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Kraft Heinz said Wednesday it’s pausing its plans to split into two companies. Steve Cahillane, a former Kellogg Co. chief who became CEO of Kraft Heinz on Jan. 1, said he wants to ensure that all of the company’s resources are focused on profitable growth. “I have seen that the opportunity is larger than expected and that many of our challenges are fixable and within our control,” Cahillane said in a statement. The company’s shares dropped 5.2% in early trading Wednesday as Kraft Heinz reported lower quarterly and annual results. Kraft Heinz announced in September it was splitting into two companies a decade after a merger of the brands created one of the biggest food manufacturers on the planet. One of the companies would include stronger-selling brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other would include slower-selling brands like Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. At the time, Kraft Heinz said it expected the split to be finalized in the second half of this year. On Wednesday, the company said it will pivot from the split and invest $600 million in marketing, sales and product development. In its fourth-quarter earnings release Wednesday, CEO Steve Cahillane said Kraft Heinz’s balance sheet and free cash flow potential were strong. “We are confident in the opportunity ahead and believe this investment will accelerate our return to profitable growth,” Callihane said. —Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Business Writer View the full article

Small business owners seeking to streamline their operations and enhance efficiency may find a promising new tool in the recently launched NetSuite Integration Platform. Announced during SuiteConnect New York on February 11, 2026, this AI-powered, low-code solution is designed to simplify the integration of various enterprise applications, enabling businesses to automate complex workflows seamlessly. Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, emphasized the platform’s potential in transforming how organizations handle data integration. “By using AI to bring together mission-critical business data, we are helping our customers reduce technical complexity, move faster, and gain more value from the comprehensive AI capabilities embedded in NetSuite,” he stated. This focus on making integration more accessible could be a game-changer for small businesses that often face resource limitations and technical challenges. The NetSuite Integration Platform offers several key benefits tailored to the needs of small business owners: – Business-led Automation: The platform allows business analysts and process owners to create or modify integrations using simple, plain language. This means small businesses can engage their teams in automation efforts without needing extensive technical expertise. The AI-powered mapping and documentation features enable quicker deployment and troubleshooting, which can enhance overall data consistency. – Accelerated Project Delivery: For finance, operations, and IT leaders, the platform facilitates rapid connections between NetSuite and other critical systems. The availability of prebuilt adapters and natural language prompts means small businesses can implement workflows that synchronize revenue, inventory, and customer data in real-time without depending heavily on specialist developers. – Resilient Workflows: The platform supports IT teams by providing centralized automation governance, role-based access, and audit trails. This functionality helps small businesses ensure compliance and minimize integration sprawl, which can often lead to inefficiencies and errors. – Unified API Management: With a single command center for managing APIs, developers and administrators can secure and monitor integrations effectively. This feature is particularly advantageous for small businesses looking to maintain high-quality integrations while adapting to evolving operational needs. – Intelligent Document Processing: The platform also empowers businesses to convert unstructured data into actionable workflows. For example, AI document recognition can facilitate automated order data intake or procurement approvals, streamlining operations and reducing manual errors. The NetSuite Integration Platform is built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), which underpins its capabilities with a unified data foundation. This infrastructure not only supports streamlined integration but also enhances execution speed, which is critical for small businesses aiming to remain agile in a competitive market. Currently, the platform is available to customers in North America, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland, making it accessible to a wide range of small enterprises looking for innovative solutions to their integration challenges. As small business owners navigate the complexities of modern enterprise applications, the NetSuite Integration Platform presents an opportunity to enhance operational efficiency and drive growth. By embracing this low-code, AI-powered solution, businesses can not only overcome integration hurdles but also position themselves more competitively in the marketplace. This article, "NetSuite Launches AI-Driven Integration Platform to Simplify Workflows" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Google's John Mueller explains how a leftover HTTP homepage invisible to Chrome users can cause site-name and favicon problems in search results. The post Hidden HTTP Page Can Cause Site Name Problems In Google appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

