What's on Your Mind?

You may have noticed that the Google-owned video-sharing site’s infamous red play logo is now rendered in a softer, more pinkish hue. That’s because user research revealed that the company’s logo color rated as one of its top three most outdated design elements. Last updated in 2017, YouTube’s old brand color was a pure red that users perceived to be “too loud when implemented in key UI moments,” Robyn Lee, YouTube’s visual design lead, said in a Google Design blog post. From top: The old red vs. the new [Image: YouTube]The old red had other technical problems, too, like rendering orange on some screens and causing a burn-in effect on TVs—a major issue considering YouTube…

Many major platforms provide personalized “year in review” features that highlight how users have spent their time over the past year. Spotify Wrapped is the most popular of these summaries, but Apple Music, Snapchat, Deezer, and others also offer them. And now, internet users have a new year-in-review feature to check out this year: YouTube Recap. Here’s what you need to know about the video site’s year-in-review and how to access it—especially if you’re looking to kill some time while waiting for Spotify Wrapped 2025 to come out. What is YouTube Recap? YouTube Recap is Google’s just-announced year-in-review feature for its YouTube platform. The pers…

NBCUniversal may soon be pulling its programming from Google’s YouTube TV. The news comes as a dispute between the companies over carriage fees and terms is ramping up. NBC began warning customers on Thursday evening that its programming would leave the streaming platform if the companies don’t reach an agreement by Sept. 30, the date its contract is set to renew. If a blackout were to occur, popular programs such as Sunday Night Football, The Voice, NBA games, and the Oct. 4 premiere of Saturday Night Live, wouldn’t be viewable on the platform. However, a separate spat between YouTube TV and TelevisaUnivision comes at the same time, as both companies’ contracts…

Several channels owned by Paramount Global, including CBS, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and MTV, could go dark on YouTube TV this week if a contract renewal cannot be reached between the two companies. YouTube TV, a subsidiary of Google, announced in a statement that it is working hard to reach a fair agreement that allows it to keep Paramount channels without raising prices for subscribers. It had not yet been successful in “good-faith” negotiations. What will happen if a new contract isn’t reached? After February 13, all Paramount content, including CBS and CBS Sports, will be removed from YouTube TV. Subscribers will also not be able to access previous re…

One minute, you’re watching a hilarious or even completely bland YouTube short. The next? You realize you’ve just lost an hour of work time or managed to stay up way too late—again. Losing track of time when watching shorts is not an uncommon experience. But now, YouTube wants to help you set limits to stay on task, hit the hay, or just, ya’ know, not lose precious hours of your life to Shorts. On Wednesday, the video streaming giant rolled out a new timer feature on its mobile app. When users log on, they can go into their settings and click on “shorts feed limit” to set a timer that will remind them to stop scrolling. Once users hit their time limit, the app wi…

If you have a stressful job, meditation can help—but it’s not easy to meditate at work. A new workplace pod is designed to help by giving you a private place to take a break, run through a guided meditation or breath work, and begin to experience benefits like improved focus and reduced burnout. OpenSeed, the startup behind the Iris Pod, launched in 2018 after founder Jonathan Marcoschamer attended a 10-day silent meditation course. He wanted to keep meditating during the day, but was working in an open plan office. “I couldn’t find anywhere to meditate,” he says. He also wanted to help make meditation more accessible for other people. So he started work on a prototyp…

Few brands have been more associated with the fast-fashion boom of the last two decades than Zara, the flagship apparel chain owned by Spanish clothing giant Inditex SA. It may surprise some consumers to learn, then, that Zara has in fact reduced its global footprint over the last few years since the pandemic. The brand’s decline in physical storefronts has been moderate but meaningful, from a third-quarter peak of around 2,139 stores in 2019 to just under 1,800 stores five years later, according to earnings statements from Inditex. That’s a reduction of 16%. Now, thanks to new accounting metrics from the company, we’ve learned that Zara’s physical footprint…

Pop star Zara Larsson is the internet’s newest it girl. After a wave of viral hits, including her latest album’s title track “Midnight Sun” and her feature on PinkPantheress’ “Stateside” remix, the Swedish singer cemented herself as the next big thing in pop music. But fame doesn’t come without controversy, as Larsson learned when she revealed to her fanbase that she uses generative AI. The discourse began when Larsson posted about watching AI-generated content on TikTok. Larsson first reposted an image from the account Ai Fruit Stories, a page posting AI animations of—you guessed it—drama between anthropomorphic foods. Larsson then posted a selfie with the c…

Crypto investors are making a mad dash to Zcash. Zcash (ZEC) has become something of a darling of crypto markets lately, with the token up more than 1,200% over the past year. As of Friday morning, it was trading at around $530. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is down more than 21% over the past year, and Ethereum is down around 12%. Zcash has also gained more widespread adoption—Robinhood, for example, recently added it to its platform. What’s behind the rise of Zcash? It’s difficult to point to one specific factor for the recent rise in popularity. Zcash did see its initial large-scale push during the fall of 2025, even though it had been on the market since…

