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Before the holidays, Adam Conner began vibe coding. Like everyone else in the know, he was using Claude Code. Compared to popular chatbots, Anthropic’s advanced AI agent speaks the language of computers: code. Normally, you click buttons in browsers, open folders, and drag files. But you can also do so by coding—interacting with software by typing commands into a terminal, a text-based app. Claude Code goes beyond such primitive tasks, though: an AI that can code can effectively do nearly anything on a computer. “We expected developers to use Claude Code for coding, but then something unexpected happened,” an Anthropic spokesperson tells Fast Company. “We started seeing the discovery arc where people would approach Claude Code to tackle a coding task, then have an ‘aha moment’ when they realized it could help with other tasks.” The result of that ‘aha moment’ is a vibe coding phenomenon that lets developers—and, crucially, non-developers such as Conner—harness the AI agent to write code and create projects that could grow tomato plants, knit sweaters, and build fully fledged iOS apps in hours. Conner’s vibe coding wasn’t as dramatic as keeping living organisms alive, but no less impressive. He used it for his work: an AI labor market simulator, built from Bureau of Labor Statistics and Federal Reserve data. It projects the potential impact that AI could have on the economy. (Headline: it’s pretty big.) “I got it running in a day,” says Conner, who’s also the vice president for technology policy at the Center of American Progress (CAP), a think-tank. “It shows how this AI is more accessible and powerful. You can have limited programming experience, and still build something quickly.” But the real revelation, says Conner, came using Claude Code to form his own policy council: 21 AI agents with competing ideologies and political agendas. Within minutes, it had generated 24-page proposal papers, 12-page draft legislations, and hundreds of policy ideas. “You can now direct a small army of bots to do the tasks of humans relatively quickly,” says Conner. “It’s not yet the game changer that can fully automate someone’s job, but you can begin to see how AI could be transformational.” We’re now in the fourth year of widely available generative AI tools. As adoption has ticked up—23% of U.S. workers are now frequent AI users, nearly doubling year-over-year—so too have AI-related layoffs. Despite many companies citing AI as the cause for layoffs, though, actual mass job displacement due to AI has yet to materialize. But the capabilities of Anthropic’s Claude Code—and in particular its advanced AI workplace tool, Claude Cowork—could change that. The new knowledge worker So far, generative AI’s use case has been split fairly equally between work and personal needs, such as generating ideas, editing, and even companionship. In 2025, bots were more often leveraged for therapy, life coaching, and, increasingly, coding—the latter likely driven by the popularity of Claude Code: generating more than $1 billion in revenue, just six months after general availability, according to Anthropic. On January 12, the San Francisco-headquartered company launched Claude Cowork. It’s effectively a UI update to Code for the mass market. Whereas Code can only be utilized through a terminal’s command line—the barebones essence of human-to-computer interaction—Cowork adds the friendly, compliant chatbot layer to the Claude desktop app. Currently, anyone with a $100-per-month Claude Max subscription can prompt the AI to complete nearly any computer related task. Compared to popular chatbots like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or the original Claude.ai, Cowork can, in theory, leverage users’ hard drives––their digital lives––in its working memory. In practice, as a workplace tool, Cowork can organize haystacks of files into neat, delineated folders; turn screenshots of invoices into actionable spreadsheets; pull material from multiple websites, synthesized and analyzed in a single document; and even action slide comments. In short, it’s a general AI assistant, built for knowledge work. “It’s like having a junior researcher that’s proactive, makes few mistakes, and solves problems before you realize there even was one,” says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of business psychology at University College London and Fast Company contributor who’s written books about AI. Compared to other AI platforms, Cowork is smarter and more autonomous, he adds. In contrast to how people typically use ChatGPT—often for their personal lives, such as travel plans, self-therapy, or recipes—Anthropic’s latest agent can be more entrusted with their work. “I use Cowork to digest research: ‘Upload this folder and create a review of these articles’ main points, then look online for everything I’ve written on this topic.’ So you can give it multi-layered tasks and receive highly accurate outputs,” says Chamorro-Premuzic. These sorts of tasks—bite-sized chunks of reading, researching, and writing—are traditionally delegated to entry-level employees, says Conner. It’s how knowledge workers’ judgment and expertise is honed on their gradual climb up the career ladder. “If AI takes over some of those junior-level processes, it could pull the ladder up from them,” he adds. The risk is that the effectiveness of AI agents like Cowork, and their widespread adoption, could impact entry-level hiring, continues Conner. This has long-term consequences for the economy. And in some ways, it’s already impacted how many entry-level jobs are available right now; some data suggests a 35% plummet in entry-level openings in the U.S. since 2023. “Fewer junior roles eventually leads to fewer qualified candidates for mid-level and senior roles,” Conner says. “So, while short-term financial focus means some companies may want to adopt AI more and hire fewer junior folks, it’s possible we look back years from now and realize it hurt the talent pipeline.” Coding the future Cowork has already deeply impacted the economy, just over a month after launch. On February 3, $300 billion was wiped from software and data stocks. It swiftly followed Anthropic’s release of plugins that can tailor Cowork to specific roles across sales, legal, financial analysis, and other industries. “The worry is that if in-house lawyers can just use Cowork to do their work, they no longer need legal software,” says Chamorro-Premuzic. He believes Cowork is an incremental upgrade, rather than exponential. But the next iteration will likely come soon. On February 5, Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.6. It has four times the effective recall of Opus 4.5, its predecessor that made Claude Code go viral—launched just 73 days before. The pace of release is accelerating (Sonnet 4.6, Anthropic’s free model, was released on February 17). That’s not just because of the AI race—Claude Code already writes 90% of its team’s code. On December 27, its lead developer said all 40,000 lines of new code he’d contributed in the past 30 days were written by the agentic tool. An autonomous, self-perpetuating feedback loop means the next upgrade is always imminent. “We’re going to see AI involved in improving and building itself more and more,” says an Anthropic spokesperson. “In the closer term, Claude Code helps people build faster, with fewer resources, and the result is innovation across entire industries. We’re in the early innings of what’s possible.” Claude Cowork isn’t perfect. It requires oversight, particularly with high-stakes tasks. Like all AI, it can also make mistakes—and given it can have access to personal files, apps, and tools, those errors can be more widespread than a chatbot’s text output. It’s also not compliant first: conversations histories are stored locally, rather than within tightly regulated workflows. However, mass adoption of advanced AI tools like Cowork will likely be inevitable. So will labor market displacement—it’s only the extent that’s unclear. There are already signs that junior workers and college graduates are disproportionately affected by the onward march of AI. A November 2025 Stanford University study found a 16% relative decline in employment for early-career workers in occupations most exposed to the technology since 2022, such as software developers and customer service representatives. Not all entry-level jobs will be decimated by AI. Companies will always want to hire the best talent, and train them over time to accumulate institutional knowledge, workplace culture, and project history in ways technology can’t. But there are concerns over how roles may be reshaped. If knowledge work merely becomes entering and fine-tuning prompts, it risks workers automating themselves, hampering their development and soft skills. “Generative AI can tell you what to say in giving critical feedback, but it’s not the same as having a hard conversation and learning from it,” says Chamorro-Premuzic. “It becomes judgment without experience.” The power of Claude Cowork means we’re one step closer to that future. “It’s like seeing the Wright brothers fly for the first time,” says Conner. “You wouldn’t have understood the concept of a Boeing 767 flying across the ocean, but you’d have grasped the idea of aviation. With Claude Cowork, you can see the future more clearly, and how this technology will have a major impact.” View the full article

After 19 years, I finally went back to Ko Lipe, the Thai island I spent close to a month on in 2006. Back then, it was one of those super off-the-beaten-path destinations that few but the most intrepid travelers visited, where electricity only ran a few hours a day, basic bungalows right on the beach cost something like $2 USD, and there really was a last boat for the season. There was much to do here but that was the point. You hung out on the beach, read a book, went snorkeling, went back to the beach, drank beers at the one beach bar on the island, rotated meals between the five restaurants there, and went to bed early. It was paradise – and a place a lot of people got stuck. Days easily turned into weeks here. If you asked me what the highlight of all my travels was, I would be the time I spent on Ko Lipe. I made incredible friends, lounged around, got to know the locals, learned a bit of Thai, and, overall, lived that idyllic backpacker life we all dream about. Over the years, I’ve avoided going back to Ko Lipe because the memory of my time there is so strong that I didn’t want to ruin it. Any re-visit would simply be trying to recreated a magic that couldn’t be recreated because the people that it special wouldn’t be there. I’d be chasing travel ghosts. And, since I know my sleepy paradise has been developed greatly over the years, I was also too afraid seeing that would make me sad. Tourism in Thailand tends toward the unsustainable. No island really develops in a good way. It’s all build, build, build. And I didn’t want to see my Ko Lipe like that. But as I was planning my recent trip through Southeast Asia, returning to Ko Lipe made sense. I was heading down the Indian Ocean side of Thailand on my way into Malaysia and I’d pass by it. And, since I was looking for a lively place for New Year’s Eve, it seemed liked the best choice. I knew there would be travelers there and there were no other nearby islands that would work, especially since Ko Lipe has a boat to Langkawi, which was my next stop. So, I sucked it up and went. And I’m sad to report that Ko Lipe took the Ko Phi Phi model of tourism and is now extremely overdeveloped. Unsustainably so. Most of the island is now paved over, the old dirt footpaths having become concrete for the cars and construction trucks. Swaths of palm trees are now the sites of high-end resorts with pools (on an island with no natural water supply). Construction of more resorts continues at a fast pace. The coral around the island is dying, a victim of all the boats, anchors, pollution, and overfishing. Beaches are now lined with boats, their exhaust spilling into the ocean, leaving a shiny film you can see as you swim. And the restaurants cater to tourists looking for bad Western food, not great Thai cuisine. The island’s boom has displaced many locals, who were forced to sell to mainland developers, and much of the island’s workforce is now from the mainland. They see little of the benefits this tourism boom. So lies Ko Lipe, another victim of Thailand’s all too common overdevelopment and exploitation of limited resources. I met lots of people there who loved the island. If it’s your first time, I can see why you would love it. After all, the area is postcard perfect, the water is perfectly an azure blue, the sand is a beautiful white, and since you’re surrounded by a national park, a lot of tours take you to some secluded islands. And, in comparison to Ko Phi Phi, Krabi, or Phuket, it is less developed so I can’t fault someone stepping here for the first time going “wow!” But, as I reflect on the island and its overdevelopment, I have come to the same conclusion I have about Ko Phi Phi: people shouldn’t visit. I’m not against growth, but I’m against this kind of growth. It’s not sustainably managed and going there will only tax the island’s limited resources even further. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle and no local is going to say “sure, I’ll stay broke so you can an idealized vision of the world.” But this is not the way. And, with so many other islands to visit that are well managed (Ko Lanta, Ko Jum, and Ko Mook, to name three nearby), I think you should skip Ko Lipe. A visit there will only make things worse. It pains me to say that, because it was such a beautiful place, and my original visit had a huge impact on my life. But if we’re going to be good stewards and travelers, sometimes you just have to say enough is enough. And Ko Lipe is a place where enough is enough. Go somewhere else that is better managed. Because your choices do have an impact. Riding elephants in Thailand went away when consumers became more conscious of it. Eco lodges got big because of consumers. Overtourism is talked about by consumers as much as it is by locals. Maybe if enough people start to do something, Ko Lipe will change. I doubt it but one can hope. But, at the very least, by not going you are at least no contributing to the problem. Get the In-Depth Budget Guide to Thailand!My detailed 350+ page guidebook is made for budget travelers like you! It cuts out the fluff found in other guidebooks and gets straight to the practical information you need to travel around Thailand. You’ll find suggested itineraries, budgets, ways to save money, on and off-the-beaten-path things to see and do, non-touristy restaurants, markets, bars, safety tips, and much more! Click here to learn more and get your copy today. Planning a Trip to Southeast asia Get all my best Southeast Asia travel tips & free planning guides sent straight to your inbox send me the free guides Book Your Trip to Thailand: Logistical Tips and Tricks Book Your Flight Use Skyscanner to find a cheap flight. They are my favorite search engine because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned! Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the biggest inventory and best deals. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are: Safety Wing (for budget travelers) World Nomads (for mid-range travelers) Insure My Trip (for those over 70) Medjet (for additional repatriation coverage) Looking for the Best Companies to Save Money With? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use to save money when I’m on the road. They will save you money when you travel too. Want More Information on Thailand? Be sure to visit my robust destination guide to Thailand for even more planning tips! The post Don’t Visit Ko Lipe appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site. View the full article

