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About a year ago, I came out of a meeting with engineers about improving automations for content briefs. A few days later, someone on the analytics team — unrelated to those conversations — pinged me that they’d built a content brief generator using various data pipelines and APIs. That’s when I realized “getting people to use AI” isn’t the hard part. Implementation and integration are. Most SEO teams don’t struggle with access to tools; they struggle to prioritize efforts with outsized impact and align across the organization. One team is experimenting with prompts, another is auto-generating briefs, and a third is building dashboards no one asked for, often stepping on each other’s toes. Each has something valuable to contribute, but much of it gets diluted by duplication and a race to execution. Leadership wants speed. Legal wants caution. Developers want clarity. The result is fragmentation, not the AI marketing transformation teams need. If AI is going to meaningfully change SEO performance, it has to be structured before it’s scaled. Otherwise, fragmentation only accelerates. After working with large, complex organizations navigating this shift, I’ve found three frameworks that consistently prevent chaos and create momentum. Used together, they align vision, clarify what to automate, and turn prioritization into execution. 1. The AI SEO City: Alignment before acceleration The biggest obstacle in AI adoption is coordination. SEO already sits at the intersection of engineering, content, analytics, product, and brand. Now, with AI search and the rise of social search, add organic social, conversion rate optimization, affiliates, and creative to the mix. AI touches all of these surfaces, but it’s too much for any one person or team. Without a shared mental model, groups move independently, duplication creeps in, and accountability blurs — turning AI into an arms race instead of a productivity driver. Leading large teams and working with many Fortune 100 executives, I’ve seen how analogies help teams quickly grasp complex ideas. Research supports this: analogies improve understanding and the transfer of ideas across domains. When teams map new concepts onto familiar structures, alignment accelerates. Enter: the AI SEO City. Instead of explaining AI as a series of tools and experiments, imagine your SEO ecosystem as a city. Your website (also known as SEO house) no longer exists in a silo. Technical SEO is the foundation. Content hubs frame the rooms. Off-site SEO is the curb appeal. User experience is the staging. With AI search, that house now interacts with a broader city in a more integrated way. Platforms like TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, and Amazon influence the answers AI systems produce. To succeed in AI search, this city needs a strong planner to advocate for budgets, plan what’s next, and maintain what works. The SEO team is the planner, while other teams build and manage their own “buildings.” The shift from analogy to action is ownership. Every major platform becomes a building. YouTube strategy lives in the Discovery District and the YouTube building. App store optimization lives in Solution Square, spanning the Apple, Google, and Creative buildings. AI infrastructure and API connections sit in the Engineering Grid. Analytics runs the Control Tower. Each building has a lead, KPIs tied to business outcomes, AI-enhanced workflows, and a roadmap — making AI implementation tangible, accountable, and coordinated. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with 2. SOAR: Deciding what to automate without breaking what works Once vision is clear, most teams make the same mistake: they try to automate everything. Automation without discernment and process creates fragility. If the sole person who built that automation leaves, you’re leaving the business and your work at risk. SOAR provides a filter for intelligent adoption. SOAR stands for: Streamline the basics. Orchestrate your team. Automate monotony. Reposition focus. Streamline the basics Before layering AI on top of chaos, it’s important to have standardized processes (e.g., repeatable briefs, aligned reporting to business KPIs, etc.). Organizations capturing the most value from AI had already digitized and standardized core workflows, McKinsey’s 2023 State of AI report. This has been my experience firsthand. The best and easiest automations to stand up are ones that speed up a defined manual process. So much so that we’ve made a rule as a team to never attempt automating something without doing it manually first. Orchestrate your team AI adoption is cross-functional. To manage it successfully, it’s crucial for SEOs to orchestrate teams across the organization. Take the ownership defined in the AI SEO City to clarify review processes, QA ownership, publishing governance, etc. Get stakeholder buy-in on establishing consistent cadences: weekly SEO syncs with rotating teams and purpose, monthly performance reviews, and quarterly roadmap alignment. Predictability reduces resistance. Automate monotony AI is helping people save about 4 hours per week. That’s about 200 hours per year — the equivalent of 5 weeks. This means using AI for metadata drafting, monthly reporting insights, FAQ expansion, internal link suggestions, keyword clustering, and SERP analysis, so you can spend more time executing high-impact tasks. Don’t automate strategic judgment, brand nuance, or prioritization. If the task is repetitive, rule-based, and can be mapped as a decision tree, automate it. If it requires business context and trade-offs, augment it. Reposition focus AI implementation should free strategists to coordinate across teams, build bridges between strategy and business impact, map enhanced customer search journeys, and anticipate AI search shifts. Google has reported billions of monthly AI Overview users, fundamentally changing how queries surface. Now isn’t the time to be manually writing metadata. Now is the time to be building your AI SEO City. The SOAR framework allows you to create repeatable and winning steps for your org, while also determining what could be automated in the long run. This allows you to reposition your focus on higher-impact items that will drive business results, and secure your team firmly, no matter the “AI efficiencies” that are bound to happen at some point. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. 3. RISE: Strategic prioritization before execution Even with alignment and intelligent automation, chaos returns the moment prioritization gets sloppy. Deliverables, audits, and meetings aren’t strategy. Strategy requires intention, trade-offs, and sequencing. Without that discipline, AI doesn’t create leverage. It accelerates randomness. RISE stands for: Reach. Intent. Scale. Execution. It’s the framework I use to pressure-test whether an initiative deserves resources. Reach: Size the prize with intellectual honesty Reach forces you to quantify the upside before you build anything. Move beyond “this feels big” or “AI is trending” and focus on an actual modeled opportunity, grounded in questions such as: How many users does this impact? How much nonbrand demand exists on that platform or within that product category? What percentage of that demand are we realistically positioned to win? What revenue and margin sit behind it? If a team wants to build an AI-powered content expansion engine, reach means modeling the following: Total addressable search demand by journey stage. Current visibility share versus competitors. Incremental traffic potential at realistic ranking assumptions. Downstream conversion or assisted revenue impact. If you can’t articulate the business upside in numbers, it doesn’t move forward. This filter alone eliminates most vanity AI projects labeled as innovation. Most importantly, it shows your leadership and strategic decision-making, not just tinkering. Reach answers a simple question: Is the juice worth the squeeze? Intent: Solve the right problem Strategies focused on search volume without intent alignment are noise. AI search systems are increasingly compressing generic content and rewarding depth, clarity, multimedia and multimodal formats, and problem-solving. Intent forces you to slow down and ask: What is the user actually trying to accomplish, and what is their process for accomplishing it? Are they: Exploring a concept? Comparing solutions? Looking for implementation guidance? Trying to justify a purchase? What tools and platforms are they using in their search? Operationally, this means mapping initiatives to customer search journeys before generating a single asset. Speak to customers or prospects. Analyze AI Overviews. Study People Also Ask clusters. Review how competitors structure content depth. Identify whether the opportunity lives in discovery, consideration, or conversion. If you misunderstand the moment in the journey, no amount of automation saves you. Intent is where strategy shifts from keyword targeting to experience design. AI doesn’t reward content volume. It rewards clarity of purpose. Scale: Will this compound or phase out? A strong initiative shouldn’t win once. It should win repeatedly. Scale asks whether the idea can become part of the operating system or if it depends on major effort each time. In AI-driven SEO, scale is structural. Think: modular content frameworks, reusable schema logic, repeatable internal linking patterns, automated QA checkpoints, and integrated dashboards tied to business KPIs. If an initiative can’t be repeated predictably, it’s a tactic rather than a strategy. Compounding visibility doesn’t come from one brilliant campaign. It comes from systems that run weekly, monthly, and quarterly. Execution: Embed it where work actually happens This is where most organizations stumble. A well-prioritized initiative that never enters a workflow is just a well-articulated idea. Ideas alone don’t drive results. Execution means translating strategy into tickets inside the systems where work already happens (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps, Asana, or whatever your team uses). It means defining acceptance criteria before development starts, assigning accountable owners, estimating effort, setting QA checkpoints, and predefining how success will be measured. Execution also means integrating AI outputs into existing governance: Who reviews AI-generated drafts? Who signs off on schema? Who owns rollback procedures if something breaks? Automation without accountability is operational risk. The most sophisticated AI model in the world won’t save a poorly operationalized strategy. But a well-prioritized initiative, embedded into existing workflows, creates momentum that compounds quarter after quarter. When RISE is applied rigorously, something interesting happens. The number of AI ideas decreases, but the quality increases. Teams stop chasing novelty and start building durable systems. Instead of debating which tool is best, the organization debates which opportunity is worth pursuing. The shift from experimentation to intentional prioritization is where AI stops being chaotic and starts being transformative. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Structure matters more than speed for AI in SEO The AI SEO City creates shared vision and ownership. SOAR determines what to automate and how to redeploy attention. RISE ensures prioritization aligns with opportunity and scales operationally. AI is an accelerant. Without structure, it accelerates confusion. With structure, it accelerates compounding visibility. The teams that win won’t be the ones producing the most AI content. They’ll be the ones building the strongest systems. View the full article

Breakthrough removes potential hurdle to Kevin Warsh’s confirmation as next US central bank chiefView the full article

CEO says US chipmaker has made ‘fundamental’ changes after year-long turnaround View the full article