At ISE 2026 in Barcelona, HP unveiled next-generation audio and video innovations designed to enhance hybrid work environments, a move that resonates with small business owners striving to adapt to more flexible work models. This new lineup includes collaborative solutions aimed at making remote and in-office meetings more engaging and productive, establishing a clear path forward for the future of work. HP showcased products such as the Poly Mission 400 series, which features enhanced audio and video capabilities aimed at optimizing virtual communication. With many businesses continuing to navigate hybrid work models, the need for effective collaboration tools has never been greater. HP’s focus is on creating technology that not only boosts productivity but also simplifies the user experience. For small business owners, integrating advanced collaboration tools can lead to significant benefits. Not only can these improvements enhance team communication and morale, but they can also minimize meeting disruptions caused by technical issues. HP’s Poly Mission 400 series, for instance, promises high-definition video and crystal-clear audio that creates a more immersive meeting atmosphere. This can reduce misunderstandings that often arise in virtual settings, driving better outcomes in decision-making and project management. “The hybrid work model is more than just a trend; it’s becoming a cornerstone of how we operate,” said an HP representative at the event. This statement underscores the importance of adapting to evolving work preferences, which small businesses are recognizing as critical for retaining talent and fostering a collaborative corporate culture. Small businesses looking to implement these technologies may find practical applications in their daily operations. For example, the tools can facilitate seamless onboarding processes for remote employees, allowing them to feel more connected to their team from the start. Additionally, companies can host engaging webinars or virtual training sessions using these advanced audio/visual solutions, maximizing employee skill-building efforts. However, while there are many benefits to adopting these innovations, some challenges may arise for small business owners. The costs associated with acquiring high-tech equipment can be daunting, particularly for companies with tight budgets. Further, there may be a learning curve associated with using advanced collaboration tools effectively, which could temporarily disrupt workflows. Additionally, ensuring a reliable internet connection becomes paramount when implementing heavy audio and video functionalities. Businesses will need to assess their current infrastructure to confirm that it can handle increased data demands without leading to interruptions in service. Despite these hurdles, the potential for streamlined operations, enhanced engagement, and improved employee satisfaction can make the investment in these tools worthwhile. Small business owners should weigh their options carefully, considering the balance of upfront costs against long-term benefits. In a marketplace that increasingly prioritizes flexibility and digital communication, HP’s renewed commitment to enhancing hybrid work environments presents a timely opportunity for businesses of all sizes. As small businesses continue to evolve in this new landscape, embracing innovative solutions will not only enhance operational efficiency but also position them favorably in a competitive landscape. For more information on HP’s latest innovations in hybrid work, check out the original press release at HP Newsroom. Image via Google Gemini This article, "HP Unveils Advanced Audio-Video Solutions to Enhance Hybrid Work at ISE 2026" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 130,000 jobs last month, but government revisions cut 2024-2025 U.S. payrolls by hundreds of thousands. The unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The report included major revisions that reduced the number of jobs created last year to just 181,000, weakest since the pandemic year of 2020, and less than half the previously reported 584,000. The job market has been sluggish for months even though the economy is registering solid growth. But the January numbers came in stronger than the 75,000 economists had expected. Healthcare accounted for nearly 82,000, or more than 60%, of last month’s new jobs. Factories added 5,000, snapping a streak of 13 straight months of job losses. The federal government shed 34,000 jobs. Average hourly wages rose a solid 0.4% from December to January. The unemployment rate fell from 4.4% in December as the number of employed Americans rose and the number of unemployed fell. Weak hiring over the past year reflects the lingering impact of high interest rates, billionaire Elon Musk’s purge last year of the federal workforce and uncertainty arising from President Donald The President’s erratic trade policies, which have left businesses unsure about hiring. Dreary numbers have been coming in ahead of Wednesday’s report. Employers posted just 6.5 million job openings in December, fewest in more than five years. Payroll processor ADP reported last week that private employers added 22,000 jobs in January, far fewer than economists had forecast. And the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that companies slashed more than 108,000 jobs last month, the most since October and the worst January for job cuts since 2009. Several well-known companies announced layoffs last month. UPS is cutting 30,000 jobs. Chemicals giant Dow, shifting to more automation and artificial intelligence, is cutting 4,500 jobs. And Amazon is slashing 16,000 corporate jobs, its second round of mass layoffs in three months. The sluggish job market doesn’t match the economy’s performance. From July to September, America’s gross domestic product – its output of goods and services – galloped ahead at a 4.4% annual pace, fastest in two years. Consumer spending was strong, and growth got a boost from rising exports and tumbling imports. And that came on top of solid 3.8% growth from April through June. Economists are puzzling out whether job creation will eventually accelerate to catch up to strong growth, perhaps as President Donald The President’s tax cuts translate into big tax refunds that consumers start spending this year. But there are other possibilities. GDP growth could slow and fall into line with a weak labor market or advances in AI and automation could mean that the economy can roar