A reader writes: I have a few employees who have told us they do not celebrate birthdays, but they do sit to eat the lunch the company buys for the birthday person and then leave when it’s time to sing “happy birthday.” (One of them asks for cake after everyone goes back to work.) These same employees say they do not observe holidays and do not attend parties (like the employee Christmas party), but they say they can receive the Christmas bonus that the company gives out. Would the company be in the wrong not to invite them to the lunch or give them a monetary Christmas bonus since we are trying to comply with their religious beliefs? Yes, the company would be 100% in the wrong. Your employees are the experts on their own religious beliefs, and if they are comfortable receiving Christmas bonuses or eating birthday cake, then that’s how it works for them. The company has no standing to say, “Actually, we know better about your religious observances than you do.” You can’t really claim that you’re trying to comply with their religious beliefs while overruling them about what that observance should look like. It sounds like the subtext here is that you think they’re trying to get away with perks they somehow don’t deserve — like that they don’t really object to holiday celebrations when it can benefit them — but even if that were true, the stakes would be so low that it shouldn’t matter in the slightest. They’d be “getting away” with, what, eating cake without sticking around for a birthday song? Skipping a party? Who cares? It would be different if the impact was greater, like if they said they couldn’t work Sundays for religious reasons and so other people always had to cover Sundays, but then suddenly they were willing to work on a Sunday when Rihanna was scheduled to tour your plant. Even then, you’d have a tricky time navigating that — because again, they’re the experts on their own religious observances, but it would at least be more understandable for it to raise some eyebrows. But it would be astonishingly petty to try to withhold cake from them — and flat-out illegal to try to withhold the bonus on religious grounds. The post if people don’t celebrate holidays for religious reasons, can we take away their holiday perks? appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Bourbon was once hailed as the poor man’s drink. The spirit has since developed, however, from a mass-market American staple into a luxury class, and limited releases, higher prices, and brands vying for prestige have caused a crowded top tier. Even though the premium field has widened, the very top of the market remains stubbornly narrow, according to whiskey expert Fred Minnick. During a blind tasting of his top 100 American whiskeys of 2025, Minnick evaluated leading contenders anonymously. Even without labels, the rankings reflected the same hierarchy seen at retail and on the secondary market. The most scarce, high-status bottles still rose to the top, regardless of brand recognition. George T. Stagg claimed the number one spot, followed by Sazerac Rye 18 Year at number two. Both are part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, one of the most limited and consistently in-demand product lines in American spirits. Buffalo Trace, beyond its Antique Collection, also produces the popular—and often hard to find—Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, Weller, and Pappy Van Winkle whiskey brands. Minnick’s ranking reinforced a key dynamic shaping the bourbon market. While dozens of producers now compete in the premium tier, demand continues to concentrate on a small set of legacy brands whose supply is structurally constrained by long aging cycles and finite inventory. Scarcity, not novelty, appears to be one of the most powerful differentiators at the top end. That scarcity has also shaped customer expectations. “People who are out buying bourbon want to buy something that feels fancy,” Minnick said, who’s next book, Bottom Shelf, comes out next month. “Bourbon, which used to be the poor man’s drink, is now like a fancy man’s drink.” Those changing expectations are reflected not only in pricing and branding but in how elite bourbon is judged. Minnick noted that higher proof and longer finish—once defining markers of top-tier releases—no longer carry the same weight on their own. “For the first time in my career, I’m breaking protocol,” he said. “I’m not rewarding the longer finish.” Instead, Minnick favored the bourbon that delivered what he described as a fuller, more immersive experience, one that “absolutely drenches my tongue and completely encompasses my entire mouth.” While each bottle featured in Minnick’s review is among the top American whiskeys, the most supply-constrained, prestige-driven brands still set the market’s upper bound. And without labels, the qualities that signal luxury still held up under blind tasting. Check out the top five bottles below, and watch the full video on YouTube: George T. Stagg, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection Sazerac Rye 18 Year, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection Bomberger’s PFG Brother Justus Founders Reserve American Single Malt Heaven Hill 90th Anniversary —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 considering buying a franchise, there are five vital steps you need to follow for a successful investment. First, evaluate your financial readiness to guarantee you can cover both initial and ongoing costs. Next, research franchise opportunities that align with your interests to boost your commitment. Comprehending the Franchise Disclosure Document is critical, as is engaging with current franchisees for real-world insights. Finally, attending a Discovery Day can provide valuable firsthand experience. Each step is important, and knowing how to navigate them can make all the difference in your franchise path. Key Takeaways Evaluate your financial readiness by ensuring you have enough liquid cash and reserves for initial fees and living expenses. Research franchise opportunities that align with your interests and passions for enhanced commitment and satisfaction. Review the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) thoroughly to understand fees, financial performance, and potential risks. Engage with current franchisees to gain insights about their experiences and the franchisor’s support and training effectiveness. Attend a Discovery Day to experience the franchise environment and meet the management team before making a commitment. Evaluate Your Financial Readiness and Commitment When you’re considering buying a franchise, it’s crucial to evaluate your financial readiness and commitment, as these factors greatly influence your potential success. Start by reviewing your liquid cash, ensuring you can cover initial franchise fees, which may range from $10,000 to over $100,000. Maintain cash reserves for three to six months of living expenses to secure personal financial stability during the shift to franchise ownership. Evaluate your overall financial situation, including savings and potential loans, to confirm you can support ongoing operational costs like royalties and employee salaries. Understand your financial obligations, including ongoing royalties and marketing costs, and reflect on your commitment to the franchise model. Successful ownership requires adherence to the franchisor’s established systems and a strong investment of time and effort. Research Franchise Opportunities That Align With Your Interests Finding the right franchise opportunity can greatly influence your path as a franchisee, so it’s important to align your personal interests and passions with potential franchises. Start by identifying what excites you, as this can improve your commitment. Use online franchise portals to explore good franchise opportunities and the best small businesses to buy that fit your goals. Contact franchisors directly for detailed franchise information on their offerings and support systems. Attend franchise expos to interact with current franchisees, gaining insights into operations and culture. Finally, analyze the competitive environment in your area to guarantee your chosen franchise has a strong market presence, which is vital for success when learning how to purchase a franchise. Review the Franchise Disclosure Document Thoroughly The Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) serves as a crucial resource for anyone considering a franchise investment. This critical document outlines important details like financial performance, initial franchise fees, and ongoing royalties. As a potential franchisee, you should thoroughly scrutinize the FDD for any red flags, such as vague or missing information, especially in Item 19, where financial performance is represented. If only gross sales figures are provided, don’t hesitate to request more details. It’s also wise to seek legal consultation to fully grasp the risks and obligations tied to the franchise opportunity. Engaging in the validation process with existing franchisees can likewise complement your comprehension of the FDD, aiding in your decision-making. Engage With Current Franchisees for Insights Reviewing the Franchise Disclosure Document is just one piece of the puzzle; engaging with current franchisees provides invaluable insights that can greatly shape your decision. Here are key areas to explore when you engage with current franchisees: Franchisee Satisfaction: Ask about their overall satisfaction with the franchisor’s support. Franchisor Support: Inquire about the effectiveness of training programs and ongoing assistance. Financial Performance: Discuss the actual profitability of the franchise, as real-world data often differs from the Franchise Disclosure Document. Franchise Network Culture: Understand franchisee motivations for joining and staying, including feedback from both successful and former franchisees to gauge the franchise’s strengths and potential pitfalls. This engagement helps clarify the true experience within the franchise system. Attend a Discovery Day to Experience the Franchise Firsthand How can attending a Discovery Day transform your comprehension of a franchise? By participating, you get to experience the franchise firsthand, immersing yourself in its operational environment. You’ll meet the franchisor’s management team, gaining insights into their franchise support systems and future growth plans. This event allows you to ask critical questions about operational challenges and the level of ongoing support you can expect as a franchisee. Many franchisors showcase successful franchisees during this event, providing validation through real-life testimonials and experiences. Attending a Discovery Day can greatly influence your decision-making by offering clarity on what it truly means to operate within the franchise system, ensuring you’re well-informed before making a commitment. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the Steps to Buying a Franchise? To buy a franchise, start by evaluating your financial situation to understand your available capital. Next, research various franchise opportunities that fit your goals and budget. Request the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) from potential franchisors to review crucial details about fees and obligations. Attend a Discovery Day at the franchisor’s headquarters to observe operations and ask questions. Finally, make certain you comprehend the franchise agreement and seek legal advice to protect your investment. What Are the 4 P’s of Franchising? The 4 P’s of franchising are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Product refers to the goods or services your franchise offers, highlighting quality and brand reputation. Price involves setting competitive rates that align with your franchise’s value as well as ensuring profitability. Place focuses on choosing a strategic location, considering demographics and competition. Promotion encompasses marketing strategies, combining national campaigns from the franchisor with your local efforts to effectively attract customers and drive sales. What Is the 7 Day Rule for Franchise? The 7 Day Rule for franchises requires franchisors to provide prospective franchisees with the Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) at least seven days before any agreement is signed or payment is made. This rule guarantees you have adequate time to review important details about the franchise, including fees and obligations. If a franchisor violates this rule, they could face legal consequences, allowing you to potentially rescind your agreement without penalty. Why Is It Only $10,000 to Open a Chick-Fil-A? It costs only $10,000 to open a Chick-fil-A since the company covers most startup expenses, including construction and equipment. This greatly reduces the financial burden on you as a franchisee. Furthermore, Chick-fil-A operates under a unique profit-sharing model, taking a percentage of your profits instead of traditional royalties. Nevertheless, they’ve stringent selection criteria, ensuring only those with strong leadership skills and commitment to the brand can become franchisees. Conclusion By following these five crucial steps, you can navigate the franchise buying process with greater confidence and clarity. Evaluating your financial readiness guarantees you’re prepared for the investment, as you research opportunities that match your interests keeps you motivated. A thorough review of the Franchise Disclosure Document provides critical insights into costs and obligations. Engaging with current franchisees offers practical perspectives, and attending a Discovery Day allows you to experience the franchise firsthand. Each step is indispensable for informed decision-making. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "5 Essential Steps to Buy a Franchise Successfully" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