The bank denied Black, Latino and Asian mortgage applicants roughly twice as frequently as white applicants in North Carolina, according to a study from the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. “Zone 2” is the term the fitness world has (mostly) agreed upon to describe the low-intensity cardio most of us should be doing regularly. When you’re in zone 2, you’re working hard enough that you start breathing more heavily, but easy enough that you could hold a conversation while doing it. You stop a zone 2 session because your workout time is up, not because you’re too exhausted to continue. Zone 2 is defined in terms of heart rate, so what heart rate should you expect to see on your watch when you’re in zone 2? That’s where people disagree. What is zone 2 training?As I’ve explained before, the name “zone 2” comes from heart rate training. To train by heart rate, you use either a wristwatch with an optical heart rate sensor (that green light on the back) or a chest strap paired to your watch or just to a phone (chest straps are more accurate, and even a $30 one can do an excellent job). Coospo Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap, Bluetooth/ANT+ $25.40 at Amazon $32.99 Save $7.59 Shop Now Shop Now $25.40 at Amazon $32.99 Save $7.59 To train by heart rate, you aim to keep your heart rate in the "zone" that gives you your desired workout. In most of the popular systems, there are five zones. Zone 1 is your resting or recovery zone; zone 2 is low intensity cardio; zone 3 is more or less medium; and zones 4 and 5 are for harder efforts, usually done for only a few minutes with recoveries in zone 1 or 2 in between. (I have a more detailed guide to the zone system here.) While zone 2 is the trendiest at the moment, the other zones still have uses. Personally, I think zone 3 is underrated, and probably most of us would be better off getting a mix of zones 2 and 3 for our steady cardio rather than pure zone 2. But that's a story for another time. Heart rate zones are usually defined as percentages of your maximum heart rate. So when I set my Apple Watch to keep me in zone 2 during my runs, it wants my heart rate to be between 60% and 70% of maximum. Even at an easy effort, I found I was commonly exceeding that limit. On the other hand, when I hop on a Peloton bike, my heart rate is often still in zone 1 when I could swear I’m riding at a zone 2 effort. It turns out Peloton defines zone 2 as 65% to 75% of my max. Who is right? Well, everybody. “Zone 2” isn’t a term with scientifically designed boundaries. Anybody can split up heart rate zones any way they like. (Stay tuned for my patented eight-zone system, coming as soon as I can find a way to monetize it!) If you train with more than one gadget, or if you find yourself discussing heart rate training with a friend who uses a different system than you do, it’s worth knowing the differences. What heart rate percentage counts as zone 2?Let’s take a tour of some of the more popular wearables and fitness systems that measure heart rate in a five-zone system, or something like it. First, it’s important to know that most (not all) of these percentages are based on your max heart rate. To know your max heart rate, you need real-world numbers, and you shouldn't trust the default your app gives you. That default number is derived from a formula, and no formula will be accurate for everybody; max heart rate varies from person to person and can't be accurately predicted for individuals. You can do a field test, like getting your heart rate up by running more and more intense hill repeats. Or if you have plenty of experience with intense exercise, just take note of the highest heart rate number you've seen on your device; it will likely be close to your max. Most zone systems just use a percentage of your max (however that max is calculated). There are other systems to consider, too. “Heart rate reserve” (HRR) means that you take the difference between your max and your resting heart rate (instead of between your max and zero) and calculate from there. Some devices will estimate a different benchmark, like your lactate threshold, and use that as a basis for the zones. So, here are the zone 2 percentages from a variety of popular wearables, along with what they are percentages of: Apple Watch: Zone 2 is 60-70% of your heart rate reserve, with your “resting” heart rate set to either 72 or a number the watch has picked up automatically, and your maximum calculated with the 220-age formula. (You can choose to set the zones manually, instead.) Fitbit and Pixel: instead of “zone 2,” Fitbit devices have a "moderate" zone (formerly called “fat burn”) set at 40% to 59% of your heart rate reserve. To find your heart rate reserve, your max is calculated according to the 220-age formula, and your resting heart rate is measured by the device. You can set your max and your zones manually if you prefer. Garmin: Depends on your device and on how you've chosen to set up your zones. As a percentage of max heart rate, zone 2 is 73-81%. As a percentage of heart rate reserve, it's 65-75%. And as a percentage of your lactate threshold heart rate (which the watch can automatically detect for you, and which normally falls between zones 4 and 5), it's 79-88% of that heart rate. Note that these numbers won't necessarily line up with each other. A heart rate that is in zone 2 on one of these systems may be in zone 3 on another. And, of course, you can set your max and/or your zones manually. Some other fitness platforms have defined heart rate zones to be used with your training. To name a few: Orangetheory gets its name from the “orange” zone it wants you to be in during workouts. Its equivalent of zone 2 would be the “blue” zone, at 61% to 70% of max heart rate. It uses an “industry standard formula” to determine your max, which Self reports is 208 minus 0.7 times your age. After you’ve taken 20 classes, an algorithm will pick out a new max heart rate for you. Peloton defines heart rate zone 2 (no relation to Power Zone 2) as 65% to 75% of your max heart rate. Max heart rate is 220 minus your age, unless you adjust it manually in your settings. The American College of Sports Medicine defines “light” training, arguably its version of zone 2, as 57% to 63% of maximum heart rate. “Moderate” is 64% to 76%. How do you know which benchmark to use?Rather than obsessing over numbers, think about the big picture and decide what training effect you are trying to achieve with your workouts. If you want to build your endurance with low-intensity cardio, or if you want to rack up minutes in zone 2 to help with weight loss, it doesn’t matter exactly what your heart rate works out to be. What matters is that you can do the exercise for a long time without fatiguing, but that you’re also not slacking off and barely doing any work at all. In other words, you can use your gadget’s heart rate numbers as a guide, but keep them honest with a reality check based on what fitness professionals call “perceived exertion.” If you want a number to focus on, you can rate your exertion on a scale of 1 to 10—called RPE for “rating of perceived exertion”—and aim for an RPE of about 3 to 4. Over time, you’ll start to notice what heart rate tends to show on your watch when you’re at that level. I know that if my heart rate is below 150, I’m doing a good job of keeping my jogging to a “zone 2" sort of effort. If it pokes up into the 160s at the beginning of a run, that’s probably harder than I’m going for—but if it hits 160 at the end of a long run on a hot day, that’s fine. (Heart rate changes with the temperature and the length of your workout, a phenomenon called cardiac drift.) These numbers are just examples, and my max is pretty high for my age, close to 200. Yours will be different. Ultimately, this is probably the most accurate way of using heart rate to determine exercise intensity: Figure out the intensity you want first, and use heart rate as a guide to be able to hit that same intensity on a consistent basis. After all, if there were one correct number that was easy to determine, the different gadgets and platforms would have all gotten on board with it by now. So trust your body more than your watch. View the full article

The The President administration is vowing to crack down on foreign tech companies’ exploitation of U.S. artificial intelligence models, singling out China at a time that country is narrowing the gap with the U.S. in the AI race. In a Thursday memo, Michael Kratsios, the president’s chief science and technology adviser, accused foreign entities “principally based in China” of engaging in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to “distill,” or extract capabilities from, leading AI systems made in the U.S. and “exploiting American expertise and innovation.” The administration, Kratsios wrote, will work with American AI companies to identify such activities, build defenses and find ways to punish offenders. The memo arrives at a time when China is challenging U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence, an area where the White House says the U.S. must prevail to set global standards and reap economic and military benefits. But the U.S.-China gap in performance of top AI models has “effectively closed,” according to a recent report from Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. China’s embassy in Washington said it opposed “the unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by the U.S.” “China has always been committed to promoting scientific and technological progress through cooperation and healthy competition. China attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights,” said Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesperson. In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters Friday that the U.S. claims are groundless and were smearing the achievements of China’s artificial intelligence industry. “China firmly opposes this. We urge the U.S. to respect facts, discard prejudice, stop suppressing China’s technological development, and do more to promote scientific and technological exchange and cooperation between the two countries,” he said. Kratsios’ memo also came the same week that the House Foreign Affairs Committee offered unanimous, bipartisan support for a bill to set up a process to identify foreign actors that extract “key technical features” of closed-source, U.S.-owned AI models and to punish them with measures including sanctions. “Model extraction attacks are the latest frontier of Chinese economic coercion and theft of U.S. intellectual property,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., who sponsored the bill. “American AI models are demonstrating transformative cyber capabilities, and it is critical we prevent China from stealing these technological advancements.” Last year, the Chinese startup DeepSeek rattled U.S. markets when it released a large language model that could compete with U.S. AI giants but at a fraction of the cost. David Sacks, then serving as President Donald The President’s AI and crypto adviser, suggested that DeepSeek copied U.S. models. “There’s substantial evidence that what DeepSeek did here is they distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models,” Sacks said then. In a February letter to U.S. lawmakers, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, made similar allegations and said China should not be allowed to advance “autocratic AI” by “appropriating and repackaging American innovation.” Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, in February accused DeepSeek and two other China-based AI laboratories of engaging in campaigns to “illicitly extract Claude’s capabilities to improve their own models” using the distillation technique that “involves training a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one.” Anthropic said distillation can be a legitimate way to train AI systems but it’s a problem when competitors “use it to acquire powerful capabilities from other labs in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost, that it would take to develop them independently.” But it can go both ways. San Francisco-based startup Anysphere, maker of the popular coding tool Cursor, recently acknowledged that its latest product was based on an open-source model made by Chinese company Moonshot AI, maker of the chatbot Kimi. Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Washington-based think tank The Brookings Institution and an expert on China’s technology development, said it will be like “looking for needles in an enormous haystack” to separate unauthorized distillation from the vast volume of legitimate requests for data. But information sharing and coordination among U.S. AI labs could help, and the federal government can play an important role in facilitating anti-distillation efforts across labs, Chan said. It’s hard to assess how far the House bill can go, but Chan said The President may not want to rock the boat with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a planned mid-May state visit to Beijing. AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report. —Didi Tang, Associated Press View the full article

