? La Colombe cold brew and a New Yorker subscription? Bose headphones and Brooks Brothers? Thanks to the latest ChatGPT trend making the rounds, you can now find out. By uploading a few photos and using a specific prompt, OpenAI’s GPT-4o image generator will spit out a personalized action figure or Barbie box in your likeness—complete with miniature accessories and sealed in plastic. In the past week, the trend has started popping up across TikTok, X, and—where trends go to die—Facebook and LinkedIn. “The Strategic Data & AI Consultant Starter Pack – Now in limited-edition blister packaging,” one LinkedIn user wrote alongs…

Too often, we get stuck waiting—waiting for a boss, a higher-up, or even a partner to hand us the reins and tell us it’s our time to shine. But here’s the truth: empowerment isn’t something you’re given. It’s something you take. If things aren’t going your way, there’s no one else to blame—it’s up to you to make a move. If you’re tired of waiting for someone else to recognize your potential or tell you what to do next, here are three actionable steps to take control and empower yourself today: Stop Asking for Permission—Start Taking Initiative Empowerment begins when you stop waiting for someone to tell you what to do and start taking proactive steps toward wha…

When construction started on a new affordable apartment building in Brooklyn, most of the work on the site happened very quickly. Instead of typical construction, cranes lifted giant modular units into the air—each made up of two separate apartments, plus the corridor between them—and set them into place. Trucks delivered nearly four dozen 60-foot-long “mods” from the factory where they were built in Pennsylvania, staging them next to a nearby cemetery in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Flatbush. Then, each day for two weeks, construction crews stacked together as many as six of the units. (The massive size of the units made them more challenging to transport than a…

A software application called Interview Coder promises to help software developers succeed at technical job interviews—by surreptitiously feeding them answers to programming questions via AI. Interview Coder’s 21-year-old cofounder and CEO Roy Lee says he and Neel Shanmugam, the company’s cofounder and COO, created the tool partly as a protest against longstanding industry practices that require job candidates to solve programming puzzles during interviews. Lee, who until recently was a sophomore at Columbia University, says he spent hundreds of hours practicing such problems—time that could have been spent on actual coding projects. “This kind of killed a lot of …

A number of big-name tech companies have announced or are said to be planning layoffs this month, in continuation of a trend we saw in February. March 2025’s most prominent tech layoffs include those from Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block, online meal kit company HelloFresh, server maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), social media giant TikTok, and retailer Wayfair’s technology division. Here’s what you need to know. Jack Dorsey’s Block lays off over 900 workers Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s latest company, Block, has announced that it will cut 931 jobs. Block owns the popular fintech app and platforms Cash App and Square. The 931 laid-off workers represent ab…

Building trust and forming meaningful relationships within teams can be a daunting task for leaders, especially when time is limited. Through our research, we identified a streamlined approach that Generators—the type of leader that people want to work for, known for creating strong, collaborative environments—use to foster relationships quickly. We call it the SWIFT process, an acronym that guides leaders in cultivating meaningful connections. The SWIFT process entails: Setting aside time for relationship-building sprints Welcoming others warmly Intentionally inquiring about others’ lives Following up with thoughtful questions Taking time to self-ref…

Nations are trying to reach an agreement to charge commercial vessels a fee for their emissions in what would effectively be the world’s first global carbon tax. The International Maritime Organization, which regulates international shipping, set a target for the sector to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by about 2050, and committed to ensuring that fuels with zero or near-zero emissions are used more widely. Its Marine Environment Protection Committee meets Monday through Friday in London. The committee, comprised of IMO member states, is working to approve proposed new global regulations to put a price on maritime greenhouse gas emissions and to set a ma…