An effective hiring process is essential for attracting and retaining the right talent. It starts with defining clear job requirements and desired traits, ensuring everyone involved understands the role. By collaborating with team members, you gain diverse perspectives that improve candidate evaluation. Standardized interviews focus on performance-based questions, which assess skills relevant to the job. This structured approach not just enhances candidate experience but likewise lays the foundation for long-term employee satisfaction. But what comes next in this process? Key Takeaways An effective hiring process includes clear criteria and structured interview stages to minimize bias and enhance candidate evaluation. Utilize performance-based questions and the STAR method to assess candidates’ past behavior for future job performance predictions. Implement timely and personalized communication strategies to keep candidates informed and engaged throughout the hiring process. Foster a collaborative hiring approach by involving team members to ensure diverse perspectives and better cultural fit. Regularly evaluate recruitment metrics like time-to-hire and candidate satisfaction to identify improvement areas and adapt practices. Understanding the Importance of a Structured Hiring Process When you recognize the importance of a structured hiring process, you’re taking a crucial step toward improving your organization’s talent acquisition strategy. A hiring process template can streamline candidate evaluation, greatly reducing time-to-hire. By incorporating a recruitment process sample, you set clear criteria and standardized interview stages, minimizing unconscious bias and promoting fairness. This structured approach not only improves candidate experience through organized communication and timely feedback but additionally cultivates a positive perception of your company, even among those not selected. Moreover, a well-defined hiring process example can lead to increased employee retention and satisfaction, as it aligns candidates with organizational values and strengthens team dynamics. Regular evaluation and adaptation of your hiring process guarantee that you stay competitive in attracting and retaining top talent. Embracing these structured methods is crucial for building a diverse and capable workforce that contributes to your organization’s long-term success. Key Characteristics of an Effective Recruitment Process When you think about an effective recruitment process, consider the importance of clear communication strategies, structured interview processes, and efficient onboarding procedures. Each of these elements plays a vital role in attracting the right candidates and ensuring they feel valued throughout the hiring process. Clear Communication Strategies Effective communication strategies are vital in creating a successful recruitment process. Clear communication establishes transparency and sets expectations, enhancing candidates’ experience and engagement. Timely feedback at each stage is important for maintaining interest and respect for your organization. Personalized communication, like customized emails and updates about company milestones, helps candidates feel valued and informed throughout their path. It’s equally important to guarantee respectful and constructive communication with all candidates, even those not selected, as this nurtures a positive company reputation and encourages future applications. Consistent messaging about your company’s mission, values, and culture enables candidates to assess their alignment with your organization, ultimately leading to better hiring decisions and a more cohesive workplace. Structured Interview Processes Structured interview processes play a pivotal role in improving the effectiveness of recruitment. By utilizing predetermined questions and evaluation criteria, you guarantee all candidates are assessed consistently, reducing bias and promoting fairness in hiring decisions. Research indicates that these structured interviews can enhance the predictive validity of hiring outcomes by 20% compared to unstructured interviews, as they focus on job-related competencies. Employing standardized scoring rubrics allows your hiring team to quantitatively compare candidates’ responses, facilitating objective decision-making. Furthermore, involving multiple interviewers leads to a more thorough evaluation of each applicant’s fit for the role. Structured interviews also enrich the candidate experience by providing clear expectations and a transparent evaluation process, which positively influences their perception of your company. Efficient Onboarding Procedures An organized onboarding process is crucial for successfully integrating new hires into your company, as it lays the foundation for their future performance and satisfaction. Clear communication during onboarding helps define roles, responsibilities, and expectations, greatly enhancing new employee satisfaction. Providing timely access to resources, such as employee handbooks and training materials, guarantees that new hires feel prepared and supported from day one. Incorporating feedback mechanisms allows you to continuously improve onboarding practices based on new employee experiences. Moreover, structured programs that extend beyond the first week, including regular check-ins and mentorship opportunities, can boost employee engagement and loyalty. Defining Job Requirements and Desired Traits When you define job requirements, it’s vital to identify core competencies that are fundamental for success in the role. Furthermore, considering cultural fit can help you attract candidates who align with your organization’s values and work style. Identifying Core Competencies Defining core competencies is crucial for an effective hiring process, as it directly impacts your ability to attract qualified candidates. Start by identifying specific skills, experiences, and qualifications necessary for success in the role. Don’t forget to include both technical competencies and soft skills, like communication, teamwork, and adaptability, to find candidates who fit your company culture. Involve team members in this process; their insights can highlight what makes a successful employee in that role. Utilize data-driven approaches by analyzing performance metrics from top performers to inform your decisions. Finally, regularly revisit and update job requirements and desired traits to adapt to changing business needs and industry trends, ensuring your recruitment process remains relevant and effective. Defining Cultural Fit Cultural fit plays a crucial role in the hiring process, as it influences both team dynamics and employee retention. To define cultural fit, start by identifying the values, beliefs, and behaviors that align with your organization’s mission. Effective job requirements should encompass both the technical skills needed for the role and vital soft skills, such as teamwork, adaptability, and communication. Desired traits should be informed by data from successful employees, creating a clear profile of your ideal candidate. Utilize structured interviews and assessments to evaluate candidates against these cultural fit criteria, ensuring that decisions are based on objective measures. Furthermore, engaging current employees in the hiring process offers valuable insights into traits that contribute to a positive cultural fit and team success. Setting Clear Expectations To attract the right candidates, it is essential to set clear expectations regarding job requirements and desired traits. By defining these elements, you guarantee candidates possess necessary skills and fit your organization’s culture. Involving stakeholders when creating job descriptions cultivates a thorough comprehension of the role, leading to more effective hiring criteria. Documenting required skills and traits aids in the screening process, minimizing bias. Specific, measurable criteria improve evaluations, allowing uniform assessment of applicants. Regularly updating job descriptions keeps alignment with business goals, enhancing candidate quality. Job Requirement Desired Traits Measurable Criteria Technical skills Team player Collaboration score Relevant experience Adaptability Response to change scenarios Education level Communication skills Presentation effectiveness Certifications required Problem-solving skills Case study analysis Collaborating With Team Members for Diverse Perspectives Collaboration with team members during the hiring process not just enriches candidate evaluations but also cultivates an inclusive environment that values diverse viewpoints. When you involve team members in interviews, you gain a well-rounded perspective that improves the assessment of candidates’ technical skills and interpersonal abilities. This collaborative approach guarantees a better cultural fit within the team, as multiple viewpoints contribute to a thorough comprehension of each applicant. Research shows that teams with diverse perspectives are more innovative and effective, making it crucial to include various stakeholders in the hiring process. Engaging team members nurtures ownership and accountability, helping to identify candidates who align with your team’s specific needs and dynamics. To streamline decision-making, consider limiting candidate interviews to a maximum of three team members, allowing for adequate input while guaranteeing a complete evaluation. This balance promotes effective teamwork and improves the overall hiring experience. Utilizing Recruitment Resources for Market Knowledge Effective hiring requires a deep comprehension of the job market, making it essential to utilize various recruitment resources for market knowledge. Engaging in candidate profiling helps you pinpoint the specific skills and characteristics necessary for a role, aligning your strategies with market availability. By using in-house recruitment teams, you can tap into internal expertise regarding market trends and candidate behaviors, which streamlines the hiring process. Collaborating with external recruitment agents improves your market knowledge, as they provide up-to-date insights on talent availability and competitive salary benchmarks in your industry. Conducting regular market research keeps you informed about evolving candidate expectations, allowing you to adapt your hiring processes effectively. Furthermore, leveraging recruitment software and applicant tracking systems offers valuable data analytics, revealing trends in candidate sourcing and application success rates that can inform your future recruitment strategies. Implementing a Streamlined Interview Process Implementing a streamlined interview process is crucial for attracting and retaining top talent in today’s competitive job market. By establishing a clear structure, you can define the number of stages and expected timelines, ensuring timely decision-making that keeps candidates engaged. Consider these key strategies: Utilize structured interview questions to assess candidates uniformly, reducing bias. Incorporate technology, like asynchronous video interviews, to efficiently screen candidates early. Engage multiple team members in the interview process to gain diverse perspectives and improve team dynamics. Document and regularly review the interview process to identify areas for improvement. Maintain consistent communication with candidates to keep them informed and interested. Focusing on Performance-Based Questions As you refine your interview process, incorporating performance-based questions can be a pivotal factor in evaluating candidate fit. These questions focus on evaluating a candidate’s past behavior and experiences, giving you insight into how they might handle similar situations in the future. Typically, candidates describe specific scenarios where they demonstrated relevant skills or achieved notable results, often using the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to structure their responses. Research shows that performance-based interviews are 50% more predictive of job performance compared to traditional methods. Enhancing Candidate Experience Throughout the Process Even though many organizations focus on candidate qualifications and skills during the hiring process, enhancing the overall candidate experience is equally crucial for attracting top talent. You can take several steps to improve engagement and satisfaction throughout the recruitment expedition. Send personalized emails at each stage to keep candidates informed. Implement structured communication templates in your applicant tracking system (ATS) for timely updates. Share personalized insights about company milestones and leadership to make candidates feel valued. Utilize asynchronous video interviews to allow candidates to express their motivation and personality. Guarantee clear and respectful communication with all candidates, even those not selected, to maintain a positive company reputation. Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement in Hiring To effectively measure success and promote continuous improvement in your hiring process, it’s vital to regularly evaluate key recruitment metrics such as time-to-hire and candidate satisfaction rates. Gathering feedback from both candidates and hiring teams after each hire can provide valuable insights into the recruitment process. This feedback helps identify specific areas for improvement. Implementing structured interviews and standardized evaluation criteria minimizes bias and streamlines assessments, leading to better decision-making over time. Organizations that view hiring as a dynamic system, documenting each step and analyzing outcomes, are more adaptable to changing market conditions. Regularly updating your recruitment practices in line with company growth and industry trends is fundamental. This proactive approach not only improves your hiring process but can as well lead to higher employee retention rates and enhanced overall team performance. Frequently Asked Questions What Is an Effective Hiring Process? An effective hiring process starts with clearly defined goals and precise job descriptions. You’ll want to create a structured recruitment plan that aligns with your organization’s objectives. Utilizing technology, like applicant tracking systems, streamlines candidate screening. Implement structured interviews and assessments to objectively evaluate candidates, minimizing bias. Regularly review recruitment metrics and candidate feedback for continuous improvement. Finally, guarantee a positive candidate experience through clear communication, enhancing your company’s reputation and attracting top talent. What Does a Typical Hiring Process Look Like? A typical hiring process starts with identifying the need for a new employee and creating a recruitment plan customized to your organization’s goals. You’ll then draft a clear job description detailing the role’s requirements and responsibilities. Next, you advertise the position across various platforms to attract a diverse pool of candidates. After screening applications, you conduct interviews, extend job offers, and guarantee new hires have a smooth onboarding experience. What Are the 5 C’s of Recruitment? The 5 C’s of recruitment are Clarity, Commitment, Consistency, Capability, and Culture. Clarity defines the job’s requirements, attracting suitable candidates. Commitment shows your organization’s dedication to finding the right fit. Consistency guarantees all candidates face the same evaluation process, promoting fairness. Capability assesses candidates through structured methods to gauge their skills. Finally, Culture evaluates how well potential hires align with your organization’s values, nurturing a cohesive work environment for everyone involved. What Is the 4 5 Rule for Hiring? The 4-5 Rule for hiring recommends that you interview four to five candidates for each open position. This approach helps you compare applicants effectively, ensuring you select the best fit for your organization. Conclusion To summarize, an effective hiring process is crucial for attracting and retaining top talent. By focusing on clear job descriptions, team collaboration, and standardized interviews, you can guarantee a fair evaluation of candidates. Incorporating performance-based questions helps identify the right fit, during timely feedback keeps candidates engaged. Finally, a well-structured onboarding program facilitates integration into the company culture. Regularly measuring and improving your hiring process will contribute to long-term employee satisfaction and organizational success. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Does an Effective Hiring Process Example Look Like?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you receive a text from a random number offering you a job, it's almost certainly a scam, and you likely know to ignore and delete the message and move on with your life. But a message from a recruiter with a link to an employment application may give you pause—and fraudsters are hoping that you'll believe it just enough to hand over your personal information. Malwarebytes recently identified a phishing scam that uses fake Google Forms posing as job applications to harvest user account credentials. How the Google Forms job scam worksThis specific campaign involves a fake Google Forms site that impersonates the real thing. Links sent to scam targets—likely via email or LinkedIn—direct to forms.google.ss-o[.]com, which looks like a subdomain of the legitimate forms.google.com. (It isn't.) The "ss-o" may be a trust signal for "single sign-on" and fail to raise red flags for many users. Each target receives a personalized URL, which leads to a (fake) Google Form inviting the user to apply for a job. As Malwarebytes found, the fake page uses the standard Google Forms colors, header, and disclaimers. The form itself is greyed out behind a pop-up prompting users to "sign in to continue." Again, this doesn't look particularly suspicious for a typical Google flow. But the sign-in button redirects to another domain that has been used in multiple phishing attacks to harvest credentials. Fraudsters have long used Google apps to perpetuate phishing schemes. A 2025 campaign targeting students, faculty, and staff at U.S. colleges and universities used Google Forms that mimicked legitimate school communications to collect login credentials entered directly into the form itself. (Google warns you to never, ever do this.) And numerous attacks on Gmail users have leveraged shared Google Docs to direct victims to a fake sign-in page. How to avoid phishing attempts on your Google credentialsAs always, your first red flag for a scam is a link sent via an unsolicited job offer—even if that link goes to a seemingly legitimate site. Scammers have all kinds of tricks for spoofing URLs and using recognizable domains to gain your trust. Always hover over hyperlinks to see the actual destination before clicking, and look carefully for additions or misspellings in the URL. Plus, you should probably be wary of any job application submitted via Google Forms. Do your due diligence in speaking with an actual human, and do not send sensitive personal information through Google Forms. This is also a good reason to use a password manager, which won't allow you to fill login credentials on a fake site. If your password manager gives you a warning or prevents you from using autofill, don't override it. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