President Donald The President said he would look into the actions of banks in their response to last year's devastating Los Angeles wildfires following a meeting with that city's mayor, Karen Bass. View the full article

Take a look at your SEO to-do list. Most of it is probably the same rote, repetitive tasks. Turning everyday work into faster, easier outputs is easier than ever with AI. Besides obvious tasks like note-taking and team reminders, you can automate tasks such as content audits, page outlines, and keyword research. Start with simple strategies to save time on the repetitive work you do every day, then expand into using AI tools for automation. Always do a final check yourself, rather than trusting 100% of your work to LLMs, which rarely get things exactly right. Identify automation opportunities One simple way to decide what you can automate is to ask yourself: Would I assign this to an intern? The types of tasks you’d give a new employee are ideal for automation. Let the intern (or AI) do 70% of the work, like research and a rough draft. Then complete the final 30% by giving feedback (or improving your prompts), and finalizing and publishing the draft. Based on a typical SEO intern job description, these are some examples of tasks that could be automated: Analyze data and identify trends around traffic, engagement, and rank/visibility. Ensure SEO best practices are used when updating content. Create detailed reports for stakeholders about SEO performance, trends, and recommendations. Identify content gaps and duplicate content. Scale SEO-optimized templates across series or topics. Build an editorial calendar and share the strategy playbook. Document prompts, templates, and QA standards. Other ideas to find automation opportunities: Audit your existing workflows and tasks. Review your onboarding and documentation. Ask your team which tasks they hate most, and why (sometimes the issue is different, but still fixable). Ask AI what it can handle. Automation won’t fix these core challenges: Broken systems: You might miss some issues if you don’t know what to look for or how to fix them. Incomplete assets: You’re only as good as your data. If you don’t have all the tracking or performance numbers you need, it’s unlikely you’ll get complete results. Lack of resources: It’s great to run an audit, but do you need a ticket to make changes? How long will approval take? Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with 8 opportunities for SEO automation 1. Content calendar One of the first things I automated was the team content calendar, or at least the first draft. I used UNIQUE, MAXIFS, IFERROR, and VLOOKUP formulas to paste different reports into a master sheet and generate a list of which pages were due for an update based on our update schedule. Some SEO experts suggest most content should be refreshed at least every 1-2 years, especially since LLMs favor freshness signals. Add a performance audit with some VLOOKUPs, and put it all in a custom GPT to complete your draft. Then tweak your draft based on your goals and strategy. Prompt example Based on the sitemap, performance report, and last quarter’s content plan, give me a table of the pages that are due for an update. Include columns for the URL, title, writer assigned, sessions, bounce, conversion rate, and notes. Now add to the table the list of pages from the performance report that have dropped more than 30% in sessions or conversion rate. For any pages that are also in the previous update list, add the performance data to the notes column, but don’t include it as a separate row. Format it like this: Sessions -XX% L90D, conversion rate -XX% L90D. Time saved: 8 hours per quarter. 2. Keyword and prompt research While Ahrefs and Semrush content gap analysis reports are helpful, they can also include a ton of data to wade through. There’s often irrelevant info, such as branded keywords you don’t want to target. AI can help generate keywords and prompts for you to track or target. To get LLM prompt ideas, start with some of your longest-tail keywords, which you can find in Google Search Console by exporting all keywords to a page and sorting by length. Then ask AI tools to refine your list and generate similar ones. One watchout: AI tools often struggle to understand user intent, short- vs. long-tail queries, and when to target specific keywords tied to intent. For example, it may suggest targeting the word “cats” on a local vet website homepage. While that word may appear often across pages, it’s not necessarily one you want to target. You’re unlikely to rank for the “cats” SERP or AIO for a small local site, but you could rank for “cat vet” or “cat care.” Prompt example You’re an SEO analyst working on an update for this page. Using this Ahrefs report with competitor page analysis and keywords, identify the 20 most important keywords our page should target, ranked by MSV and relevance, and include those numbers with each keyword in a table. Don’t suggest targeting any branded keywords. Then give me a list of 10 ways you’d improve this page to better target the keyword, and why, with exact quotes from the copy you’d change. Time saved: 15 minutes per page. 3. Internal linking Internal links to your top pages are important for site crawling. The simplest way to automate internal linking is to export an Ahrefs backlink report that shows pages with few internal links, then input that with your sitemap into a GPT. Don’t select “Group Similar Links” so all URLs appear in the same report. Ahrefs also has a feature for internal link ideas. It’s not great at suggesting pages with slightly different intent, but it can be a useful starting point for simple sites. Encourage your editorial team to use this workflow when working on drafts. Prompt example Using this internal link report, sitemap link, and linking best practices documentation, suggest 5-10 pages I could link to. Only include pages with fewer than 10 internal links. Include only highly relevant pages. Don’t include any pages with “author” or “about” in the URL. Time saved: 10 minutes per page. 4. Outlines and briefs If your team works from outlines, briefs, or tickets, start by documenting a basic template for different tasks. Then set up a GPT to create stronger outlines and even add alerting. For example, input a template or content brief example into an AI tool, along with an example page, then add specifics based on the draft your writer or freelancer is working on. You can save additional time by linking your keyword research or internal linking GPT to fill in intent gaps. A good rule of thumb: Each custom GPT should have one major focus, then link to supporting GPTs. This avoids creating bloated tools that aren’t effective across multiple requests. Automation example: Create a Jira survey that automatically generates a ticket. Use a custom ticket GPT to refine it before backlog grooming. Set up a Slack channel with the Jira app to send notifications when tickets open or close. Time saved: 20 minutes per ticket. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. 5. Brand standards and compliance If you deal with strict compliance or frequent legal reviews, work with those teams to create a custom business GPT. Let writers run high-risk drafts through it to catch simple issues before final review. Prompt example Does this page use the correct terminology for the client? Highlight passages that go against editorial, compliance, and brand standards. Include a one-sentence explanation, a citation, and page number from the standards, and three better alternatives. Time saved: 10 minutes per page. 6. Data validation and reports Manual data validation is time-consuming. There are simpler ways to analyze and flag anomalies automatically. For example, use conditional formatting in Sheets to highlight rows with more than a 10% deviation, or apply a color scale. You can also use a GPT to diagnose why data doesn’t match across reports or align with your test hypothesis. Prompt example Review this page performance report and data troubleshooting guidelines. Identify rows that skew the average the most. Export a table with those rows, and include a column explaining why each may cause issues and how to investigate further. Time saved: 1 hour per 100 rows. 7. Metadata and schema When creating or optimizing content, write or edit title tags and meta descriptions from scratch. Even if Google rewrites metadata in the SERP, it still helps signal what the page is about. To optimize metadata, review top-performing combinations on similar pages. CTR is useful, though higher-ranking pages often get higher CTR regardless. For schema, such as review or FAQ, manual creation increases the risk of errors. Even if schema isn’t automated, you can use formulas to generate it, then validate after publishing. Prompt example You’re a website writer updating a page. Turn these FAQs into a valid FAQ schema using the sample provided. Remove unnecessary formatting, keep links, and convert bullets into paragraphs. Time saved: 10 minutes. 8. Formatting and shortcoding If you use HTML, inline CSS, or shortcodes, automate as much as possible to reduce errors and inconsistency. The simplest approach is using Excel or Sheets functions to concatenate code and content or format tables for your CMS. For more advanced needs, create a formatting GPT that applies best practices and suggests improvements. One watchout: If your AI tool can’t read live pages, you’ll need to paste the code first. Prompt example Using the formatting reference and brand guidelines, format this page using best practices. Include links, tables, CTAs, and engagement elements. Then check for issues like incorrect wording, missing closing tags, or stray brackets. Time saved: 15 minutes per page Make automation work for you, not the other way around Automation doesn’t need to be complex or take time away from other work. The time savings compound with repeated use, freeing your team to focus on strategic work that requires human judgment. Encourage your team to identify ways to reduce manual effort and experiment with custom GPTs to streamline repetitive tasks. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web. Google now won't use spam reports with personal identifiable information. Google's head of search...View the full article

Purchase of Lake District club collapsed this week after government officials and the FT raised questions over strategic locationView the full article