ahead without creating many jobs. Wednesday’s report included the government’s annual benchmark revisions, meant to take into account the more-accurate jobs numbers that employers report to state unemployment agencies. They cut 898,000 jobs from payrolls in the year ending March 2025. Despite recent high-profile layoffs, the unemployment rate has looked better than the hiring numbers. That is partly because President Donald The President’s immigration crackdown has reduced the number of foreign-born people competing for work. As a result, the number of new jobs that the economy needs to create to keep the unemployment rate from rising — the “break-even” point — has tumbled. In 2023, when immigrants were pouring into the United States, it reached a high of 250,000, according to economist Anton Cheremukhin of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. By mid-2025, Cheremukhin found, it was down to 30,000. Researchers at the Brookings Institution believe it could now be as low as 20,000 and headed lower. The combination of weak hiring but low unemployment means that most American workers are enjoying job security. But those who are looking for jobs – especially young people who can be competing at the entry level with AI and automation – often struggle to land one. —Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer View the full article

The federal government should step in to prevent an emerging patchwork of state regulations from stifling the benefits of applying the tools of generative artificial intelligence to the mortgage market. View the full article

AI search influence didn’t show up in our SEO reports or AI prompt tracking tools. It showed up in sales calls. “Found you via Grok, actually,” a new lead said. That comment stopped us cold. We hadn’t tried to rank in Grok. We weren’t tracking it. Yet it was influencing how buyers discovered and evaluated us. That disconnect kept appearing in client conversations, too. Everyone was curious about AI search, but no one trusted the data. Teams wanted visibility in ChatGPT and other AI tools, then asked the same question: “Why invest in a channel that doesn’t show up cleanly in attribution?” To answer that, we ran controlled experiments using assets we could fully control – an agency website, personal sites, an ecommerce brand, and purpose-built test domains. The goal wasn’t to win AI rankings. It was to understand what still matters once AI enters the decision process: Does AI search change what people buy, or just where brands appear? Can something influence revenue without ever appearing in analytics? Does AI recommendation affect performance across other channels? Why we ran the experiments Most AI search conversations fixate on visibility signals like brand mentions, citations, or visibility screenshots from AI prompt tracking tools. Search has always had one job: help people make a decision. We wanted to know if AI search performed the same job and actually changed commercial outcomes. AI systems now operate at the stage where buyers compare options, shortlist providers, and reduce risk. If AI mattered, it had to show up at the moment of decision. On measurement limits: We didn’t rely on API data because API responses often differ from what real users see. Instead, we observed live interfaces across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. We used prompt tracking to spot patterns, not to declare absolute wins. 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 Experiment 1: Self-promotional ‘best of’ lists on your own website A simple tactic became popular over the past year: Create a “best X” list on your site. Put yourself at the top. Let AI systems pick up the list. I’ve seen agencies do this locally and felt conflicted about it. It wasn’t spam. But it relied on a blind spot – LLMs struggle to separate independent rankings from self-written ones. Around the same time, Ahrefs published a large study that helped explain why this works. Glen Allsopp analyzed ChatGPT responses across hundreds of “best X”-style prompts and found that “best” list posts were the most commonly cited page type. Two things from the study stood out: Format: This included cases where brands ranked themselves first Freshness: Most cited lists had been updated recently I could have tested these observations on StudioHawk. Instead, I did it on my personal brand website to manage the risk. I published a list of the “Best SEO agencies in Sydney” and included my own website among the entries to test whether AI would “take the bait,” so to speak. Within two weeks, LawrenceHitches.com appeared across AI tools for “best SEO agency Sydney” style searches: The speed was surprising – traditional SEO rarely moves that fast. If visibility appears this easily, then visibility alone can’t mean much, so I tested it again. Experiment 2: Self-promotion of a fake business Initially, I could have been piggybacking off the already established StudioHawk brand, so I decided to run a self-promotion test on a fake website We used a basic landscaping site built only for SEO and AI testing and published the same type of page, a “best X” list. This time, the topic was “best landscapers in Melbourne”: Within two weeks, the list appeared in AI responses again. The result repeated almost exactly. If a brand-new test site can surface this fast, then “appeared in AI” doesn’t mean much on its own. Visibility vs. trust These two experiments showed one thing clearly: LLMs are still easy to influence at the surface level. I ran these tests back in August 2025, but the same pattern still appears today. A “best SEO agency Sydney” search run in January 2026 shows the same list-driven results: This creates a real conflict for brands. On one side, the data says yes – the Ahrefs research shows “Best X” pages attract citations. Large brands like Shopify, Slack, and HubSpot publish self-ranked lists without obvious damage to rankings or AI visibility. On the other side is buyer trust. As Wil Reynolds put it, listing yourself first on your own site doesn’t build confidence with