Most SEO professionals give Google too much credit. We assume Google understands content the way we do — that it reads our pages, grasps nuance, evaluates expertise, and rewards quality in some deeply intelligent way. The DOJ antitrust trial told a different story. Under oath, Google VP of Search Pandu Nayak described a first-stage retrieval system built on inverted indexes and postings lists, traditional information retrieval methods that predate modern AI by decades. Court exhibits from the remedies phase reference “Okapi BM25,” the canonical lexical retrieval algorithm that Google’s system evolved from. The first gate your content has to pass through isn’t a neural network. It’s word matching. Google does deploy more advanced AI further down the pipeline, including BERT-based models, dense vector embeddings, and entity understanding systems. But those operate only on the much smaller candidate set traditional retrieval produces. We’ll walk through where each technology enters the process. This matters for content optimization tools like Surfer SEO, Clearscope, and MarketMuse. Their core methodology — a mix of TF-IDF analysis, topic modeling, and entity evaluation — maps directly to how that first retrieval stage scores documents. The tools are built on the right foundation. The problem is that most people use them incorrectly, and the studies backing them have real limitations. Below, I’ll explain how first-stage retrieval works and why it still matters, what the research on content scoring tools actually shows — and doesn’t show — and most importantly, how to use these tools to produce content that earns its way into the candidate set without wasting time chasing a perfect score. How first-stage retrieval works and why content tools map to it Best Matching 25 (BM25) is the retrieval function most commonly associated with Google’s first-stage system. Nayak’s testimony described the mechanics it formalizes: an inverted index that walks postings lists and scores topicality across hundreds of billions of indexed pages, narrowing the field to tens of thousands of candidates in milliseconds. Here’s what matters for content creators: Term frequency with saturation: The first mention of a relevant term captures roughly 45% of the maximum possible score for that term. Three mentions get you to about 71%. Going from three to thirty adds almost nothing. Repetition has steep diminishing returns. Inverse document frequency: Rare, specific terms carry more scoring weight than common ones. “Pronation” is worth roughly 2.5 times more than “shoes” in a running shoe query because fewer pages contain it. Document length normalization: Longer documents get penalized for the same raw term count. All of these scoring algorithms are essentially looking at some degree of density relative to word count, which is why every content tool measures it. The zero-score cliff: If a term doesn’t appear in your document at all, your score for that term is exactly zero. Not low. Zero. You’re invisible for every query containing it. That last point is the single most important reason content optimization tools have value. If you write a comprehensive rhinoplasty article but never mention “recovery time,” you score zero for that entire cluster of queries, regardless of how good the rest of your content is. Google has systems like synonym expansion and Neural Matching — RankEmbed — that can supplement lexical retrieval and surface additional documents. But counting on those systems to rescue a page with vocabulary gaps is a risky strategy when you can simply cover the term. After first-stage retrieval, the pipeline gets progressively more expensive and more sophisticated. RankEmbed adds candidates keyword matching missed. Mustang applies roughly 100+ signals, including topicality, quality scores, and NavBoost — accumulated click data over 13 months, described by Nayak as “one of the strongest” ranking signals. DeepRank applies BERT-based language understanding to only the final 20 to 30 results because these models are too expensive to run at scale. The practical implication is clear: no amount of authority or engagement signals helps if your page never passes the first gate. Content optimization tools help you get through it. What happens after is a different problem. 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 What the research on content tools actually shows Three major studies have examined whether content tool scores correlate with rankings: Ahrefs (20 keywords, May 2025), Originality.ai (~100 keywords, October 2025), and Surfer SEO (10,000 queries, July 2025). All found weak positive correlations in the 0.10 to 0.32 range. A 0.24 to 0.28 correlation is actually meaningful in this context. But these numbers need serious qualification. Every study was conducted by a vendor, and in every case, the vendor’s own tool performed best. No study controlled for confounding variables like backlinks, domain authority, or accumulated click data. The methodology is fundamentally circular: the tools generate recommendations by analyzing pages that already rank in the top 10 to 20, then the studies test whether pages in the top 10 to 20 score well on those same tools. The real question — whether following tool recommendations helps a new, unranked page climb — has never been rigorously tested. Clearscope’s Bernard Huang put it directly: “A 0.26 correlation is not the brag they think it is.” He’s right. But a weak positive correlation is exactly what you’d expect if these tools solve the retrieval problem — getting into the candidate set — without solving the ranking problem — beating competitors once there. Understanding that distinction is what makes these tools useful rather than misleading. Why not skip these tools altogether? Expert writers are terrible at predicting how their audience actually searches. MIT Sloan’s Miro Kazakoff calls it the curse of knowledge. Once you know something, you forget what it was like before you knew it. Clearscope’s case study with Algolia illustrates the problem precisely. Algolia’s writers were technical experts producing genuinely excellent content that sat on Page 9. The problem wasn’t quality. The team was using internal jargon instead of the language their audience actually typed into Google. After adopting Clearscope, their SEO manager Vince Caruana said the tool helped the organization “start writing for our audience instead of ourselves” by breaking out of internal vocabulary. Blog posts moved from Page 9 to Page 1 within weeks. Not because the writing improved, but because the vocabulary finally matched search behavior. Google’s own SEO Starter Guide acknowledges this dynamic, noting that users might search for “charcuterie” while others search for “cheese board.” Content optimization tools surface that gap by showing you the actual vocabulary of pages that have already demonstrated retrieval success. You can do everything a tool does manually by reading top results and noting common themes, but the tools automate hours of SERP analysis into minutes. At $79 to $399 per month, the investment is justified when teams publish frequently in competitive niches or assign work to freelancers lacking domain expertise. For a solo blogger publishing once or twice a month, manual analysis works fine. What about AI-powered retrieval? Dense vector embeddings are the same core technology behind LLMs and AI-powered search features. They compress a document into a fixed-length numerical representation and can match semantically similar content even without shared keywords. Google uses them via RankEmbed, but they supplement lexical retrieval rather than replace it. The reason is computational: A 768-dimensional embedding can preserve only so much information, and research from Google DeepMind’s 2025 LIMIT paper showed that single-vector models max out at roughly 1.7 million documents before relevance distinctions break down — a small fraction of Google’s index. Multiple studies, including findings on the BEIR benchmark, show hybrid approaches combining BM25 with dense retrieval outperform either method alone. The bottom line for practitioners is clear: The AI layer matters, but it sits lower in the pipeline, and the traditional retrieval stage your content tools map to still does the heavy lifting at scale. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. How to actually use content scoring tools This is where most guidance on content tools falls short. The typical advice is “use Surfer/Clearscope, get a high score, rank better.” That misses the point entirely. Here’s a framework built on how these tools actually intersect with Google’s retrieval mechanics. Prioritize zero-usage terms over everything else The highest-leverage action these tools identify is a term with zero mentions in your content. That’s a term where your retrieval score is literally zero, and you’re invisible for every query containing it. Going from zero to one mention is the single most impactful edit you can make. Going from four mentions to eight is nearly worthless because of the saturation curve. When reviewing tool recommendations, filter for terms you haven’t used at all. Clearscope’s “Unused” filter does this explicitly. Ask yourself: Does this missing term represent a subtopic my audience would expect me to cover? If yes, work it in naturally. If the tool suggests a term that doesn’t fit your angle — a beginner’s guide doesn’t need advanced technical terminology — skip it. A high score achieved by forcing irrelevant terms into your content is worse than a moderate score with genuinely useful writing. As Ahrefs noted in its 2025 study, “you can literally copy-paste the entire keyword list, draft nothing else, and get a high score.” That tells you everything about the limits of chasing the number. Be selective about which competitor pages you analyze Default settings on most tools pull from the top 10 to 20 ranking pages, which frequently includes Wikipedia, major media outlets, and enterprise sites with overwhelming domain authority. These pages often rank despite their content, not because of it. Their term patterns reflect authority advantage, not content quality, and they’ll skew your recommendations. A better approach: Look for pages that rank for a high number of organic keywords on mid-authority domains. Ahrefs’ data shows the average page ranking No. 1 also ranks in the top 10 for nearly 1,000 other keywords. A page ranking for 500 keywords on a DR 35 site has demonstrated broad retrieval success through vocabulary and topical coverage, not just backlinks. Those pages contain term patterns proven effective across hundreds of separate retrieval events, not just one. In most tools, you can manually exclude specific URLs from competitor analysis. Remove the Wikipedia pages, the Amazon listings, and any high-authority site where you know authority is doing the work. What’s left gives you a much cleaner picture of what content actually needs to include. Use tools during research, not during writing The worst workflow is writing with the scoring editor open, watching your number tick up in real time. That pulls your attention toward keyword insertion instead of communicating expertise. Practitioners reporting the worst experiences with these tools tend to be the ones writing to a live score. The better workflow: Run the tool first. Review the term list. Identify gaps in your outline, especially terms with zero usage that represent subtopics you should cover. Then close the tool and write for your reader. Run it again at the end as a sanity check. Did you miss any major subtopics? Add them. Is the score significantly lower than competitors? That’s information worth investigating. But your job is to build the best page on the internet for this topic, not to match a number. Understand that content is one player in the game NavBoost, RankEmbed, PageRank-derived quality scores, site authority, click data, and engagement signals all operate on the candidate set that first-stage retrieval produces. Content optimization gets you through the gate. It doesn’t win the race. If you optimize a page, push the score to 90, and don’t see ranking improvements, that doesn’t mean the tool failed. It likely means the other ranking factors — backlinks, domain authority, and click signals — are doing more work for your competitors than content alone can overcome. This is especially important when scoping on-page optimization projects. Be honest about what content changes can and can’t accomplish. If a page is on a DR 15 domain competing against DR 70+ sites, perfect content optimization is necessary but probably not sufficient. When a client asks why they’re not ranking after you pushed their score to 95, the answer shouldn’t be “we need more content.” It should be a clear explanation of which part of the problem content solves — retrieval — which parts it doesn’t — authority, engagement, brand — and what the next strategic move actually is. Focus on going beyond, not just matching The philosophy behind these tools — structure your content after what top results cover — is sound. You need to demonstrate topical relevance to enter the candidate set. But the goal isn’t to produce another version of what already exists. The pages that rank broadly, the ones that show up for hundreds or thousands of keywords, consistently do more than match the competitive baseline. They add original research, practitioner experience, specific examples, or angles the existing results don’t cover. Surfer SEO’s December 2024 study supports this. It measured “facts coverage” across articles and found that top-performing content by keyword breadth had significantly higher coverage scores than bottom performers. The content that ranks for the most queries doesn’t just include the right terms. It includes more information, more specifically. Use the tool to establish the floor of topical coverage. Then build the ceiling with value the tool can’t measure. A note on entities Google’s Knowledge Graph contains an estimated 54 billion entities. Entity understanding becomes most powerful in the later ranking stages where BERT and DeepRank process final candidates. Some content tools are starting to incorporate entity analysis, but even the best versions present entities as flat keyword lists, missing the relationships between entities that Google’s systems actually evaluate. Knowing that “Dr. Smith” and “rhinoplasty” appear on your page is different from understanding that Dr. Smith is a board-certified surgeon with published research at a specific institution. That relational depth is what Google processes, and no content scoring tool currently captures it. Treat entity coverage as an additional layer beyond what keyword-focused tools measure, not a replacement for the fundamentals. 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 Retrieval before ranking Content optimization tools work because they’ve reverse-engineered the vocabulary of the retrieval stage. That’s a less exciting claim than “they’ve cracked Google’s algorithm,” but it’s the honest one, and it’s supported by what the DOJ trial revealed about Google’s infrastructure. Use these tools to identify missing terms and subtopics. Be skeptical of exact frequency targets. Exclude high-authority outliers from your competitor analysis. Prioritize zero-usage terms over further optimization of terms you’ve already covered. Understand that a perfect content score addresses one stage of a multi-stage pipeline and use the competitive baseline as your floor, not your ceiling. The content that ranks the broadest isn’t the content that best matches what already exists. It’s the content that covers what already exists and then goes further. View the full article

SerpApi is asking a federal court to dismiss Google’s lawsuit, arguing the company is misusing copyright law to restrict access to public search results. The motion was filed Feb. 20, according to a blog post by SerpApi CEO and founder Julien Khaleghy. Google sued SerpApi in December, alleging it bypassed technical protections to scrape and resell content from Google Search. The details: SerpApi argues Google is improperly invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). According to Khaleghy: The DMCA protects copyrighted works, not websites or ad businesses. Google doesn’t own the underlying content displayed in search results. Accessing publicly visible pages isn’t “circumvention” under the statute. Google’s complaint alleged SerpApi: Circumvented bot-detection and crawling controls. Used rotating bot identities and large bot networks. Scraped licensed content from Search features, including images and real-time data. SerpApi said it doesn’t decrypt systems, disable authentication, or access private data. Khaleghy said SerpApi retrieves the same information available to any user in a browser, without requiring a login. Khaleghy also argued Google admitted its anti-bot systems protect its advertising business — not specific copyrighted works — which he said undermines the DMCA claim. SerpApi cites the Ninth Circuit’s hiQ v. LinkedIn decision warning against “information monopolies” over public data. It also cites the Sixth Circuit’s Impression Products v. Lexmark ruling to argue that public-facing content can’t be shielded by technical measures alone. Catch up quick: The lawsuit follows months of escalating legal fights over scraping and AI data use. Oct. 22: Reddit sued SerpApi, Perplexity, Oxylabs, and AWMProxy in federal court, alleging they scraped Reddit content indirectly from Google Search and reused or resold it. Reddit claimed the companies hid their identities and scraped at “industrial scale.” Reddit said it set a “trap” post visible only to Google’s crawler that later appeared in Perplexity results. Reddit is seeking damages and a ban on further use of previously scraped data. Oct. 29: SerpApi said it would “vigorously defend” itself, calling Reddit’s language “inflammatory” and arguing public search data should remain accessible. Dec. 19: Google sued SerpApi, alleging it bypassed security protections, ignored crawling directives, and scraped licensed Search content for resale. SerpApi responded that it operates lawfully and that accessing public search data is protected by the First Amendment. By the numbers: SerpApi claims that, under Google’s interpretation of the DMCA, statutory damages could theoretically total $7.06 trillion — a figure it said exceeds U.S. GDP. The number reflects SerpApi’s calculation of potential per-violation penalties, not an actual damages demand. What’s next. The case now moves to the court’s decision on whether Google’s claims can proceed. Why we care: The outcome could reshape how SEO platforms, AI tools, and competitive intelligence software access SERP data. A win for Google could make third-party search data harder or riskier to obtain. A win for SerpApi could strengthen arguments that publicly accessible search results can be scraped and collected. The blog post. Google v. SerpApi: We’re filing a Motion to Dismiss. Here’s why we’re in the right. Dig deeper. Inside SearchGuard: How Google detects bots and what the SerpAPI lawsuit reveals View the full article

Governor Chris Waller says he would back March rate cut if there are further signs of weakening in labour marketView the full article

Discover how the December 2025 core update impacted 4 sites and the factors that contributed to their improvement. The post 4 Sites That Recovered From Google’s December 2025 Core Update – What They Changed appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

If you want to understand a generation, look at the athletes they revere. The post-war generation's suburban conformity found a hero in baseball's ultimate company man—Stan Musial—and his 22 seasons on the Cardinals. Boomers were drawn to Broadway Joe Namath, a self-important celebrity who wasn't even a good quarterback. Gen X saw itself in Tiger Woods' stoic, lone-grinder-in-a-high-stakes-vacuum style. This year's Winter Olympics introduced the world to the first iconic athletes that express Gen Z's vibe, and they're amazing. But first, let's talk about Baby Boo Syndrome. What is "Baby Boo Syndrome"?It seems like everyone on TikTok has come down with Baby Boo Syndrome this week. The trend started with a short dance video from @selenaaa.dta using a particularly snippet of YoungBoy Never Broke Again's "What You Is." The rapper saying "She gon call me baby boo" is both really catchy and really annoying, in other words, a perfect ear-worm. @selenaaa.dta's unique style earned their video over 10 million views, but it took more than a year for everyone else to catch up and start posting their own choreography to the music. Then things got weird. Baby Boo variations and remixes started appearing, like this operatic cover: and this patriotic remix: And this mash-up with "Baby Shark" The rapid spread of the trend and the catchiness of the song soon led to people diagnosing cases of "Baby Boo Syndrome" in videos like this: and like this: and this: I am getting definite 6-7 vibes with this one. Alysa Liu is Gen Z's sports hero Olympic gold medalist figure skater Alysa Liu is that rare athlete that kids should consider a role model. Liu embodies everything that makes people between of 14 and 29, and America itself, so uniquely awesome. First there's the look. Liu's blonde halo highlight and frenulum piercing is fully in tune with Gen Z's aesthetic, but it's deeper than style. Like roughly 22% of Generation Z, Liu is from an immigrant family—her parents are Chinese dissidents who fled after Tiananmen Square. Liu was a skating prodigy, then, like everyone of her age, COVID shaped her destiny. She retired from skating at 16 when her local rink's closure gave her time to consider the strain skating was taking on her mental health. After attending UCLA for two years, Liu came back to the ice, but on her own, very Gen Z, terms: She would be in charge of her training schedule, costumes, and diet. Maybe more importantly, she rejected the competitiveness of her sport in favor of viewing figure skating as an act of self-expression, something fun. Many in the conservative world of figure skating thought she was finished—you don't succeed as a world class athlete while without sacrificing everything in your life for it, and it's definitely not fun. But Liu made it to the Olympics and murdered her individual routine like it was no big deal, then walked off the ice giving NBC's camera a hearty, "That's what I'm fucking talking about." So punk rock. Just as iconic: Liu sharing victory with silver medal winner Kaori Sakamoto of Japan. Amber Glenn: Alysa Liu's nerdier counterpartMaybe she's not as fierce and in-your-face as Liu, but Team USA figure skater Amber Glenn is quietly becoming a Gen Z icon as well. The 26-year-old figure skater is open about her mental health struggles and being queer, and she's also a passionate Magic: The Gathering player. A recent interview reveals that Glenn carries her Magic cards with her, but leaves the "super fancy" ones at home because they're her prized possessions, and she doesn't want to lose them. Viral video of the week: Punch-kun the monkeyThe main character of the internet this week is a baby macaque from the in Japan. Punch-kun was introduced to the world on the Ichikawa City Zoo's twitter account. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Punch was born on July 26, 2025, but was rejected by his stressed-out mother. Zookeepers raised him, giving him an orangutan plush toy to replace mom. He drags it everywhere, which is cute, but things got a lot less adorable when the zoo introduced the little guy to other monkeys. It seems to not go well at all. Everyone spread the video above because how could you not? It's so poignant. Many were moved, and others angered by the seeming mistreatment of Punch by the other macaques, or angry at the zoo for putting him in that position. Weirdly enough, it turns out the internet got it totally wrong. The controversy lead to the zoo explaining that the macaque dragging him around in the video isn't bullying Punch; it's an older member of the troop teaching him how to fit in. It's monkey business. They are wild animals, and they don't do things like humans do. The saga of Punch is ongoing. Sometimes he seems to be getting along with the troop better, sometimes he still seems like an outsider. Keep checking every social media site for updates. View the full article

Government says ‘nothing is off the table’ if talks with The President administration are not resolved amicably View the full article