Amid a merger with SpaceX, a $60 billion option to acquire the AI company Cursor, and an upcoming public offering, Elon Musk’s xAI firm is still losing employees. Every xAI cofounder, other than Elon Musk, has now exited the company. Dozens of people who served on xAI’s engineering and program staff have also departed, a Fast Company review shows. This overlaps with a significant share of the people meant to direct the startup under a new organizational structure that was only announced in February. While it’s natural for employees to come and go from any company, the string of xAI departures—and these are only the publicly searchable ones—is notable because they come as Musk continues to reorient xAI’s overall direction and contend with criticism of the company’s flagship chatbot, Grok. Fast Company ultimately identified about 80 people, including cofounders, technical staff, and legal advisors, who have departed xAI within the past year or so. It’s not publicly known how many people currently work at xAI in total, though Business Insider reported that about 1,200 people were employed at the company as of last March. (xAI and SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.) Founded in 2023, xAI is supposed to be focused on building “maximally curious” and “pro-humanity” AI systems that compete with models under development at companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. xAI’s founding members included a range of employees who previously worked at firms like Google’s DeepMind and OpenAI, including Igor Babuschkin, Kyle Kosic, and Christian Szegedy. But the company has continued to face a crowded field of AI labs offering large language models to consumers, enterprise businesses, and even the U.S. government. It’s also faced a notable surge in staff exits amid an AI talent war that’s seen top engineers shuffle between some of the world’s most valuable tech companies. This month alone, another cluster of staff at Elon Musk’s LLM venture indicated they’re leaving xAI. The most notable example is Anthony Armstrong, who, according to The Information, is resigning his post as chief financial officer after only a few months. Heinrich “Heiner” Kuttler—who Musk earlier this year said would be involved in directing the company’s compute and infrastructure team—said on X earlier this month that he was leaving, too. Other notable recent exits include Jack Schwaiger, who resigned after more than a year on the STEM and Medicine tutor teams, and Jeffrey Weischel, who worked on the company’s program staff. Scott Fitzgerald, a member of the technical staff, is also leaving; Jesik Min, another member of the technical staff, updated their LinkedIn to note their time at xAI ended this month. xAI’s evolving focus These departures have come amid transformative changes in xAI’s organizational structure—in particular, its deepening relationship with other Elon Musk-led companies. Last spring, xAI merged with X, Musk’s social media company, into one venture. Another major shift came this past fall, when xAI shifted its approach and scaled back a plan to improve Grok using generalist human AI trainers, called “AI Tutors”, that were meant to teach Grok. xAI subsequently laid off hundreds of people as part of the “strategic pivot” to focusing on tutors with more specialized expertise. Then, in early February, xAI initiated a merger with SpaceX as part of a new plan that partially involves building orbital data centers. Amid these changes, xAI cofounders had already begun leaving the company. By February 11, cofounders Tony Wu and Jimmy Ba had resigned, leaving xAI with just half of its original cofounders. That week, Musk also called a company all-hands, where he acknowledged that people were leaving and subsequently announced a new internal structure, per video of the meeting that xAI released online. At that all-hands meeting, several presenters, including Musk, encouraged employees to recruit their friends to join xAI, and Musk touted the company’s progress launching Grokipedia and its training centers, as well as success with products like Imagine and Grok. “When you first have a startup, you might have just a few dozen people, and they will just chat amongst themselves. As you grow to several hundred people, you have to, then, add more structure, just like an organism that grows from a single cell[…]Then you get organ differentiation, limbs. You grow a tail[…]The tail disappears, and then you become a baby,” said Musk in his opening remarks. “We’re organizing the company to be more effective at this scale. Naturally, when this happens, there are some people who are better suited for the early stages of a company and less suited for the later stages,” Musk added, before thanking the people who had left. As part of this new plan, xAI was divided into infrastructure layers, and then four main areas: Grok Main and Voice (its main AI product), Coding (its coding-specific model), Imagine (for video and images), and Macrohard (digital simulations of entire companies). Several longtime employees and cofounders were also appointed to steer those efforts. Now, only a few weeks later, it appears—at least based on the first names and nicknames listed on the organizational chart displayed on a presentation screen during that all-hands—that many of the leaders involved in the February restructuring have since left, including several additional original co-founders. These employees include Haotian Liu and Guodong Zhang, who were both supposed to be leading Grok Imagine, an image generator and AI assistant for code. Liu said he was “burnt out” and taking a break, and Zhang said he was excited about his next chapter. Toby Pohlen, a founding member of the company who was supposed to be leading Macrohard, has left the company, as well as Manuel Kroiss, who is sometimes called “Makro” internally. It’s not immediately clear what either is or will be doing next. Lianmin Zheng, who, it seems, was supposed to be working on machine learning and data infrastructure, has left the company for Meta. Amid transition and scandal, the departures continue In the midst of all this turnover, xAI has continued to evolve its approach to the AI business. In March, Musk said that the company was going to be rebuilt. xAI also announced a collaboration: a joint project with Tesla that would apparently involve integrating Grok and Tesla’s hardware and software. “Grok is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past 5 secs of real-time computer screen video and keyboard/mouse actions,” Musk explained in an X post in March. “Grok is like a much more advanced and sophisticated version of turn-by-turn navigation software. “ Now, and ahead of the upcoming IPO, the company is reorganizing xAI’s engineering team yet again. This week, Elon Musk’s composite venture forged a new $60 billion deal with Cursor AI, a coding startup that SpaceX now has the rights to acquire. Notably, departures from xAI also follow several concerning incidents involving Grok. These include the chatbot declaring itself “MechaHitler” and posting antisemitic content online last year. Earlier this year, the chatbot was observed, by researchers, producing millions of nonconsensual pornographic materials, including sexual images of children (As a result, xAI is now under investigation in several countries). The company announced changes in response to both scandals. xAI has also faced serious criticism, and even a lawsuit, about air pollution in Memphis, where the company has established data center operations. Below is a Fast Company tracker of notable departures from xAI: View the full article

Experts have a lot of ideas about persuasion. Some suggest leveraging social proof to show that people have adopted the idea and had a positive experience. Others emphasize the importance of building trust and appealing to emotional, rather than analytical arguments. Still others insist on creating a unified value proposition. The problem is that change is not about persuasion. The best indicator of what we think and do is what the people around us think and do, and that effect extends out to three degrees of separation. It is not only those we trust, but even the friends of our friends’ friends—people we don’t even know—that affect our opinions and actions. So even if we are successful in convincing someone to adopt our way of thinking, chances are that once they re-embed in their usual social networks, they’ll be pulled right back. That’s why genuine transformation is never about crafting slogans or even training new skills. You need a strategy designed to shift the network itself and overcome resistance at its source. 1. Define the grievance and vision Every change effort starts with a grievance. There’s something that people don’t like, and they want it to be different. In a social or political movement, that may be a corrupt leader or a glaring injustice. In an organizational context, the problem is usually something like falling sales, unhappy customers, low employee morale, or technological disruption. When we work with organizations in our ChangeOS workshops, we always start by getting the team focused on the initial grievance—or the problem to be solved. Often, we find that the team has a fully fleshed out solution, but never really defined the problem and that makes it difficult to scale. Nobody wants to invest in a solution without understanding why the problem is important. From there, we move on to the vision. The best place to start is by asking yourself, “If I had the power to change anything, what would it look like?” Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for civil rights was for a Beloved Community. Bill Gates’s vision for Microsoft was for a “computer on every desk and in every home.” A good vision should be aspirational. It should inspire. One of the things I found in my research is that successful change leaders don’t try to move from grievance to vision in one step, but rather identify a Keystone Change, which focuses on a clear and tangible goal, includes multiple stakeholders and paves the way for future change, to bridge the gap. For King, the Keystone Change was voting rights. For Gates, it was an easy-to-use operating system. For you, it will undoubtedly be something different. The salient point is that every successful transformation I have come across started out with a Keystone Change. That’s where you should start as well. 2. A resistance inventory In Rules for Radicals, the legendary activist Saul Alinsky observed that every revolution inspires its own counterrevolution. That is the physics of change. Every action provokes a reaction because, if an idea is important, it threatens the status quo, which never yields its power gracefully. Clearly, if you intend to influence an entire organization, you have to assume the deck is stacked against you and anticipate resistance. A simple truth is that humans form attachments to people, ideas and other things and, when those attachments are threatened we tend to lash out in ways that don’t reflect our best selves. As much as we may hate to admit it, we all do it from time to time. Anyone who has ever been married or part of a family knows that. That’s why anytime you ask people to change what they think or what they do, there will always be those who will work to undermine what you are trying to achieve in ways that are dishonest, underhanded and deceptive. Once you are able to internalize that, you can begin to move forward. The key thing about overcoming resistance is to anticipate it, which is why one of the first things that we do when we start working with an organization is to do a resistance inventory, laying out the categories of resistance and discussing how they can be expected to show up, and what strategies can mitigate them. 3. Targets for action Organizational change consultants often recommend that changemakers prepare a stakeholder map. This isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but it is inadequate because it fails to distinguish between different kinds of stakeholders. Some stakeholders are targets for mobilization and others are targets for influence. For example, both parents and school boards are important stakeholders in education, but for very different reasons. School boards wield institutional power that can affect change, parents do not. So we mobilize parents to influence school boards, not the other way around. We need to approach constituencies and institutions in very different ways. One of the things we’ve consistently found in our work helping organizations to drive transformational change is that leaders construe stakeholders far too narrowly. Fortunately, decades of non-violent activism have given us powerful tools for both: the Spectrum of Allies for constituencies and the Pillars of Support for institutions. In both cases the same basic principle is at work: You start by identifying targets and adopting tactics to them. That’s easier said than done, because tactics can seem more concrete. We’ve seen successful actions, like hackathons and social media campaigns, so we want to jump right in. But the truth is that until you are able to identify, analyze and understand exactly what your actions are targeted at, you’re just wasting your time. We need to redefine the terms of our struggle in ways that bring relative strength to bear against relative weakness and tilt the playing field to our advantage. Applying strength to weakness In the final analysis, most would-be changemakers fail because they assume the righteousness of their cause will save them. It will not. Injustice, inequity and ineffectiveness can thrive for decades and even centuries, far surpassing a human lifespan. If you think that your idea will prevail simply because you believe in it, you will be sorely disappointed. Tough, important battles are won with good strategy and tactics, which is why successful change agents learn to adopt the principle of Schwerpunkt. The idea is that instead of trying to defeat your opponent everywhere, you want to deliver overwhelming force and win a decisive victory at a particular point of attack. Yet Schwerpunkt is a dynamic, not a static concept. You have to constantly innovate your approach as your opposition adapts to whatever success you achieve. For example, the civil rights movement had its first successes with boycotts, but moved on to sit-ins, “Freedom Rides,” community actions and eventually, mass marches. Defining the grievance and the vision, creating a resistance inventory and identifying viable institutional targets will help you apply strength to weakness. The key to success isn’t any particular tactic, leader or slogan, but strategic flexibility. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what most change efforts lack. All too often they get caught up in a strategy and double down, because it feels good to believe in something, even if it’s failing. Change, like many things, largely boils down to strategy and execution. It’s not a simple matter of belief or passion. You need to learn how to operate effectively, by studying those who succeeded and those who failed, building on your successes, dusting yourself off after the inevitable setbacks, correcting mistakes and returning to fight with renewed vigor. View the full article