To promote its newest shoes, the Swiss athletic apparel brand On filmed a fictional movie trailer with Zendaya. Zone Dreamers stars the actress as an elf-eared astronaut who wears athleisure, trains in space with her flight crew, and—On hopes—sells some merchandise. It’s all an elaborate ad campaign for On’s new low-profile sneaker, Cloudzone, its one-piece Studio Knit Bodysuit, and other offerings from the company’s Spring/Summer 2025 Movement Lifestyle collection, which Zendaya wears throughout. (Consumers hoping to get their hands on the futuristic space suit Zendaya sports in one scene will be disappointed to learn that it’s not part of the collection. Celebrity s…

When Zillow launched 20 years ago, the home-buying process happened almost entirely offline. The company’s digital listings, combined with its innovative “Zestimate”—an estimate of a home’s value, based on the kind of data typically only available to real estate professionals—marked a turning point for the housing market. Zestimates weren’t exact representations of value, but they put power back in the hands of prospective buyers (to sellers’ and agents’ chagrin). Their near-instant popularity was an early “do your research” internet moment. Fast-forward to the present day, and Zillow, which has a $13 billion market cap and reports earnings after the market close on …

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists just published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will shift +0.0% between March 2026 and March 2027. That’s a mild downward revision from its 12-month forecast published last month (+0.5%). U.S. home prices, as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index, are currently up +0.8% year-over-year. Zillow’s latest 12-month outlook (+0.0%) expects national home prices to remain near that subdued pace. As long as national home price growth remains below U.S. income …

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists just published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will rise 1.5% between October 2025 and October 2026. Heading into 2025, Zillow’s 12-month forecast for U.S. home prices was +2.6%. However, many housing markets across the country softened faster than expected, prompting Zillow to issue several downward revisions. By April 2025, Zillow had cut its 12-month national home price outlook to -1.7%. In late spring, Zillow stopped issuing downward revisions. In A…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists just published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will rise +1.2% between August 2025 and August 2026. Heading into 2025, Zillow’s 12-month forecast for U.S. home prices was +2.6%. However, many housing markets across the country softened faster than expected, prompting Zillow to issue several downward revisions. By April 2025, Zillow had cut its 12-month national home price outlook to -1.7%. However, in recent months, Zillow has stopped issuing downward r…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists just published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will rise 0.5% from February 2026 to February 2027. That’s a mild downward revision from its 12-month forecast published last month (+0.9%). While Zillow’s national home price forecast isn’t negative, it isn’t exactly bullish either. It foresees a soft national housing market in 2026, one where affordability may improve slightly as U.S. income growth outpaces U.S. home price growth. What type of region…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists just published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will rise +0.9% between January 2026 and January 2027. That’s a mild downward revision from its 12-month forecast published last month (+2.1%). At its latest reading, U.S. home prices, as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index, are up +0.2%. Zillow’s latest forecast expects prices to remain close to that pace. While Zillow’s national home price forecast isn’t negative—it isn’t exactly bullish either. …

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Once again, Zillow has downgraded its 12-month forecast for national home prices. On Wednesday, Zillow economists published their updated forecast model, projecting that U.S. home prices, as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index, will fall 1.7% between March 2025 and March 2026. Back in March, Zillow downgraded its 12-month outlook for U.S. home prices to +0.8%. In February, Zillow downgraded its 12-month outlook to +1.1%. And at the start of the year in January, Zillow’s 12-month national home price forecast was +2.9%. Why does Zillow keep do…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists just published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will rise 2% between November 2025 and November 2026. Heading into 2025, Zillow’s 12-month forecast for U.S. home prices was +2.6%. However, many housing markets across the country softened faster than expected, prompting Zillow to issue several downward revisions. By April 2025, Zillow had cut its 12-month national home price outlook to -1.7%. In the second half of this year, Zillow began upgrading its fo…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Zillow economists just published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will rise +1.2% between August 2025 and August 2026. Heading into 2025, Zillow’s 12-month forecast for U.S. home prices was +2.6%. However, many housing markets across the country softened faster than expected, prompting Zillow to issue several downward revisions. By April 2025, Zillow had cut its 12-month national home price outlook to -1.7%. However, in recent months, Zillow has stopped issuing downward r…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. This week, Zillow economists published their updated 12-month forecast, projecting that U.S. home prices—as measured by the Zillow Home Value Index—will fall by 0.9% between April 2025 and April 2026. After a series of downward revisions—beginning in January, when Zillow’s 12-month national home price forecast was +2.9%, and subsequently lowered each month until reaching -1.7% last month—Zillow has finally stopped downgrading its outlook. That said, it’s fair to call the Zillow economist bearish, given that for this forecast to be correct, 2025 …

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. A recent Zillow analysis suggests it would take a drop of more than one percentage point—to 4.43%—for the median-income U.S. homebuyer to comfortably afford the median-priced U.S. home. And that assumes a 20% down payment, which many first-time buyers are unable to make. Even more striking, in several high-cost coastal metros, not even a 0% mortgage rate would make the median-priced local home affordable for a household earning the local median income. This includes New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, San Diego, and San Jose, where taxes, in…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Last week, Zillow announced a new policy that bans home listings from appearing on the platform if they were first listed for sale in private networks more than 24 hours before appearing on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). That’s an attempt by Zillow to keep more inventory on the “public” housing market. “If a listing is online, it should be online everywhere. . . . If a listing is marketed to any home shoppers, it should be marketed to all home shoppers,” wrote Zillow. The announcement comes as some brokerages, most infamously Compass, ar…