President Donald The President’s State of the Union address on Tuesday is likely to be a test run of the message Republicans will give to voters in November’s elections for control of the House and the Senate. The president and his party appear vulnerable, with polls showing much of America distrusts how The President has managed the government in his first year back in office. In addition, the Supreme Court last week struck down one of the chief levers of his economic and foreign policy by ruling he lacked the power to impose many of his sweeping tariffs. Though The President is expected to focus on domestic issues, his intensifying threats about launching military strikes on Iran over its nuclear program cast a shadow over the address. Here are a few things to watch as The President tries to make his case: Economy and immigration are no longer strengths for The President The President swept back into the White House on promises to bring down prices and restore order to immigration in America. But on both issues, public sentiment has turned against him. Only 39% of U.S. adults approve of his economic leadership and just 38% support him on immigration, according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey. Those low numbers show the country is still fretting about the costs of groceries, housing and utilities, a problem compounded by The President’s whipsawing use of tariffs. They also show how the public was disturbed by videos of violent clashes with protesters, including two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents. Since his party passed a massive tax cut bill last year, The President has yet to unveil major new policy ideas on the economy. In recent speeches, he has largely offered the public reruns about his tax cuts, plans to reduce mortgage rates and a new government website for buying prescription drugs. The Supreme Court ruling against many of The President’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday and the president vowing to use other means to forge ahead with import taxes will only prolong the economic turmoil over trade and prices. “I think it makes it even more important that the speech really focus on the economy,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist. Conant said between the tariff ruling and a Commerce Department report on Friday that showed U.S. economic growth slowed in the final three months of last year, “the president needs to bolster his economic message.” Blame everything on Biden The administration is trying to make the case that despite The President’s rewiring of global trade and tax cuts, the economy is still struggling because of choices made in 2021 and 2022 by his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. But The President is also seeking to take credit for positive signs in the current economy, such as recent stock market gains. “Watch the State of the Union. We’re going to be talking about the economy. We inherited a mess,” The President said at the White House on Wednesday. Of course, The President made the same kind of argument in his address to a joint session of Congress last year, invoking the Biden name 13 times. The President’s focus on foreign policy has yet to resonate politically Despite The President’s America First credo, his aggressive approach abroad over the past year has sparked concerns among some of his supporters about whether he should spend more time focusing on voters at home. The President, who’s made it clear he covets a Nobel Peace Prize, is likely to use the speech to remind Americans of his attempts to try to broker peace accords in global conflicts. But in many respects, the president hasn’t been extending olive branches. Within the past year, his administration has launched strikes in Yemen, Nigeria and Iran, along with an ongoing campaign of lethal military strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels near South America. The President also shocked the world in January with a surprise raid to capture Venezuela’s then-leader, Nicolás Maduro, and floated the idea of using force to seize Greenland. In recent weeks, as he pressures Iran, The President has bolstered the U.S. military’s presence in the Middle East. But he has yet to make a clear case to voters about what his actions overseas mean for their lives. He might even minimize foreign policy in his State of the Union despite his belief that it’s been a major success. “For as much as foreign policy has dominated his last year in office, this speech will mostly focus on the economy,” Conant predicted. Vice President JD Vance offered a similar prediction, saying in an interview Saturday on Fox News Channel that in the speech, “you’re going to hear a lot about the importance of bringing jobs back into our country, of reshoring manufacturing, of all these great factories that are being built.” He said The President would also speak about lowering energy costs. The President has made the State of the Union his own The State of the Union used to be about recapping accomplishments and seeking to unite the country, but it increasingly reflects divisions in society. “What you’re going to expect is some version of a campaign speech in which the Democrats are the villains, the Republicans he likes are the heroes, and he is the savior not only of the nation but of the globe,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania. The President supporters might cherish the moment in 2020 when the president midspeech reunited a military family. He also bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host and author who died in 2021. But that moment turned off Democrats who saw Limbaugh as a destructive figure in political media. Reaction in the room could matter as much as The President’s words The President is delivering the speech, but his audience sitting in the House chamber has a big role, too. When The President delivered his 2020 State of the Union, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi theatrically ripped up a copy of the speech afterward, overshadowing much of what The President said. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has said in a letter to colleagues “it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber,” indicating some members might choose not to attend in protest to The President. But there’s also the possibility of Democrats razzing The President as Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, did in 2025, leading him to be removed from the chamber. If The President in his speech lays out a fuller case for why he’s using other mechanisms in federal law to continue his tariffs, Conant said it’ll be interesting to see the reaction from lawmakers. “I think that any House Republicans that don’t applaud his tariffs are going to be featured prominently on the telecast,” he said. State of the Unions have short shelf lives While some presidential phrases endure, much of the rhetoric in State of the Unions is forgettable. And with The President — who’s known for veering off-script — there’s a good chance a stray comment or a social media post could step on his message. Matt Latimer, a former Republican speechwriter for then-President George W. Bush, noted in an email that people hear the president talk all of the time, so the State of the Union has lost much of its luster. A State of the Union “only matters in moments when the country is undergoing a great trauma — a war, an attack, a global crisis — and a president and Congress want to speak in a (mostly) united voice to the country,” he said. “That’s not what we are experiencing now.” —Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price, Associated Press View the full article

Hi there, We tend to think in straight lines—growth or decline, success or failure. But work, markets, trends, and even motivation rarely move that way. They move in cycles. Before making big decisions, it’s worth remembering that what feels permanent today may simply be a phase. This issue explores exactly that: guidelines to consider before accepting a job in the rocketship, advice on landing a role in a startup, the evolving expectations of new generations—and yes, a story about a scam that reminds us not every opportunity is what it seems. Enjoy today’s reads. -Maja Our Favorite Articles 💯Rocketship Seat Chosen Wisely (Molly Graham, Lessons)An argument for slowing down before boarding the next “rocketship,” and making career moves with intention rather than hype. 👉 ​Read on​. Gen Z’s Remote Work Future (Inc.)Gen Z leaders signal that flexibility is here to stay, with many saying that when they’re in charge, remote work will remain a standard—not a perk. 👉 ​Read here​. How to Land a Startup Job (Ben Lang, Next Play)A tactical guide to landing a startup role—why initiative beats credentials and how to get noticed by founders. 👉 ​Learn more​. Woman Loses $176K in Facebook Job Scam (ABC7 News Bay Area)Scammers are everywhere, and they're more skilled than ever. 👉 ​Watch the video​. This Week's Sponsor 🙌Secure your remote work with Surfshark VPNProtect your data and privacy while working remotely with Surfshark VPN. Enjoy secure, encrypted connections on any network, ensuring your sensitive information stays safe. Try Surfshark today!​ Remotive Jobs 💼Let's get you hired! This great company is hiring now: 💻 Engineering 👉 ​Senior Independent AI Engineer / Architect at A.Team​ (Americas, Europe, Israel) 👉 ​Senior Independent Software Developer at A.Team​ (Americas, Europe, Israel) 👉 ​iOS Developer at nooro​ (USA Only) 👉 ​Senior Python Backend Developer at SKYCATCHFIRE ​(USA Only) 🧠 AI/ML 👉 ​AI-Native Cloud Infrastructure Generalist (m/f/d) at shopware AG​ (Europe, Germany) 🧚 Customer Service 👉 ​Client Support Specialist at Clipboard Health​ (Europe, Canada, South Africa, Philippines, Jamaica) Free Guides & Tools​Premium Job Board​We curate 130,000+ fully remote jobs so you don't have to. ➡️ ​Find your remote job​ ​Job Search Tips​Looking for a remote job? Here are our tips to help you work remotely. ➡️ ​Check it out​ Join the Remotive newsletter Subscribe to get our latest content by email. Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription. There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again. Email address Subscribe Powered by ConvertKit View the full article

As AI Mode enables on-platform transactions, ecommerce visibility now depends on schema completeness, feed accuracy, and third-party validation. The post Agentic Commerce Optimization: A Technical Guide To Prepare For Google’s UCP 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. Finding a decent soundbar under $100 is rare, especially from a brand like Amazon. But right now, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus in an Open Box condition is $99.99 at Woot, as compared to its usual $249.99 price on Amazon. The previous low that price trackers tracked was $149, so this deal drops it by another $50. Prime members get free standard shipping, while non-Prime buyers pay a $6 shipping fee. That said, Woot does not ship this product to Alaska, Hawaii, APO addresses, or P.O. Boxes. The sale runs for six more days or until it sells out. Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus $99.99 at Woot $249.99 Save $150.00 Get Deal Get Deal $99.99 at Woot $249.99 Save $150.00 This is a 3.1-channel system with three forward-facing drivers and tweeter pairs and two built-in woofers. It’s 37 inches long, which gives it a more substantial presence under a TV. For connectivity, it includes HDMI eARC, optical audio input, USB-A, and a standard power port. You also get Bluetooth for streaming music from your phone, but no wifi, multi-room support, or built-in voice assistant. Despite the name, it does not run the Fire TV smart TV platform. It’s simply a soundbar, and it works with any TV that supports HDMI ARC or optical output, notes this PCMag review. The included remote lets you switch between a few preset EQ modes, adjust bass and treble, and control volume. In everyday use, it’s a clear upgrade over standard TV speakers. Dialogue sounds crisp and easy to follow, and music has decent detail in the mids and highs, and it can get loud without distortion. The main limitation is bass. On its own, it doesn’t deliver deep low-end impact, so action scenes and bass-heavy tracks won’t feel especially full. Amazon does offer bundles with a wireless subwoofer for $374.99 or a 5.1 setup with surrounds for $489.99, if you want to add more weight and immersion. Also, while the bar supports Dolby Atmos, without height channels, the effect is limited. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $139.99 (List Price $179.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $329.00 (List Price $349.00) Google Pixel 10a 128GB 6.3" Unlocked Smartphone + $100 Gift Card — $499.00 (List Price $599.00) 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 — $329.00 (List Price $429.00) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $29.99 (List Price $49.99) Bose QuietComfort Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones — $229.99 (List Price $349.00) Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 64GB Wi-Fi 11" Tablet (Silver) — $159.99 (List Price $219.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