You can find Google reviews by searching your business on Google or Maps. Follow these steps. View the full article

Last year, Canada was one of the most reliable international buyers of American whiskey. Now it’s become one of the industry’s biggest losses. U.S. spirits exports to Canada have plunged by nearly 70 percent, collapsing from what had been a roughly $250 million annual market for American distillers to just $89 million, according to data compiled by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS). The sharp downturn followed a trade clash sparked by President Donald The President’s tariffs, which prompted several Canadian provinces to remove American alcohol from store shelves. The owners of iconic American whiskey brands, like Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam, have responded with layoffs and pausing production. Even after some tariffs were lifted, many provincial liquor systems have continued to keep U.S. spirits out of their retail stores, delivering a devastating blow to one of the industry’s most important foreign markets, according to Fox News. From second to sixth: canada’s rapid market exit Canada, once the second-largest destination for American spirits exports, has now fallen to sixth place, Fox News reported. The collapse, notably, came quickly. From March through December, U.S. spirits exports to Canada dropped from $203 million in 2024 to just $60 million in 2025, a loss of roughly $143 million, Fox News reported. The President has repeatedly used tariffs as economic leverage, arguing that the strategy helps strengthen American manufacturing and correct trade imbalances. But the spirits industry says retaliatory actions by Canada have wiped out one of its most lucrative export markets. “Our industry thrives in a zero-for-zero tariff environment,” says Chris Swonger, president and CEO of DISCUS. While Swonger said distillers recognize the administration’s efforts to address trade imbalances, he added that the provincial bans have been especially damaging. “Since Liberation Day, it’s unfortunate to report that our industry has lost over 70 percent of our exports to Canada because many provinces have decided not to carry American spirits,” he said. Few places have felt the impact more than Kentucky, the epicenter of America’s bourbon industry. The state produces 95 percent of the world’s bourbon supply, supports more than 23,000 jobs, and generates about $9 billion annually, according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association. The export collapse is landing at a moment when the bourbon industry is already under mounting financial pressure. Several distillers have scaled back production, struggled with slowing demand, or faced mounting debt over the past year. Major producers are beginning to feel the strain. Japanese beverage giant Suntory—which owns Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, and the House of Suntory portfolio—reported weaker whiskey sales last year. Brown-Forman, the parent company behind Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, has also warned of declining sales and profits as global demand softens. Why small brands are breaking first Smaller and midsize players are under even greater stress. Premium whiskey brand Uncle Nearest is insolvent and owes millions of dollars to vendors, including WhistlePig and American Spirits, creditors say. Meanwhile, MGP Ingredients, one of the largest contract distillers in the United States and a key supplier for many whiskey brands, has reported a sharp drop in whiskey sales as the broader market cools. The trade tensions are affecting more than just export numbers. Owen Martin, master distiller at Angel’s Envy, said the fallout from tariffs reaches deep into the bourbon-making process itself, according to Fox News. “There are the tariffs on finished goods and on us shipping abroad, but I’m even thinking a step below that,” Martin said. One example involves barrels. By law, bourbon must be aged in new American oak barrels, which can only be used once in bourbon production. But finishing casks—such as the port barrels Angel’s Envy uses to finish its bourbon—can be reused multiple times, creating a different set of logistical considerations when global trade conditions shift. “Those are the sorts of things, as a maker, that I have to be aware of in any given year,” Martin said. “You have different opportunities and different challenges.” For decades, the U.S. and Canada have been among each other’s most enthusiastic whiskey consumers. That mutual demand is what makes the current standoff particularly striking. “American consumers love Canadian whisky, and Canadians love Kentucky bourbon,” Swonger said. “We’re hoping this gets resolved.” —Leila Sheridan This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister website, Inc.com. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy. View the full article

If you’re looking to save at Macy’s this season, you’ll want to know about seven key coupon codes that can maximize your discounts. From 35% off when you buy three items or more to a $30 discount on orders over $100, these codes can make a significant impact. New customers likewise have unique offers that improve savings further. Comprehending these options can lead to smarter shopping decisions, so let’s explore what each code entails and how you can benefit. Key Takeaways Use code LEADGEN35OFF1ST for 35% off when purchasing 3 items or more at Macy’s. Get $30 off a $100 purchase with the code FIRST30 at Macy’s Wine Shop. New customers can enjoy 25% off their first order by signing up for emails. Take advantage of 35% off select wine purchases when buying 3 bottles with code MG35. 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Image via Google Gemini This article, "7 Must-Have Coupon Codes for Macys This Season" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

A U.S. special forces soldier involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been charged with using classified information about the mission to win more than $400,000 in an online betting market, federal officials announced Thursday. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was part of the operation to capture Maduro in January and used his access to classified information to make money on the prediction market site Polymarket, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York said. He has been charged by the Justice Department with unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction. He could face years in prison. Van Dyke, 38, was involved in the planning and execution of capturing Maduro for about a month beginning Dec. 8, 2025, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. Even though he signed nondisclosure agreements promising to not divulge “any classified or sensitive information” related to the operations, prosecutors say the Army soldier used this information to make a series of bets related to Maduro being out of power by Jan. 31, 2026. “This involved a U.S. soldier who allegedly took advantage of his position to profit off of a righteous military operation,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post to social media. A telephone number listed for Van Dyke in public records was not in service. There was not yet an attorney listed for him in court documents. Polymarket, one of the largest prediction markets in the world, said it had found someone trading on classified government information, alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and “cooperated with their investigation.” “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket,” the company said in a statement. Second complaint filed against the soldier The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, announced Thursday it had filed a parallel complaint against Van Dyke. That complaint alleges that Van Dyke moved $35,000 from his personal bank account into a cryptocurrency exchange account on Dec. 26 — a little over a week before U.S. forces would fly into Caracas and seize Maduro. Van Dyke used more than $32,500 to make a series of bets on when Maduro might be removed from power, according to the complaint. He placed those bets between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2, with the vast majority occurring the night of Jan. 2 — just hours before the first missiles would fall on Caracas. In the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald The President posted on his social media platform a photo of the now-captured Venezuelan leader, wearing a gray sweatsuit, headphones and a blindfold. The bets Van Dyke made on Maduro leaving power resulted in “more than $404,000 of profits,” the complaint said. Bets on three other Venezuela-related contracts netted the solider more than $5,000, according to the document. “The defendant was entrusted with confidential information about U.S. operations and yet took action that endangered U.S. national security and put the lives of American service members in harm’s way,” said Michael Selig, the commission’s chairman. The massive profits from the well-timed bets aroused public attention days after the raid and brought bipartisan calls for stricter regulation of the markets where people can wager on just about anything. Officials allege that shortly after the operation, Van Dyke put most of the money he won in a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He also asked Polymarket to delete his account, saying he had lost access to his email associated with the account, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. The President, when asked about the case Thursday, drew parallels between the embattled soldier and late professional baseball player Pete Rose, who was banned from the sport amid accusations that he placed bets on his own team. “The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world and Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things,” The President told reporters. The The President administration has been a key ally of the growing prediction market industry in a critical legal fight with states seeking to ban the platforms. The president’s eldest son is an adviser for both Polymarket and its competitor Kalshi, and a Polymarket investor. The President’s social media platform Truth Social is also launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict. Nearly two decades in the Army Van Dyke joined the Army in 2008 and, in 2023, was promoted to the rank of master sergeant, the second-highest enlisted rank in the Army, according to the indictment. Federal prosecutors said he was part of the special forces community and was stationed at Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, North Carolina, but their indictment offered little other details about his military service. The document said Van Dyke was photographed following the raid on the deck of a ship “wearing U.S. military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues.” The Pentagon referred questions on the case to the Army and the Justice Department. Army officials declined to provide Van Dyke’s service record. Typically, the military services are reticent to offer details about members of the special forces and take measures to keep their identities secret. Bets on geopolitical tensions draw scrutiny The high-profile indictment comes as bipartisan lawmakers are considering legislation to ban prediction markets from allowing bets on war, assassinations or terrorist attacks. Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that a group of new accounts on Polymarket made highly specific, well-timed bets on whether the U.S. and Iran would reach a ceasefire on April 7, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the new customers. On the same day the AP published the report, the White House warned staff against using private information to trade on prediction markets. On Wednesday, Kalshi fined and suspended three congressional candidates who the company said wagered on the outcome of their own elections. —Hallie Golden, Konstantin Toropin and Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Google Pixel Watch 4 has only been out a short time, and it’s already seeing a notable price drop—the 45mm LTE version in matte black is currently down to $389.99 (originally $499.99), the lowest the watch has dropped so far, while the smaller 41mm LTE model is also $389.99, down from its usual $449.99. In other words, you’re getting the larger 45mm version for the price of the 41mm. Google Pixel Watch 4 45mm, LTE, matte black $389.99 at Amazon $499.99 Save $110.00 Get Deal Get Deal $389.99 at Amazon $499.99 Save $110.00 The Pixel Watch 4 is positioned as Google’s premium wearable—its circular display is larger than before and can hit up to 3,000 nits of brightness, so it stays readable outdoors without much effort. Plus, the LTE model adds some independence from your phone, including the ability to send satellite SOS messages if you are out of cellular range. Dual-band GPS also improves location tracking, especially in crowded cities or areas with weak signals. The overall look leans minimal and polished, closer to a traditional watch than most square-faced smartwatches. Day-to-day use feels focused on speed and convenience. Charging is one of the standout improvements here. You can go from empty to full in about 30 minutes, and even a quick 15-minute top-up gets you to around 50%. That makes it easier to wear the watch all day and still track sleep at night without planning around long charging breaks. That said, while battery life is solid, daily charging will still be part of the routine. Most of the core experience will feel familiar if you have used a recent Pixel Watch—including built-in Gemini for voice commands, along with a full set of health sensors such as heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature tracking, and sleep monitoring. Fitness tracking is reliable for runs, walks, and gym sessions, though it still leans more toward general wellness than advanced sports metrics. In all, this is a well-rounded Android smartwatch, and it makes sense if you want a watch that looks good and stays easy to live with. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $148.99 (List Price $179.00) Blink Video Doorbell Wireless (Newest Model) + Sync Module Core — $35.99 (List Price $69.99) Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen, 2-pack, White) — $59.98 (List Price $79.99) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $359.00 (List Price $429.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