A new standard is reshaping how AI agents connect to enterprise systems. The Model Context Protocol, created by Anthropic and now backed by OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google, provides a universal interface for AI agents to access tools, databases, and business applications. After years of custom integrations for every AI-to-system connection, MCP offers a standardized approach that’s gaining rapid enterprise adoption. Understanding MCP matters because it signals a shift in how organizations will deploy AI agents. The protocol addresses a fundamental bottleneck: connecting intelligent models to the data they need to be useful. But MCP also introduces new considerations around security, governance, and how it fits with existing integration infrastructure. This isn’t just another technical standard. Gartner predicts that 40% of enterprise applications will include AI agents by the end of 2026, up from less than 5% today. MCP is becoming the foundation for how those agents operate. What MCP actually is The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that defines how AI applications discover, connect to, and interact with external tools and data sources. Released by Anthropic in November 2024, MCP provides a consistent interface so that AI agents can access different systems without requiring custom code for each connection. The architecture follows a client-server model. MCP clients run within AI applications like Claude, ChatGPT, or enterprise AI platforms. MCP servers expose specific capabilities: tools that can execute actions, resources that provide data, and prompts that offer reusable templates. The protocol handles communication between them in a standardized way. The four primary capabilities MCP provides: CapabilityWhat It DoesExampleToolsExecutable functions for actionsQuery a database, create a ticketResourcesRead-only data and contextAccess file contents, retrieve recordsPromptsReusable prompt templatesStandardized analysis formatsSamplingServer-requested LLM completionsAgent asks model for clarification Before MCP, connecting an AI agent to a business system meant building custom integration code. Each combination of AI model and external system required its own implementation. MCP replaces this with a standard interface: build an MCP server once, and any MCP-compatible AI client can use it. The ecosystem has grown rapidly. Over 5,500 MCP servers now exist on registries like PulseMCP, covering everything from developer tools to business applications. The most popular servers connect AI agents to platforms like GitHub, Figma, and Playwright for browser automation. The problem MCP was created to solve Enterprise AI deployments faced what’s called the “N times M problem.” If you have N different AI models that need to connect with M different business systems, you theoretically need N times M custom integrations. Five AI platforms connecting to twenty enterprise tools means one hundred integration projects. This made enterprise AI adoption expensive and slow. Each new AI tool required rebuilding connections to existing systems. Each new business application required updating every AI integration. Technical debt accumulated faster than value. Organizations familiar with enterprise integration challenges recognize this pattern from traditional system connectivity. The integration bottleneck had real consequences: Organizations couldn’t scale AI beyond pilot projects because the integration work overwhelmed available engineering resources. Data remained trapped behind fragmented integrations that couldn’t keep pace with AI deployment ambitions. Employees created their own AI solutions, what some organizations call “shadow AI,” because official channels couldn’t deliver integrations fast enough. These ungoverned implementations created compliance and security risks. AI agents operated in isolation rather than maintaining context across the systems relevant to their work. An agent helping with customer service couldn’t access the full picture if relevant data lived in multiple platforms. MCP addresses this by standardizing the connection layer. Build an MCP server for Salesforce once, and every MCP-compatible AI can use it. The N times M problem becomes N plus M: one server per system, usable by all compatible clients. Who’s adopting MCP and why it matters The speed of MCP adoption signals its strategic importance. Within a year of release, the protocol gained backing from the major AI platform providers and significant enterprise software vendors. Platform adoption: OpenAI announced MCP support for ChatGPT in December 2025, describing MCP as the foundation for their connector strategy. Microsoft integrated MCP into Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio, enabling GitHub Copilot extensions through the protocol. Google launched fully-managed MCP servers through Google Cloud with enterprise security features. In December 2025, Anthropic donated MCP to the newly formed Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation. The foundation’s co-founders include Anthropic, Block, and OpenAI, with support from Google, Microsoft, AWS, Cloudflare, and Bloomberg. This governance move signals that MCP is intended as industry infrastructure, not a proprietary advantage. Enterprise software vendors building MCP servers: CategoryVendorsBusiness intelligenceTableau, ThoughtSpot, Sisense, GoodData, SASData infrastructureSnowflake, Databricks, Oracle, Teradata, ConfluentDevelopment platformsGitHub, Replit, Cursor, Sourcegraph, Codeium Early enterprise results provide validation. Block, the company behind Square and Cash App, built an internal AI agent called Goose that uses MCP to connect across GitHub, Jira, Snowflake, and internal systems. Thousands of employees use it daily, with reported time savings of 50-75% on common tasks. Bloomberg adopted MCP organization-wide and reported reducing time-to-production from days to minutes for new AI integrations. How MCP differs from traditional integration MCP isn’t just another API standard. It reflects fundamentally different assumptions about how software will interact with external systems. Traditional APIs assume human-written applications making predictable, coded requests. A developer writes specific calls to specific endpoints. The application follows predetermined paths. The system knows what requests to expect. MCP assumes autonomous AI agents making contextual decisions. The agent reasons about what information it needs and what actions to take. Requests emerge from natural language instructions rather than hardcoded logic. The system must handle unpredictable sequences that evolve based on context. AspectTraditional APIsMCPRequest modelDiscrete, predictable transactionsOrchestrated sequences with evolving contextDecision-makingHardcoded by developersAutonomous agent decisionsState managementStateless request-responsePersistent context across interactionsDiscoverabilityDocumentation for humansMachine-readable capability descriptionsReusabilityTightly coupled to applicationsBuild once, use with any compatible client This difference has practical implications. Traditional API integrations require developers to anticipate every interaction pattern. MCP enables AI agents to discover available capabilities and decide how to use them based on the task at hand. MCP also handles “tool overload” differently. An agent with access to hundreds of tools through traditional methods would need to load information about all of them, consuming context window capacity. MCP supports progressive discovery, where agents query for relevant tool categories rather than loading everything upfront. This approach has demonstrated 98.7% reduction in token usage compared to loading all tools simultaneously. Enterprise considerations and gaps MCP solves the connection standardization problem but introduces new considerations that enterprises must address. Security remains a primary concern. Research indicates that 25% of MCP servers have no authentication, and 50% of MCP builders cite security and access control as their primary concern. The protocol enables AI agents to take real-world actions on enterprise systems, making security failures more consequential than traditional API vulnerabilities. Specific security challenges include tool poisoning, where attackers embed malicious instructions in MCP tool metadata, and prompt injection attacks that could trigger unintended actions across connected systems. Because agents make autonomous decisions, the attack surface expands beyond what traditional API security models address. This is particularly relevant for ServiceNow integrations and other enterprise platforms handling sensitive data. Governance infrastructure is immature. Security tooling for MCP hasn’t caught up with traditional API management capabilities. Visibility and observability gaps mean agent actions can appear as normal user activity in logs, complicating audit and compliance requirements. Performance characteristics differ from expectations. MCP introduces baseline latency of 300-800 milliseconds end-to-end, making it unsuitable for real-time applications like trading systems or checkout flows. The protocol uses polling rather than event subscriptions, limiting use cases that depend on immediate notifications. MCP connects but doesn’t synchronize. The protocol enables AI agents to access data from systems, but it doesn’t keep that data consistent across systems. If customer information differs between your CRM and support platform, MCP doesn’t resolve that inconsistency. The agent accesses whatever data exists in each system, conflicts included. ConsiderationStatusSecurity standardsEmerging, significant gapsEnterprise governanceImmature toolingReal-time performanceNot suitable (300-800ms latency)Data synchronizationNot addressed by protocolCross-platform consistencyRequires separate infrastructure This last point matters for enterprise deployments. MCP provides the pipes for AI agents to reach your systems. It doesn’t provide the plumbing that keeps those systems aligned with each other. MCP and your existing integration infrastructure Organizations evaluating MCP often ask whether it replaces their existing integration platforms. The answer reveals how different problems require different solutions. MCP standardizes how AI agents connect to systems. Integration platforms standardize how data flows between systems. These are complementary functions, not competing ones. Consider what each layer provides: Integration platforms maintain ongoing data synchronization. When a customer record updates in Salesforce, it should reflect in your support platform and marketing tools. This requires persistent infrastructure that monitors changes, handles conflicts, and ensures consistency. Integration platforms like two-way sync solutions provide this foundation. MCP enables AI agents to access that synchronized data through a standard interface. The agent queries the CRM through an MCP server and gets current information because the integration layer kept that information current. Without the integration layer, the agent might access stale or conflicting data across systems. The relationship is layered: Integration infrastructure keeps your business systems synchronized. MCP servers expose those synchronized systems to AI agents. The agent benefits from both: standardized access through MCP, and consistent data through integration. Organizations that invested in integration infrastructure find that MCP extends the value of that investment. AI agents can now access the synchronized data that integration provides. Organizations without solid integration foundations discover that MCP alone doesn’t solve the data consistency problems their agents encounter. For teams already using two-way sync between work management platforms, MCP represents an additional access layer for AI agents rather than a replacement for existing integration. What comes next MCP’s trajectory suggests it will become standard infrastructure for enterprise AI. The governance transfer to the Linux Foundation, backing from all major AI platforms, and rapid ecosystem growth indicate sustained momentum rather than a passing trend. Near-term developments to watch: Security and governance tooling will mature as enterprise adoption increases. The current gaps create risk that major vendors are actively working to address. Expect enterprise-grade security features to emerge as table stakes. Multi-agent orchestration will become more common. Rather than single agents handling requests, specialized agents will coordinate through MCP, each accessing the systems relevant to their function. This “agent squad” pattern expands what’s possible but also expands complexity. The line between MCP servers and integration platforms may blur. Some integration vendors will expose their capabilities through MCP servers. Some MCP implementations will add synchronization features. The current clear distinction may become a spectrum. For enterprise planning: Evaluate MCP readiness of your critical systems. Which vendors offer MCP servers? What capabilities do they expose? Understanding the current landscape helps prioritize where AI agents can operate effectively. Assess your data foundation. AI agents accessing systems through MCP are only as useful as the data in those systems. If your platforms contain conflicting or stale information, agents will work with that flawed data. Integration infrastructure that maintains consistency becomes more valuable, not less, as MCP adoption increases. Consider security implications before deployment. The 25% of MCP servers without authentication represents significant risk. Ensure your organization’s security requirements are met before exposing systems to AI agents. MCP: The protocol for getting more out of every agent MCP represents a genuine shift in how AI agents will access enterprise systems. Understanding both its capabilities and its limitations helps organizations adopt it effectively while maintaining the data foundations that make AI agents actually useful. View the full article

Search Console is a free gift from Google for SEO professionals that tells you how your website is performing. It’s the closest thing to X-ray vision we can get. With data-packed amenities, SEO professionals can scavenge through to locate stashes of hidden nuggets like clicks and impressions from search queries, Core Web Vitals, and whatever other surprises lie within your website. Custom regex filters take you around your million-page website. And while all SEO professionals hope to avoid any catastrophic SEO-related events with Google’s AI Overview, all we can really do is be prepared. For starters, keep reading this guide below on Search Console. It’s engineered to withstand zombie pages, Helpful Content bloodbaths, core update mood swings, and AI Overview siphoning your clicks like we’re in Mad Max, the Search Edition. This guide is exactly what you need when the SEO industry gets dicey. What does Search Console do? And how does it help SEO? Search Console is a free website analytics and diagnostic tool provided by Google. Search Console tracks your website’s performance in Google search results (and, hopefully soon, in Gemini and AI Mode). This is the closest thing we have to first-party search truth. As an SEO director, I use Search Console daily. I monitor content performance, validate technical fixes, and track branded and non-branded query growth. It helps me prioritize what I should focus on in my SEO strategy. 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 How do I set up Search Console? Getting set up on Search Console is quick and easy, but may require technical support. First, you need to have a Google account. Next, go to Search Console https://search.google.com/search-console. If you don’t see any profiles listed, you’ll need to choose a domain or prefix URL and verify your website ownership. So, how do you choose between a domain versus a prefix URL? Let me walk you through the differences. Domain property is the default recommendation A domain property includes all subdomains but no protocols (HTTP:// or HTTPS://) and no path strings (/sub/folder/). A domain property provides a comprehensive view of how your website performs in Google search results because it automatically includes the HTTP, HTTPS, www, and non-www versions of your site. I recommend setting up domain properties first. To set up a domain property in Search Console, remove the HTTPS and trailing slashes. After you hit continue, you can verify your ownership via a DNS TXT record. I recommend going this route as it is the easiest. You’ll need to log in to your hosting provider to submit the TXT file. Another option is to verify through the CNAME. If you have technical support, this could be an easy alternative. If you run an ecommerce site, Search Console lets you set shipping and return policies and connect to Merchant Center data. This pairs nicely with your schema markup: Product + Offer + shippingDetails + returnPolicy lets Google read your store like a label with price, availability, delivery speed, returns, etc. URL prefix property allows you to dissect sections of a site A URL prefix property includes the HTTPS or HTTP protocol and path string. This means that if you want to really dive into a section of your website, like /blog/ subfolder or a blog.website.com subdomain, you can do this. After I set up my domain property, I created individual URL prefix properties for each subdomain, HTTP versions, and the/blog/ subfolders. By having multiple URL prefix properties, I can dig deeper into sections of the website to help troubleshoot. I can also create reporting specific to the website’s sections that may be more relevant to my co-workers. For example, I work with customer support team members looking for data on how their Help Center content is performing. Key moments in history for Search Console Some really crazy stuff has happened with Search Console over time. Search Console is notorious among many SEO professionals as a delicacy, an incessant phantom of manual actions, and a culprit behind a better understanding of our website health. I’ve compiled a short history of my SEO bromance with Search Console over the years to give you a glimmer of how we got here. June 2005: Google Webmaster Tools (now called Search Console) was launched. May 2015: Google changed the name to Google Search Console from Google Webmaster Tools. June 2016: Search Console tests new mobility usability report. September 2016: Search Console improves Security Issues report. September 2018: Search Console released the Manual Actions report, “Test Live,” and request indexing features added for the URL inspection tool, and upgraded to 16 months of historical data. November 2018: Google experiments with domain properties. June 2019: Search Console adds mobile-first indexing features. May 2020: Search Console adds Core Web Vitals report. November 2021: Search Console rolls out new design. September 2022: Search Console launches new HTTPS report. November 2022: Search Console adds Shopping tab listings feature. September 2023: Search Console rolls out new Merchant Center integrated reports. November 2023: Google released a new robots.txt report. August 2024: Search Console Recommendations launch. June 2025: Search Console Insights refreshes. October 2025: Query Groups introduced. November 2025: Branded vs non-branded filter added. November 2025: Custom annotations added to performance charts. December 2025: AI-powered report configuration experiments begin. December 2025: Weekly and monthly chart views introduced. December 2025: Social channel performance begins to appear in Search Console Insights (limited rollout). Was Google preparing us for AI through Search Console all along? Alright. Zoom out with me for a second. All of these updates are not random. They tell a very clear story. Search Console is evolving from a technical reporting tool into a visibility intelligence tool for the AI era. Google is moving from: “Here are 1,000 queries.” to “Here’s a topic cluster and how it’s performing.” The weekly/monthly views and annotations encourage trend-level analysis. Google recognizes discovery journeys aren’t linear anymore with the introduction of social reporting. Breakdown of Search Console for SEOs While some SEO professionals may be waiting in the tunnels for Skynet and AIO to take over, there’s one thing we can all still depend on: Search Console. So before you join your freelance mission with SEAL Team 6, walk through the anatomy of Search Console. Overview The Overview section in Search Console provides a bird’s-eye view of all data sets users can uncover in Search Console. Search Console Insights Search Console Insights shows which pages are popping off and which are dying in the corner. The Insights view is a digital equivalent of a snack tray. In an AI running wild like an overcaffeinated squirrel, I’ll take this instead of analyzing 50+ tabs. This is Google’s attempt to slide into your emails and whisper, “Hey, you might want to see this.” URL inspection The URL inspection tool lets you see what Google sees for a given URL. The URL inspection tool is one of my favorite SEO tools. Unfortunately, today, you can only inspect one URL at a time. However, if you use the Search Console URL inspection API, you can test up to 2000 URLs per day. The test will show if the URL is indexable and explain why it may or may not be indexed. You can also request a URL be indexed. Search results Search results are every content marketer’s favorite report in Search Console. It shows search traffic over the past 16 months (with comparisons), along with search queries, devices, countries, and search appearances. It will also show you which pages rank for specific queries. I use this report to show which pages are performing best and which are performing worst. It also helps troubleshoot any major drops or spikes in traffic. You can segment this report based on clicks, impressions, and CTR. The AI-powered configuration (Experiment) inside the Performance report is where things get interesting. Instead of manually stacking filters, comparisons, regex, device splits, country filters, and date ranges, you can now describe the analysis you want and let Google build the report for you. You can ask it questions like: “Compare blog traffic month over month.” “Show me queries containing ‘how to’.” “What happened to USA traffic last week?” “Compare mobile vs desktop performance in the last 28 days.” “Show non-branded queries for the past 3 months.” “What pages lost clicks this month?” “Show changes for mobile users.” Discover The Discover report in Search Console shows your content’s performance in Google search results. You can filter by pages, countries, search appearances, and devices, like the search results report. Google News The Google News report in Search Console tells you how your content performs under Google News in Google search results. You can filter the report by page and device. Pages Pages indexing report in Search Console shares which pages in Google can find (or not find) on your website. The pages report is valuable for every technical SEO. This report offers tons of quick wins for technical SEO. I always start with this section when auditing a website. If you see an increase in pages indexed or not indexed, you’ll want to investigate why it’s happening. Video pages The video indexing report shows how many pages on your website are indexed with video content. Sitemaps The sitemap report allows you to submit all your XML sitemaps to Search Console. Ideally, you have at least one XML sitemap to submit. You’ll need to submit all your XML sitemaps, including any video, image, or language-specific ones. Removals The removals tool in Search Console lets you temporarily block pages from Google. Remember, these must be pages that you own on your website. You cannot submit pages you do not own. This is the fastest way to remove a page from your website. However, I recommend working on a long-term solution if you want this web page permanently removed. Core Web Vitals The Core Web Vitals report uses real-world data to tell you how your pages perform. Again, this is based on a URL level. The report is grouped into mobile and desktop with segments of poor, needs improvement, and good. The report is based on LCP, INP, and CLS user data. Only indexed pages will be included in the Core Web Vitals report. HTTPS The HTTPS report tells you how many indexed pages on your website are HTTP or HTTPS. If you notice any HTTP pages on your website, you should convert them to HTTPS. Google indexes the HTTPS version to protect searchers’ security and privacy. Product snippets Product snippets are part of the structured data reporting in Search Console that showcases which products have product markup on the page. Currently, Google only supports product snippets for pages with one product. Be aware of Google’s algorithm updates. There can be changes in impressions and clicks for product snippets. Merchant snippets Merchant snippets are also part of the rich result report in Search Console and serve as extensions of your Product snippet. Merchant snippets are like getting a golden ticket. It provides more enhanced features in the SERPs, like carousels or knowledge panels. Shopping tab listings Shopping tab listings are also part of the rich result reports in Search Console and showcase the pages listed in the Shopping tab in Google search results. If you’re an ecommerce marketer, you’ll want to live inside this report. If you don’t see this information in Search Console, make sure your website’s structured data fits within the Merchant listing structured data requests. AMP The AMP report in Search Console shows all the AMP pages on your website and potential issues you may need to troubleshoot. If AMP is a big part of your SEO strategy, you’ll want to ensure you reach zero in the critical errors section of the report so Google can detect your AMP pages. While AMP is considered legacy, it’s relevant for some publishers. Breadcrumbs The breadcrumbs report is also part of the rich result report in Search Console, which tells you if your breadcrumb structured data is correct and readable by Google. Breadcrumbs are essential to maintain a healthy site architecture and user experience. If you see any errors in the breadcrumbs, I recommend prioritizing this quickly. FAQ The FAQ report is also part of Search Console’s rich results report, which shares insights into which pages received the FAQ snippet. However, with Google’s changes to visibility of HowTo and FAQ rich results, you may see this fluctuate quite a bit. Profile page The Profile page report reflects which pages are getting the profile page markup. You’ll want to validate and clean up any makeup you may be missing because these offer interesting SERP features. It’s almost like a card functionality similar to the recipes. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Review snippets Review snippets showcase your validation of review markup on pages. You should check that all your markup is valid. If you notice any errors, work on updating those specific pages. With Google’s algorithm updates, I’ve seen significant fluctuations in review snippets. Always double-check if it’s a bug, an algorithm update, or a true markup error. Sitelinks searchbox The sitelinks search box is a feature of the rich result report in Search Console that tells us in more detail any errors you may have with your Sitelinks Search Box markup. Unparsable structured data The unparsable structured data report in Search Console aggregates structured data syntax errors that prevent Google from identifying the specific structured data type. Videos The video indexing report in Search Console has expanded dramatically over the last few years, giving us more detailed information on how your videos perform in search results. You can dissect whether the video is outside the viewport, too small, or too tall. If you’re building a video content strategy, it really helps to elevate your game with your UX team. Manual actions If you’re running your SEO strategy properly, you’ll hopefully never have to worry about the manual action report. But if you’re one of the unlucky ones who gets hit with a manual action, Google will tell you in this report in Search Console. A manual action occurs when a human reviewer at Google determines that a specific page or pages are not compliant with Google’s spam policy. Security issues The Security issues report in Search Console will tell you if your site was hacked or harmful. Google will actually email you now to notify you when you receive a security issue. Check out this beauty I received within the first week of starting to work on a new site. Links The Links report in Search Console allows you to view all your site’s internal and external links. You can view the top link pages, top linking sites, and top linking text. This is a legacy report, so I’d be cautious about relying on it in case Google decides to depreciate it. Settings If you need to verify ownership or add a new user, you should check the settings in Search Console. Two cool reports under Settings in Search Console go undiscovered, but these are two of my favorite reports. Robots.txt: The robots.txt report tells us which pages Google can crawl or any potential issues preventing Google from crawling your site. One of the challenges I run into when working with developers is that they often choose to disallow it in the robots.txt file instead of adding a noindex, nofollow tag. This report will help audit any technical updates with your dev team. The robots.txt report is only available if you set up a domain property. Crawl stats: The crawl stats report shows Google’s crawling history on your website. It can be sorted by how many requests were made and when, server response, and availability issues. It tells SEO professionals if Google is encountering problems when crawling your website. This report is only available if you have a domain property or a URL prefix at a root level. Search Console is like stepping onto a planet dedicated to SEO professionals That’s a lot to unpack. But the gist is that Search Console is a place where you can get information about how your website is performing. All of the above is just part of the early phases of Search Console’s transformation. Google also hopes to add Google’s AI Overview data in the future. So, that seems like a worthwhile endeavor, seeing as there is no tool to support AIO data today. And I know you all must be hoping Google’s AI Overview doesn’t overtake your jobs. That would suck. It would likely mean the end of times. But in the insane event it does, at least you’re covered on how Search Console got here today. Until then, you’ll have to make do with luxe URL inspections, regex filters, and manual action surprises. View the full article