There’s a common misconception that GEO is a technical problem. Just scroll through LinkedIn or X for 30 seconds, and you’ll find the next viral GEO hack. Like “create an AI info page” so LLMs can easily understand your brand. Maybe “create markdown versions of your content” to skyrocket AI visibility. Perhaps “get an automated Claude audit” that scans your robots.txt and automatically generates an llms.txt file for you. But most of these tactics have limited impact because they don’t address how LLMs actually decide which brands to recommend. GEO performance is shaped less by technical tweaks and more by how consistently your brand is positioned, categorized, and validated across the web. Most widely promoted GEO tactics have marginal impact If GEO performance is driven by positioning and consensus, it’s no surprise that many widely promoted tactics fall short. Just search [GEO tactics for LLM visibility], and you’ll see the same tired ideas. The recommendations below aren’t wrong, but they’re mostly table stakes. Many have misinterpreted this advice and taken these ideas to extremes. Useless FAQ insertions Google’s own documentation recommends implementing FAQs with schema. But all the hype around FAQs for GEO has led brands to make poor choices about which FAQs to include in their content. Instead of answering questions that actually matter, they end up slapping useless questions at the bottom of the page because they think it “helps with GEO.” Meanwhile, it accomplishes nothing for the end user. Here’s one such example: Putting ‘key takeaways’ at the top of every article Another glorified tactic that isn’t inherently bad, but the upside is overhyped. Short answer summaries can improve readability for humans, but there’s no strong public evidence that a “key takeaways” block materially improves AI visibility on its own. Over-formatting pages for LLM readability This would mean forcing every page into rigid Q&A patterns, stuffing bullet points into every section, and jamming HTML tables into sections where they don’t belong. Some assume LLMs need heavy formatting assistance in order to retrieve content, so they resort to copywriting tricks like “chunking” which can overcomplicate the editorial process. Dig deeper: How to chunk content and when it’s worth it Chasing Reddit for GEO Others are obsessed with chasing Reddit for GEO, and it’s causing brands to spam Reddit. This is bad for countless reasons already outlined by Eli Schwartz, but it further supports the argument that GEO isn’t a technical problem. Reddit represents the voice of real people, and that’s why moderators are vigilantly hunting down inauthentic activity like astroturfing or “SEO shaping” on threads where software evaluation is happening. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with GEO is a brand positioning problem GEO is a strategic issue at the executive level, not an SEO issue at the operational level. The biggest GEO upside doesn’t come from technical optimization — but rather, the coordination of brand positioning, messaging, and reputation management across on-site and off-site channels. Everyone assumes the SEO team should be 100% responsible for all aspects of GEO, yet they control only a limited portion of how LLMs form their opinions of a brand. SEO teamOn-site content pages, blogs, comparison guides, resource pages, etc. Brand team / PMMHomepage messaging, product pages, solutions pages, pricing. PR teamExternal validation, press, and news. PartnershipsAffiliates, analysts, resellers, etc. Customer marketingReddit, social media, and review websites. Ross Hudgens recently posted about this problem. If none of these sources aligns with a consistent narrative, it will be challenging for LLMs to reach a consensus about your brand. GEO is a category alignment problem Let’s examine [best AI SDR agents] where Coldreach has the No. 1 ranking position with an AI citation. Despite a high web ranking plus earning the URL citation, there’s no recommendation for their brand regarding the best AI SDR agents. This tactic worked phenomenally well during the traditional SEO golden era when rankings and clicks were the goal. AI, being the great normalizer, has reduced the effectiveness of this playbook dramatically. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Listicles won’t brute force your brand into AI recommendations The main difference between SEO vs GEO is that you can’t bulldoze your way into brand recommendations for a topic your brand lacks recognition for. We just saw that above with the best AI SDR agents example. Here’s another example: [best insider threat management] where the URL citations are earned by Exabeam, SpyCloud, and Pathlock. None of these brands is recommended in the answer summary, yet they are all deploying listicles. AI is the great neutralizer of this tactic, since it just scrapes and summarizes their listicles and recommends every other brand. This is another reason why reporting on “citations” as a GEO success metric is a failure in isolation, given that there’s no corresponding brand recommendation. Instead, the AI Overview recommends the brands that actually deserve to be there, such as Teramind, Proofpoint, DTEX, etc. Most brands have no idea how they’re actually represented across LLMs Despite the unavoidable element of randomness in AI answers, you should reverse-engineer how LLMs piece together information about your brand. Start with bottom of funnel prompts like: “What’s the best [category] solution for an enterprise B2B company in the [industry] with [features]?” Then evaluate the answers and sources systematically. New research by Kevin Indig found that web search position has the greatest impact on LLM citation rates. This is further validation that GEO is fundamentally connected to traditional SEO, as LLMs rely on web search (grounding) to generate answer summaries, especially for bottom-of-funnel product evaluation queries. The key takeaway is that if your pages aren’t ranking highly in traditional SEO, third parties and external websites may control the narrative about your brand. Most high-volume, high-competition categories are dominated by third parties It’s useful to understand which product categories are dominated by third parties versus first-party so you can prioritize marketing efforts accordingly. In this example of [best employee monitoring software], the brand recommendation rate is around 90% meanwhile the citation rate is around 15%. This suggests the brand is well covered across third-party pages where LLMs are extracting relevant information. If we examine the SERP, it’s clear that third-party sources account for the overwhelming majority of citations. Citations are coming from affiliates such as Business.com, CurrentWare, PC Mag, Gartner, and other reputable sources. The key takeaway: if your brand wants to compete in high-volume categories, you may be forced to play the affiliate game. What this means for your GEO strategy Technical website hygiene still matters. If you have a vibe-coded, JavaScript-heavy website with poor internal linking and flat architecture, you’re unlikely to perform well in GEO. Things like XML sitemaps, page indexing, site taxonomy, and internal linking structure are still crucial for retrieval-augmented generation and training data ingestion. However, these are the fundamental pillars of SEO that only create the foundation for GEO to be built upon, rather than accelerating GEO itself. GEO is a brand positioning and category alignment exercise, not a technical SEO audit. Questions you should be asking about GEO: Are LLMs actually recommending our brand, or only citing our pages? When our brand appears in AI answers, what category is it bucketed into? And is that the category we want to own? Do LLMs associate our brand with the right buyer, use case, and problem set? Or are they grouping us with legacy competitors? Are third-party sites, review platforms, Reddit threads, and analyst pages shaping more of our AI visibility than our own content? Is there a consistent positioning narrative across our homepage, product pages, comparative content, review websites, and third-party affiliates? Are we trying to force visibility with listicles and formatting tricks instead of earning recommendation status through market and category alignment? Do we know which prompts matter most at the bottom of the funnel, and have we tested how our brand appears for those prompts? Within our flagship category, are AI answers being shaped mostly by first-party sites or by affiliates and review platforms? If third parties dominate the category, do we have a plan to earn stronger coverage there? What is the role of YouTube in our niche? How often does YouTube influence LLM answers, and are we represented there? Are we publishing content that actually helps buyers understand our positioning and differentiators? Or are we just adding FAQ blocks and “key takeaways” because it looks like productive GEO work? What outdated, inaccurate, or weak brand associations keep resurfacing in AI answers? Which team owns fixing those associations once we find them? Stop chasing GEO hacks The core GEO problem is whether LLMs believe your brand belongs in the answer. LLMs need to reach consensus on your brand, shaped by reputation, category alignment, and repeated confirmation across the web. Technical SEO provides the foundation, but it doesn’t help LLMs reach a conclusion about your brand’s market positioning. The bigger opportunity is to align messaging across every surface that influences how LLMs interpret your brand and why it deserves to be recommended. That means GEO isn’t a siloed optimization problem, but rather an ecosystem visibility problem. It’s time to stop chasing GEO hacks, because AI is neutralizing ineffective and outdated techniques once and for all. View the full article