Cheap tote bag collections everywhere just got an attachable clip-on upgrade. Snatch is a shoulder strap system designed to attach and detach to fabric surfaces without damaging them. The clips are comprised of three pieces of hardware—a button, slotted loop, and fastener—and they can give thin-handled tote bags new life with a wider, sturdier shoulder strap in just a few steps, exemplifying a simple and solutions-oriented Occam’s razor approach to product design. To assemble, you place fabric over the button piece and thread it through the aluminum slotted loop. The fastener holds it all into place, and the strap is then attached onto a g-hook on the slotted loop. The black strap has a 3M retro-reflective print on one side for nighttime visibility, and it’s woven as a single piece with openings every inch so it can be adjustable without requiring extra hardware. “We wanted to avoid additional hardware or sewing,” says Taylor Levy, one half of CW&T, the Brooklyn art and design studio behind Snatch. “Tri-glide or other buckle hardware works well for adjustable shoulder straps, but all those require sewing. We wanted to keep things as simple as possible, so we opted for this mille-style webbing that lets you hook directly into any notch to adjust strap length.” The product typifies CW&T’s approach to product design: clean, minimal, and useful. The idea for the Snatch came during a trip when Che-Wei Wang, the agency’s other designer, started thinking about ways to easily and non-destructively attach a strap to a bag or fabric. He considered how when outdoors, fabric can be wrapped around a rock with a knot tied around it and the rock distributes the load to hang a tarp. “Snatch works using the same principle,” Levy says. The device affords a wider, adjustable shoulder strap, making any tote bag personalizable. Additionally, it gives tote bags tracking device compatibility, as the button in the clip was designed to hold an AirTag inside. Snatch retails for $52 and comes with two clips, one strap, and a free tote. But it’s not just for tote bags. CW&T says the device should be thought of as “an interface for attaching anything to fabric” with versatile uses, like making a backpack or attaching a pouch to a shirt, or used to hang a tarp or hammock outdoors. For cute tote bags with uncomfortable or inconvenient handles, though, Snatch makes it possible to finally and more comfortably put them back into rotation. View the full article