NASA is looking not to the stars but back to our planet for inspiration. In honor of Earth Day, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center shared an interactive digital tool turns satellite images of the planet’s landscapes into a typeface. “The planet can spell your name—literally,” the Kennedy Space Center’s X post says. Using a feature called “Your Name in Landsat,” users can type in whichever word they choose into the generator’s textbox. The site will then generate the phrase using landscapes from Earth, like rivers, lakes, farmland, and more. When hovering over each “letter,” users can learn more about where the landscape is located and even its coordinates. NASA first unveiled the tool in August of 2024 for Camp Landsat, a virtual summer camp the agency runs. The letters are part of an extensive record of satellite images from Landsat—the longest ongoing series of Earth observing missions—which spans more than 50 years. The Landsat mission was first launched on July 23, 1972 and has since successfully launched eight satellites that have photographed the planet. The project has not only awarded earthlings with high-resolution imagery for fun visualizations like “Your Name in Landsat”; it has also provided valuable data for scientists and policy makers alike to make decisions regarding the environment and natural resources. The images that feed into the word generator are part of the satellite program’s Alphabet Image Gallery, with images sourced from the NASA Earth Observatory, NASA Worldview, USGS EarthExplorer, and the ESA Sentinel Hub. Some letters get more than one iteration depending on how complex and prevalent the shape is in nature. Take the “A” which has five different options, with landscapes ranging from Yukon Delta, in Alaska, to Lake Guakhmaz, in Azerbaijan. The “G” in comparison, is somewhat rarer, with only one option currently available in the gallery: an image from Fonte Boa, a municipality in the Amazonas state of Brazil. People love the tool. The social media post received over 22 million views and more than 1,300 people posted their creations in the comments. (Even brands like Xbox got in on the fun.) “I’m here for this,” one user replied. Another added, “that’s cool as hell, are you kidding me.” Beyond serving as a delightful interactive feature, Your Name in Landsat is also a powerful visualization that reminds us of how vast the world is and why its natural landscapes are worth saving. View the full article

April is shaping up to be yet another brutal month for job cuts in the technology sector. But the announcements may not have the immediate effect that many companies are hoping for. Here’s the latest on the situation. Microsoft to offer buyouts to 7% of its US workforce While Microsoft hasn’t announced another round of layoffs, the Windows giant is planning job reductions of another kind. As Fast Company reported yesterday, the Redmond, Washington, company is expected to offer buyouts to 7% of its U.S. workforce by the end of June. A buyout is when a company offers an employee a financial incentive to resign. Buyout helps companies avoid being forced to choose which employees to let go, while still reducing their workforce and achieving their goal of lowering operational costs. An employee who accepts the buyout loses their job, but generally gets a significant financial incentive for the voluntary move. Buyouts typically target employees who are closer to retirement age. As for the reason for the buyouts, it’s the same reason driving most of the tech industry’s recent layoffs: the drive to cut labor costs so more money can be spent on building out the huge data centers needed for AI training and services. Meta to lay off 10% of its workforce While Microsoft is giving some of its employees the option of voluntary buyouts, Meta isn’t providing its employees an option at all. Yesterday, the company told its employees that it will lay off about 8,000 of them—roughly 10% of its workforce—on May 20. An additional 6,000 currently open roles will not be filled. Meta’s latest layoff comes after the company has committed $135 billion in capital expenditure to its latest round of AI initiatives. Much of that expenditure will go to building massive data centers that the company needs to run its AI systems. As Fast Company reported yesterday, Meta says the job cuts aim to boost efficiency while also offsetting its “heavy spending on artificial intelligence.” Nike announces 1,400 tech job layoffs Also yesterday, shoe giant Nike announced it was laying off around 2% of its workforce, or about 1,400 employees. While the company is primarily known as a maker of apparel and footwear, the job cuts will mostly hit Nike’s technology roles. But while Nike’s job cuts will primarily target its tech workforce, the company is one of the few to not suggest that AI is behind the layoffs. Instead, Nike says the job cuts are part of its “Win Now” strategy, which aims to modernize its manufacturing, merge parts of its supply chain, and reshape its technology division. Nike’s layoffs will reportedly impact employees globally, including in North America. Snap to lay off 16% of its global workforce The trifecta of tech job cuts announced yesterday aren’t the only ones in April. On April 14, Snapchat maker Snap Inc. announced it would cut 16% of its global workforce. As CNBC reported, that equates to about 1,000 jobs, while another 300 currently empty roles will remain unfilled. The primary driver behind the job cuts is the desire to cut costs by leveraging AI instead of a human workforce. “We believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers,” CEO Evan Spiegel wrote in a letter announcing the job cuts. GoPro to reduce its workforce by 23% Finally, earlier this month, on April 7, wearable camera maker GoPro announced that it planned to lay off 145 workers. But while that may seem small in comparison to the other companies on this list, it represents a staggering 23% of the company’s workforce. According to the Wall Street Journal, GoPro’s job cuts come as the company struggles with profitability amid macroeconomic pressures, including increased memory costs as AI demand drives prices higher and tariffs add costs. The company reportedly hopes to reduce operating costs in order to help it return to profitability by the end of the year. Company stock prices react to layoffs While layoffs are devastating to the affected workers and their families, investors usually cheer the news of job cuts. That’s because reducing the workforce is usually the fastest way for a company to cut costs. It’s why share prices tend to increase after a company announces major job cuts. But this time, investor response has been a mixed bag. Since GoPro, Inc. (Nasdaq: GPRO) announced its job cuts, the stock has climbed an impressive 73%. Likewise, Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) stock rose immediately after it announced its job cuts. After the announcement, SNAP stock was up about 7%. However, as of yesterday’s close, the stock had given back some of those gains, now up only about 4.3% since the layoffs were announced. But the other companies’ stock prices have hardly reacted. Shares in Meta Platforms Inc. (Nasdaq: META) fell more than 2% yesterday, and are barely up half a percent in premarket trading this morning, as of the time of this writing. Shares in Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) fell nearly 4% yesterday and are up only about 1.3% in premarket trading today. Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE) shares fell nearly 2% yesterday and haven’t even recovered half of that this morning. In other words, announcing major job cuts no longer seems guaranteed to get investors excited about a stock—and that’s something the tech giants are likely taking note of this morning. View the full article

Airlines worldwide have begun canceling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up prices — but the disruption doesn’t end there. For travelers, it can mean having to navigate a confusing web of passenger protections that vary widely depending on where they’re flying. And the timing is amplifying the impact. “These pressures are arriving at a time when summer travel demand is ramping up, with major events such as the World Cup expected to put additional strain on airports,” said Eric Napoli, chief legal officer at AirHelp, a company that helps travelers secure compensation for flight disruptions and advocates for passenger rights. Here’s what to know if your flight is canceled. Are these cancellations happening at the last minute? In most cases, no. At least for now, fuel-related cuts are often being made days or weeks in advance. Lufthansa Group, for example, said this week it is cutting 20,000 short-haul flights across its network through October. That gives you more time to adjust plans than you’d typically get with weather-related disruptions, which tend to trigger last-minute cancellations. My flight was canceled. What should I do first? Check your airline’s app or website immediately for rebooking options. If you’re flying on a U.S. carrier, that’s often the fastest and easiest way to secure a new seat, according to Tyler Hosford, security director at International SOS, a global risk management and travel security company. Non-U.S. carriers tend to have fewer digital tools, Hosford said, so it’s worth trying multiple channels, including the airline’s customer service lines or airport desks. Do I have the right to a refund or a new flight? In most cases, yes. Airlines typically offer either a refund or a rebooking on the next available flight. The exact rules vary by country, but those are the baseline options you can expect. In the U.S., for example, if your flight is canceled and you choose not to travel, the airline must refund you, regardless of the reason. Airlines may offer travel credits instead, but you’re entitled to a full refund for airfare and any extras you didn’t use, such as baggage fees or seat upgrades. Are passenger rights the same everywhere? No, and protections vary widely by region — from the Montreal Convention, which governs airline liability across more than 140 countries, to specific consumer protection laws in the U.S., Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Brazil. Europe has some of the strongest protections, including compensation in certain cases. And they apply to any flight departing from an EU airport, regardless of the airline, as well as to passengers flying on an EU-based carrier into the EU — even if the journey starts outside Europe. The United Kingdom maintains a similar framework. The U.S. and Canada offer more limited protections. Policies vary widely across Asia, and in some cases travelers may need to rely more on airline policies than formal regulations. To get a clearer picture, experts recommend searching the name of the country you’re departing from and “passenger rights” before your trip. What protections apply? It depends. Airlines may cite fuel shortages or rising fuel costs as the reason for cancellations. But whether you’re entitled to compensation often comes down to if the disruption is considered within the airline’s control under local laws. Regardless of the cause, Napoli said, airlines in the European Union, for example, still have a “duty of care,” meaning they must provide “necessary support” to travelers, including rebooking. “While airlines are citing fuel shortages as a reason for upcoming cancellations, travelers need to know that this does not automatically waive their rights” under EU laws, Napoli said. How can I prepare before a trip to avoid headaches? A few steps can make disruptions easier to manage. Sign up for flight alerts to stay informed, and book directly with the airline when possible — it’s much easier to resolve issues with the carrier directly than through a third-party booking site. Knowing your options ahead of time and having a backup plan can make a significant difference if plans change. What do I need for a claim or complaint? Documentation is critical. Save everything: boarding passes, receipts, cancellation notices and any communication from the airline. Take screenshots of app or website updates and any communication taking place online, and jot down key details from phone calls. Napoli also recommends asking the airline for written confirmation of a flight disruption, including the stated reason. Should I accept the first alternative flight the airline offers? Not necessarily. Experts say one of the most common mistakes travelers make is taking the first option without checking alternatives. Look at other flights, routes or even nearby airports because you may find a faster or more convenient way to reach your destination. Can I book a different flight myself? Yes, but proceed carefully. If the airline’s rebooking option doesn’t meet your needs — especially if your new flight isn’t for several days — you can look for alternatives and request a refund instead. Just be aware you may need to pay any fare difference up front, and you might not be reimbursed later. Any other tips to avoid getting stuck? — Book flights earlier in the day so you have more rebooking options if something goes wrong. — Set up flight alerts through tracking apps such as Flighty to get early notice of cancellations or delays. In some cases, Hosford said, notifications arrive before the airline’s. — Consider nearby airports as backup options. — Be kind. Airline agents may be more willing to help when interactions stay calm and respectful. “Ultimately, the shortage is squeezing the entire system, from travelers to airlines, and is something to watch as the industry looks for any relief ahead of the summer travel season,” Napoli said. —Rio Yamat, AP Airlines and Travel Writer View the full article

Google documents deep link best practices and signals robots.txt doc expansion. The EU proposes Google share search data with rivals and AI chatbots. The post Google’s Robots.txt Docs Expand, Deep Links Get Rules, EU Steps In – SEO Pulse appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. At $109.99, the Apple AirPods (3rd Generation) are selling at a clear discount from their usual $159.97 price at retailers like Best Buy. Shipping is free with Prime, while non-members pay an extra $6, and the deal is set to end in three days or when stock runs out. These are not Apple’s top-tier earbuds, but they cover the basics most people expect, especially if you already use an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Apple AirPods (3rd Generation) $109.99 at Woot $169.00 Save $59.01 Get Deal Get Deal $109.99 at Woot $169.00 Save $59.01 Day-to-day use is about as simple as it gets. The H1 chip connects quickly to Apple devices and switches between them without much effort. Audio leans toward a balanced, slightly bass-forward profile that works fine for playlists, YouTube videos, and calls. Spatial Audio with head tracking is here too, adding a directional effect when watching supported content, though it feels more like a nice extra than a reason to buy. Battery life holds up at around six hours per charge, with the case bringing total listening time close to 24 hours. You can top them up with a Lightning cable, MagSafe, or any standard Qi wireless charger. Said, these earbuds use an open-ear design without silicone tips, so they sit loosely compared to other in-ear models. That can make them more comfortable for long stretches, but also less secure if you are moving around a lot, notes this PCMag review. The lack of a seal also means outside noise comes through, since there is no active noise cancellation or transparency mode. You don't get built-in EQ controls, either. And while the stem controls are responsive, it’s easy to press them by mistake when adjusting them. Still, for a straightforward, low-hassle pair of earbuds that work best inside Apple’s ecosystem, these third-generation Apple AirPods do a serviceable job. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $148.99 (List Price $179.00) Blink Video Doorbell Wireless (Newest Model) + Sync Module Core — $35.99 (List Price $69.99) Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen, 2-pack, White) — $59.98 (List Price $79.99) Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 46mm] Smartwatch with Jet Black Aluminum Case with Black Sport Band - M/L. Sleep Score, Fitness Tracker, Health Monitoring, Always-On Display, Water Resistant — $359.00 (List Price $429.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

Earlier this week, in a live interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, President Donald The President was asked for his reaction to reports that Apple, Amazon, and some other companies had not filed refund requests for tariffs they paid over the past year—tariffs the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional. “I think it’s brilliant if they don’t do that,” The President replied. “If they don’t do that, I’ll remember them.” To be clear, this wasn’t negotiation posturing. This was the president openly signaling that companies who forfeit money to which they are entitled will be “remembered” for a symbolic display of loyalty. The government has collected a combined $166 billion or so from U.S. importers; an act the Supreme Court ruled an overstep of presidential power. The companies in question are in effect taking the administration’s side despite the court’s ruling. Left unspoken but clearly implied is that those who exercise their legal rights may find themselves remembered, too, but certainly not for being “brilliant.” Given the Iran war, as well as the panoply of controversies and alleged scandals swirling around the administration, this incident was easy to miss. But it’s worth pausing over and paying attention to what companies affected by the illegal tariff scheme ultimately do. The tariffs, imposed last year and affecting U.S. trade with practically every country on earth, were struck by way of a 6-to-3 Supreme Court ruling in February, resulting in the $166 billion forced refund. Despite this lack of ambiguity, it’s not hard to imagine why a company might at least ponder whether it’s worth trying to stay on the president’s good side. The The President administration has not been shy about involving itself in the actions of private commerce, taking an unusually active stance over mergers, regulation, even bailouts or direct ownership stakes. Nevertheless, The President’s not-so-veiled threat is one that companies should firmly resist. It amounts to betraying shareholders and customers alike. For starters, the board members and executives of publicly traded companies obviously have fiduciary obligations to their shareholders. Shrugging off millions (or even billions) of dollars in legally recoverable refunds does not square with those duties. Moreover, it’s a bad look for a brand. Many companies passed along tariff costs through higher prices. Declining to pursue refunds in effect tells customers: We raised your prices because of costs we are now choosing not to recover, because the president said he’d be impressed if we didn’t. As a contrast, consider Costco, which has been among those striking an aggressive stance on the refunds. In November 2025, well before the high court’s ruling, the discount club chain filed a federal lawsuit challenging the tariffs as unlawful, asking the courts to order full refunds including interest on all tariffs paid. Costco executives have told investors the company would in effect pass along the refunds to its customers through “lower prices and better values.” Admittedly, that sounds a bit vague, but the company has said it will be open about the process. And compared to speculation about ignoring the refunds to curry favor with the administration, Costco’s simple clarity about adhering to the rule of law practically sounds like a profile in courage. Plenty of businesses have shown no hesitation about collecting refunds, particularly smaller enterprises. And shipping businesses FedEx, DHL, and UPS have all indicated they’ll be passing along refunds to customers who were billed to cover tariff fees. For many others, the process will admittedly be more complex. The payout fund is designed to reimburse entities that paid directly to import the tariffed goods—not the end consumers who may have ultimately absorbed those costs in the form of higher prices. Unlike the case of shipping, there’s usually not a clean paper trail to quantify what an individual customer might be owed. (Class action lawsuits are already coming together to challenge how the money is being distributed.) Still, this seems like a moment for companies to at least make clear their intent. The Costco response is a handy and straightforward example: Collect the refund and be vocal about returning value to customers. Treat this as an opportunity to demonstrate loyalty to shoppers. At the very least, signaling a greater interest in pleasing the administration than in pleasing your own shoppers seems like a shortsighted way to treat consumers, particularly in a moment when affordability is in the zeitgeist. “I’ll remember” cuts both ways. View the full article

Google updated its spam report page for the second time in the past week or so, this time to say that if you include personally identifying information, the spam report will not be processed or used. This comes just a week after Google said that information would be used and passed along to the reported site. What changed. Google posted on its spam report page a new highlight box which says two points: (1) Don’t include personally identifying information in your spam report. (2) If you do include personally identifying information, then Google won’t process your submission. The text block reads: “Don’t include any personally identifying information in your submission. To comply with regulations, we must send the submission text to the site owner to help them understand the context of a manual action, if one is issued. Because of this, we won’t process your submission if we determine it contains personally identifying information to protect privacy. Not including such information fully ensures your information is safe and prevents your submission from being discarded.” What was before. As we covered about a week ago, Google said then: “If we issue a manual action, we send whatever you write in the submission report verbatim to the site owner to help them understand the context of the manual action.” This caused a lot of concern in the industry, not just from fear of being caught calling out your competitors or spammers. But also for legal concerns. Google’s new wording above says this is now to “comply with regulations” where I guess it can’t share personally identifying information. Why we care. If you want to submit a successful spam report, make sure to not include any personally identifying information. And if you do include personally identifying information by accident, you do not have to worry that the information will be passed along to the reported site. The spam report will just not be processed at all and you can resubmit it. View the full article