Improving customer service is vital for any business aiming to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. By comprehending customer needs, encouraging open communication, and investing in agent training, you can create a more effective service experience. Leveraging technology and personalizing interactions likewise play important roles. Furthermore, soliciting feedback and nurturing a culture of continuous improvement can lead to significant advancements. What steps can you implement today to raise your customer service strategy? Key Takeaways Gather and analyze customer feedback regularly to identify service gaps and enhance satisfaction. Invest in comprehensive training for employees, focusing on empathy and conflict resolution skills. Utilize CRM systems to store and access customer data for personalized service. Encourage open communication within the team to cultivate a transparent and responsive culture. Leverage technology like AI chatbots for efficient handling of common inquiries, freeing agents for complex issues. Understand Customer Needs Grasping customer needs is critical for any business aiming to thrive in a competitive market, especially since 76% of consumers will stop doing business after just one bad experience. To improve customer satisfaction, start by gathering current customer information. This data helps you identify gaps in your services and align offerings with customer expectations. Engaging long-serving team members can additionally provide valuable insights into what makes a good customer service rep, as they comprehend established relationships with customers. Secure storage of customer information is fundamental for responding effectively to their needs. Utilizing tools like CRM systems allows you to capture and update customer data efficiently, creating a more personalized experience. These actions are imperative suggestions to improve customer service, ensuring you meet your customers’ expectations and reduce the risk of losing them. In the end, grasping your customers is the foundation of a successful business strategy. Encourage Open Communication To improve customer service, it’s essential to encourage open communication between your business and its customers. When customers feel heard and valued, their satisfaction increases by 70%. Establishing clear communication guidelines for your representatives guarantees consistent responses, which builds trust in your brand. Regularly soliciting feedback through surveys and direct interactions helps identify areas for improvement, allowing you to adapt to changing customer expectations. Furthermore, empowering employees to share concerns cultivates a transparent culture, reducing turnover rates by 25% and improving service quality. Utilizing technology, such as help desk software, streamlines communication between teams and customers, leading to quicker response times and better issue resolution. Invest in Agent Training Investing in agent training is crucial for enhancing the overall effectiveness of your customer service team. Proper onboarding and continuous training not only equip agents with necessary skills but likewise boost new hire retention by 25%. When agents are engaged and effectively trained, you can expect a 24% increase in customer satisfaction scores. Here’s a quick overview of the benefits: Benefit Impact New Hire Retention +25% Customer Satisfaction Scores +24% First Contact Resolution Rate +47% Empathy in Customer Interactions 70% of customers cite lack of empathy Revenue Per Employee +218% When you focus on training that emphasizes empathy and conflict resolution, you’ll create empowered agents who can resolve issues on the first contact, leading to improved efficiency and customer loyalty. Leverage Technology for Efficiency As customer expectations continue to evolve, leveraging technology for efficiency has become essential in improving service delivery. Implementing customer relationship management (CRM) tools allows your agents to access customer histories quickly, streamlining interactions and enabling personalized service. Utilizing AI-driven chatbots can handle common inquiries, freeing up your human agents to tackle more complex issues, which boosts overall efficiency. Integrating omnichannel communication platforms guarantees seamless shifts for customers between different contact methods, minimizing the need for them to repeat information. Moreover, data analytics tools track service trends, helping you identify areas for improvement and tailor strategies to improve customer satisfaction. Finally, employing automated call summaries saves time for your agents and managers, facilitating immediate feedback and more effective coaching based on real customer interactions. Personalize Customer Interactions Personalizing customer interactions is essential as it helps make customers feel recognized and valued. With 71% of customers expecting personalized experiences, leveraging customer data can greatly improve the overall interaction. By customizing recommendations and communications, you can show customers that you understand their needs. Additionally, acknowledging loyalty through small gestures, like personalized thank-you notes or exclusive offers, can boost customer retention and satisfaction. Using tools such as Invoca’s PreSense technology gives agents access to key customer details, enabling more informed and bespoke service. Here’s a quick overview of the benefits of personalization: Benefit Description Improved Customer Experience Customized recommendations increase relevance. Boosted Loyalty Customers appreciate recognition and care. Enhanced Satisfaction 80% of customers value the experience equally. Solicit and Act on Customer Feedback To improve customer service, regularly soliciting and acting on customer feedback is vital. Start by using surveys and follow-up calls to gather insights about your customers’ experiences and preferences. Research shows that 70% of customers believe feedback is important for improvement. Implement closed-loop feedback systems to inform dissatisfied customers about how their input has led to real changes, which nurtures trust and loyalty. Analyze the feedback for common themes and actionable insights to address recurring issues and improve service quality. Utilize metrics like the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) to quantify customer sentiments, giving you a clear picture of service effectiveness. Finally, communicate any changes made in response to feedback back to customers, demonstrating that you value their opinions and reinforcing a customer-centric approach in your business. Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement Creating a culture of continuous improvement is essential for any organization aiming to improve customer service effectively. To achieve this, establish regular audit processes to evaluate workflows and customer interactions, ensuring areas for development are continuously identified. Encourage a culture of experimentation, empowering team members to propose and test innovative solutions. Moreover, implement feedback loops that actively solicit input from customers and employees, adapting strategies based on real experiences. Recognizing and celebrating contributions to service improvements reinforces the importance of continuous enhancement. Finally, provide ongoing training on emerging trends and best practices in customer service to keep your team engaged and informed. Action Purpose Outcome Regular audits Identify improvement areas Improved service delivery Empower experimentation Encourage innovative solutions Enhanced customer service Feedback loops Adapt strategies based on input Better alignment with customer needs Recognition programs Reinforce improvement culture Increased motivation among staff Ongoing training Stay informed on best practices Higher quality service Frequently Asked Questions How Can You Improve Customer Service? To improve customer service, start by implementing a feedback system that regularly gathers customer insights. Train your representatives in empathy and conflict resolution to handle difficult situations effectively. Utilize technology, like CRM systems and AI tools, to streamline processes and provide quick responses. Set clear service standards to manage expectations, and consistently analyze metrics to identify trends. This approach will boost customer satisfaction and nurture loyalty, creating a better overall experience. What Are the 4 P’s That Improve Customer Service? To improve customer service, focus on the 4 P’s: People, Processes, Products, and Personalization. Empower your customer service representatives, allowing them to make decisions that improve satisfaction. Streamline processes to reduce response times and communication barriers. Guarantee agents possess thorough product knowledge to build trust. Finally, personalize interactions based on individual customer needs, as this approach greatly boosts satisfaction and loyalty. Regularly measure performance to identify improvement areas and maintain service standards. What Are the 5 R’s of Customer Service? The 5 R’s of customer service are Respect, Responsiveness, Reliability, Reassurance, and Relevance. You should treat customers with dignity and genuinely value their feedback. Responding swiftly to inquiries is vital, as most customers appreciate quick replies. Maintaining consistent service builds trust, whereas offering reassurance and pertinent information elevates their experience. Tailoring interactions to meet individual needs is fundamental, as customers expect personalized experiences. Prioritizing these elements can greatly improve overall customer satisfaction. What Is the 10 to 10 Rule in Customer Service? The 10 to 10 Rule in customer service emphasizes responding to inquiries within 10 minutes and resolving issues within another 10 minutes. This approach addresses the high demand for quick solutions, as most customers prefer instant replies. By adhering to this rule, you can greatly reduce frustration, improve customer satisfaction, and increase loyalty. Efficient resolution not only improves the customer experience but additionally boosts first-call resolution rates, which in the end benefits your business’s bottom line. Conclusion By implementing these seven strategies, you can greatly improve your customer service experience. Comprehending customer needs and encouraging open communication promotes a supportive environment. Investing in agent training and leveraging technology boosts efficiency and effectiveness. Personalizing interactions and actively soliciting feedback guarantees that you meet customer expectations. Finally, creating a culture of continuous improvement allows your organization to adapt to changing needs. Each of these elements contributes to building stronger relationships with customers and achieving long-term success. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "7 Simple Suggestions to Improve Customer Service" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Improving customer service is vital for any business aiming to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. By comprehending customer needs, encouraging open communication, and investing in agent training, you can create a more effective service experience. Leveraging technology and personalizing interactions likewise play important roles. Furthermore, soliciting feedback and nurturing a culture of continuous improvement can lead to significant advancements. What steps can you implement today to raise your customer service strategy? Key Takeaways Gather and analyze customer feedback regularly to identify service gaps and enhance satisfaction. Invest in comprehensive training for employees, focusing on empathy and conflict resolution skills. Utilize CRM systems to store and access customer data for personalized service. Encourage open communication within the team to cultivate a transparent and responsive culture. Leverage technology like AI chatbots for efficient handling of common inquiries, freeing agents for complex issues. Understand Customer Needs Grasping customer needs is critical for any business aiming to thrive in a competitive market, especially since 76% of consumers will stop doing business after just one bad experience. To improve customer satisfaction, start by gathering current customer information. This data helps you identify gaps in your services and align offerings with customer expectations. Engaging long-serving team members can additionally provide valuable insights into what makes a good customer service rep, as they comprehend established relationships with customers. Secure storage of customer information is fundamental for responding effectively to their needs. Utilizing tools like CRM systems allows you to capture and update customer data efficiently, creating a more personalized experience. These actions are imperative suggestions to improve customer service, ensuring you meet your customers’ expectations and reduce the risk of losing them. In the end, grasping your customers is the foundation of a successful business strategy. Encourage Open Communication To improve customer service, it’s essential to encourage open communication between your business and its customers. When customers feel heard and valued, their satisfaction increases by 70%. Establishing clear communication guidelines for your representatives guarantees consistent responses, which builds trust in your brand. Regularly soliciting feedback through surveys and direct interactions helps identify areas for improvement, allowing you to adapt to changing customer expectations. Furthermore, empowering employees to share concerns cultivates a transparent culture, reducing turnover rates by 25% and improving service quality. Utilizing technology, such as help desk software, streamlines communication between teams and customers, leading to quicker response times and better issue resolution. Invest in Agent Training Investing in agent training is crucial for enhancing the overall effectiveness of your customer service team. Proper onboarding and continuous training not only equip agents with necessary skills but likewise boost new hire retention by 25%. When agents are engaged and effectively trained, you can expect a 24% increase in customer satisfaction scores. Here’s a quick overview of the benefits: Benefit Impact New Hire Retention +25% Customer Satisfaction Scores +24% First Contact Resolution Rate +47% Empathy in Customer Interactions 70% of customers cite lack of empathy Revenue Per Employee +218% When you focus on training that emphasizes empathy and conflict resolution, you’ll create empowered agents who can resolve issues on the first contact, leading to improved efficiency and customer loyalty. Leverage Technology for Efficiency As customer expectations continue to evolve, leveraging technology for efficiency has become essential in improving service delivery. Implementing customer relationship management (CRM) tools allows your agents to access customer histories quickly, streamlining interactions and enabling personalized service. Utilizing AI-driven chatbots can handle common inquiries, freeing up your human agents to tackle more complex issues, which boosts overall efficiency. Integrating omnichannel communication platforms guarantees seamless shifts for customers between different contact methods, minimizing the need for them to repeat information. Moreover, data analytics tools track service trends, helping you identify areas for improvement and tailor strategies to improve customer satisfaction. Finally, employing automated call summaries saves time for your agents and managers, facilitating immediate feedback and more effective coaching based on real customer interactions. Personalize Customer Interactions Personalizing customer interactions is essential as it helps make customers feel recognized and valued. With 71% of customers expecting personalized experiences, leveraging customer data can greatly improve the overall interaction. By customizing recommendations and communications, you can show customers that you understand their needs. Additionally, acknowledging loyalty through small gestures, like personalized thank-you notes or exclusive offers, can boost customer retention and satisfaction. Using tools such as Invoca’s PreSense technology gives agents access to key customer details, enabling more informed and bespoke service. Here’s a quick overview of the benefits of personalization: Benefit Description Improved Customer Experience Customized recommendations increase relevance. Boosted Loyalty Customers appreciate recognition and care. Enhanced Satisfaction 80% of customers value the experience equally. Solicit and Act on Customer Feedback To improve customer service, regularly soliciting and acting on customer feedback is vital. Start by using surveys and follow-up calls to gather insights about your customers’ experiences and preferences. Research shows that 70% of customers believe feedback is important for improvement. Implement closed-loop feedback systems to inform dissatisfied customers about how their input has led to real changes, which nurtures trust and loyalty. Analyze the feedback for common themes and actionable insights to address recurring issues and improve service quality. Utilize metrics like the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) to quantify customer sentiments, giving you a clear picture of service effectiveness. Finally, communicate any changes made in response to feedback back to customers, demonstrating that you value their opinions and reinforcing a customer-centric approach in your business. Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement Creating a culture of continuous improvement is essential for any organization aiming to improve customer service effectively. To achieve this, establish regular audit processes to evaluate workflows and customer interactions, ensuring areas for development are continuously identified. Encourage a culture of experimentation, empowering team members to propose and test innovative solutions. Moreover, implement feedback loops that actively solicit input from customers and employees, adapting strategies based on real experiences. Recognizing and celebrating contributions to service improvements reinforces the importance of continuous enhancement. Finally, provide ongoing training on emerging trends and best practices in customer service to keep your team engaged and informed. Action Purpose Outcome Regular audits Identify improvement areas Improved service delivery Empower experimentation Encourage innovative solutions Enhanced customer service Feedback loops Adapt strategies based on input Better alignment with customer needs Recognition programs Reinforce improvement culture Increased motivation among staff Ongoing training Stay informed on best practices Higher quality service Frequently Asked Questions How Can You Improve Customer Service? To improve customer service, start by implementing a feedback system that regularly gathers customer insights. Train your representatives in empathy and conflict resolution to handle difficult situations effectively. Utilize technology, like CRM systems and AI tools, to streamline processes and provide quick responses. Set clear service standards to manage expectations, and consistently analyze metrics to identify trends. This approach will boost customer satisfaction and nurture loyalty, creating a better overall experience. What Are the 4 P’s That Improve Customer Service? To improve customer service, focus on the 4 P’s: People, Processes, Products, and Personalization. Empower your customer service representatives, allowing them to make decisions that improve satisfaction. Streamline processes to reduce response times and communication barriers. Guarantee agents possess thorough product knowledge to build trust. Finally, personalize interactions based on individual customer needs, as this approach greatly boosts satisfaction and loyalty. Regularly measure performance to identify improvement areas and maintain service standards. What Are the 5 R’s of Customer Service? The 5 R’s of customer service are Respect, Responsiveness, Reliability, Reassurance, and Relevance. You should treat customers with dignity and genuinely value their feedback. Responding swiftly to inquiries is vital, as most customers appreciate quick replies. Maintaining consistent service builds trust, whereas offering reassurance and pertinent information elevates their experience. Tailoring interactions to meet individual needs is fundamental, as customers expect personalized experiences. Prioritizing these elements can greatly improve overall customer satisfaction. What Is the 10 to 10 Rule in Customer Service? The 10 to 10 Rule in customer service emphasizes responding to inquiries within 10 minutes and resolving issues within another 10 minutes. This approach addresses the high demand for quick solutions, as most customers prefer instant replies. By adhering to this rule, you can greatly reduce frustration, improve customer satisfaction, and increase loyalty. Efficient resolution not only improves the customer experience but additionally boosts first-call resolution rates, which in the end benefits your business’s bottom line. Conclusion By implementing these seven strategies, you can greatly improve your customer service experience. Comprehending customer needs and encouraging open communication promotes a supportive environment. Investing in agent training and leveraging technology boosts efficiency and effectiveness. Personalizing interactions and actively soliciting feedback guarantees that you meet customer expectations. Finally, creating a culture of continuous improvement allows your organization to adapt to changing needs. Each of these elements contributes to building stronger relationships with customers and achieving long-term success. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "7 Simple Suggestions to Improve Customer Service" was first published on Small Business Trends 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. A good pair of noise-canceling earbuds under $50 doesn't happen often, but right now, these refurbished Beats Studio Buds are $49.99 at Woot. For context, new pairs of this model typically sell between $90 and $99 on Amazon, while used listings often hover around $69. As for their refurbished condition, they’ve undergone diagnostic testing to confirm that everything works properly and should show little to no cosmetic wear. Shipping is free for Amazon Prime members; everyone else pays $6. That said, Woot does not ship this product to Alaska, Hawaii, or P.O. Boxes. This deal runs for another three days or until it’s sold out, whichever comes first. Beats Studio Buds $49.99 at Woot $149.95 Save $99.96 Get Deal Get Deal $49.99 at Woot $149.95 Save $99.96 These IPX4-rated earbuds pair easily with both iOS and Android devices, which isn’t always a given for products owned by Apple. You still get the perks people expect, like simple one-tap pairing and Find My support on iPhone, but Android users aren’t left out. The buds themselves are small and lightweight, and once you find the right fit from the three included ear tip sizes, they stay secure. The glossy finish can make them slightly slippery when you’re putting them in, but they don’t feel bulky once seated. Sound-wise, these lean into bass. Vocals and instruments stay clear enough, but this isn’t a neutral, studio-accurate sound. The active noise cancellation does a decent job with steady background noise like engine hum on a flight or the rumble of a train. It won’t block out higher-pitched sounds or conversations as effectively as premium models from Sony or Bose, but at this price, having usable ANC at all is notable, according to this PCMag review. There’s also a Transparency mode for when you need to hear what’s going on around you. You can play or pause music, answer calls, and switch between ANC and Transparency directly from the earbuds, though you’ll still need your phone to adjust volume. Battery life runs about five hours with ANC on, or up to eight without it, and the case provides another 10 to 16 hours depending on how you use them. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $139.99 (List Price $179.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $329.00 (List Price $349.00) Google Pixel 10a 128GB 6.3" Unlocked Smartphone + $100 Gift Card — $499.00 (List Price $599.00) 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 — $329.00 (List Price $429.00) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $29.99 (List Price $49.99) Bose QuietComfort Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones — $229.99 (List Price $349.00) Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 64GB Wi-Fi 11" Tablet (Silver) — $159.99 (List Price $219.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

The launch of the Google Pixel 10a is a game changer for small business owners seeking a reliable and durable smartphone solution. Combining an impressive array of features with a refreshing design, the Pixel 10a aims to support the demanding lifestyle of entrepreneurs and small business owners, enhancing productivity and ensuring seamless communication. With a striking new color palette that includes Lavender, Berry, Fog, and Obsidian, the Pixel 10a isn’t just about functionality; it also offers a touch of style. Small business owners often find themselves making a statement both in their work and personal lives, and the Pixel’s aesthetic appeal complements that effort. The durability of the Pixel 10a stands at the forefront of its features. As the most robust A-series phone to date, it boasts an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance. This means it can withstand unexpected spills or dusty environments—ideal for small business owners who are constantly on the move. An upgraded Corning® Gorilla® Glass 7i cover glass enhances scratch and drop resistance, thus preserving the phone’s quality even in the face of the daily wear and tear that busy professionals experience. One of the standout features for small businesses is the impressive battery life. With more than 30 hours of standard use and the potential for up to 120 hours with Extreme Battery Saver mode, the Pixel 10a ensures that you’ll have the power you need throughout your workday without constantly worrying about finding an outlet. Faster charging capabilities further streamline daily operations, allowing business owners to maximize productivity without interruption. Moreover, the Pixel 10a comes with a robust commitment to software and security updates, promising seven years of OS, security, and Pixel Drops. For small businesses that value data protection and continual improvements, this is a significant benefit. Keeping software updated is crucial for cybersecurity, an often overlooked area in small enterprises. In a unique twist, the Pixel 10a introduces Satellite SOS capabilities to the A-series for the first time. This feature could prove invaluable for small business owners working in remote areas. The ability to connect with emergency services without Wi-Fi or cellular coverage adds an extra layer of safety and peace of mind, which is particularly beneficial for those who undertake on-site meetings or travel frequently. Despite these advantages, small business owners should consider potential challenges associated with adopting the Pixel 10a. The advanced features of the phone, while advantageous, may come with a learning curve, particularly for those who are less tech-savvy. Familiarizing oneself with the various functionalities—like Extreme Battery Saver or new software updates—may require time and effort. Additionally, for businesses heavily invested in specific apps or software that may not be optimized for the latest Android systems, compatibility could pose an issue. It’s important for small business owners to assess how well the Pixel 10a aligns with their existing technology framework before making a transition. As Google continuously innovates, the Pixel 10a stands out as a product designed to cater to the needs of dynamic professionals. The combination of durability, extended battery life, and unique safety features make it a compelling choice for small business owners seeking a reliable tool for everyday tasks. The Google Pixel 10a represents a worthwhile investment for business leaders who prioritize efficiency, style, and reliability. With tools that foster productivity and protect business interests, it’s poised to support small business needs effectively. For more information about this new device, check out the official post here. Image via Google This article, "Pixel 10a Launches with Bold Colors, Enhanced Durability, and Safety Features" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article