buyers. That’s the tension. When bullish founders ask for the secret sauce to appear in ChatGPT, I’m blunt. List-based “best of X” pages that rank the author first have been a fast way to surface in some AI results. That doesn’t work everywhere, and it’s unlikely to hold up long term. Dig deeper: Google may be cracking down on self-promotional ‘best of’ listicles If a landscaping site with no reputation can surface this quickly, then appearing in AI means very little on its own. Why prompt tracking can’t be a success metric A lot of money is flowing into AI prompt tracking tools. Clients ask for them constantly. We use them too, but with a clear warning. I wouldn’t make major decisions based on screenshots or Reddit threads about where a brand appears in ChatGPT. Brand overlap between API outputs and real user sessions was as low as 24%, according to recent research from Surfer SEO comparing tracking APIs with scraped user experiences. That means three times out of four, what the API told you was happening wasn’t what the user was actually seeing. If a brand can appear in a screenshot but disappear in a real user session, then appearance alone isn’t a metric. We stopped asking if we showed up. Instead, we started asking, “Did this change how buyers behaved?” Did leads reference AI tools without prompting? Did sales calls skip education? Did the speed of buying change? Did price resistance soften? These signals were harder to collect. Dig deeper: 7 hard truths about measuring AI visibility and GEO performance Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Experiment 3: Kadi and the limits of digital PR alone Kadi, an ecommerce brand we invested in that sells luggage, provided insight into our questions about whether AI results were affecting buyer behavior. Running tests on Kadi has been an eye-opening experience for two reasons: It’s the difference between running an agency and running ecommerce. It forced us to become our own client. To move fast, we led with digital PR. Kadi’s SEO foundation was solid but not perfect. We wanted to see how far off-site mentions could push SEO and AI visibility without heavy technical work or a polished site structure. We conducted a large number of creative data campaigns and product placements, including: Travel data studies: “Over-touristed destinations,” “Hidden fees,” “Best time to fly,” and “Happy Hour at 30,000 ft.” Advisory pieces: “Airport cybersecurity” and “duty-free shopping” guides Product and feature focus: “Kadi kids carry-on adventure,” “cloud check-in features,” and inclusions in “best suitcase round-ups.” It worked: Coverage landed. Authority grew without the need for “traditional SEO.” We saw temporary keyword spikes and traffic boosts. But there was a catch: Digital PR alone wasn’t enough to close the gap with competitors. It created quick traction in search results, but it didn’t resolve the underlying issues. After launch, SEO foundation work became the priority. Then, Black Friday made the reality obvious. A customer found Kadi through ChatGPT on a “kids carry-on” query. We saw this happen on the day of the query and showed the pathway: They didn’t buy immediately. They checked the shipping policy. They browsed the range. They added three additional products. They debated colour (olive over pink). Attribution later showed Instagram as the source. That order was the largest of the Black Friday period. On paper, AI did nothing. In reality, it was part of shaping the decision. Digital PR can get you visibility spikes, but it doesn’t address the whole picture. While AI traffic does convert, the attribution is inconsistent. Experiment 4: StudioHawk Across 2024 and 2025, StudioHawk underwent a full website rebrand and migration from WordPress to HubSpot. Our own site sat at the bottom of the priority list for years. It was always the project we would get to later. Finally, we paused other priorities and rebuilt the entire site. The work started in 2023, before terms like “GEO” existed. We were focused only on rebuilding service pages, social proof, and user experience end to end. After launch, rankings improved and continue to grow. In 2025, SEO became the agency’s strongest channel by efficiency. It drove 65% of inbound leads and close to 60% of new revenue. Between July and December 2025, AI search leads began to appear more often: Initially, these were “Oh, cool, we got a lead from AI” moments around the office. Sales calls started skipping early education. New leads arrived aligned based on fit and expectations. Over time, we saw that: SEO inbound leads: Averaged 29 days to close. AI search leads: Closed in roughly 18 days. That 10-day gap mattered. It meant less time educating, fewer scope objections, lower price sensitivity, and higher confidence earlier in the process. Within the first year, AI-influenced conversations contributed over $100,000 in closed revenue from 20+ leads, including deals with direct attribution from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok. The blind spot remains attribution paths such as Instagram, direct, or organic, where AI influenced the decision but didn’t appear in reporting (as seen in the Kadi example). Where direct AI attribution existed, buyers were more prepared. That preparedness shortened sales cycles and lifted revenue. AI compresses consideration We started by asking where people would search next. Our key finding? AI search doesn’t replace discovery. It compresses the consideration phase. Consideration is that messy middle where buyers reduce risk, shortlist vendors, compare tradeoffs, and ask, “Who should I trust?” They answer these questions before a buyer ever clicks a link. It means your website no longer carries the full load – AI summaries and third-party mentions do the pre-selling for you. This is the shift we now describe as the new consideration era. As the map illustrates, we’ve moved from a straight funnel to a complex, AI-influenced pathway where consensus is key: Because this happens off-site, last-click attribution is broken. A buyer might use ChatGPT to create a shortlist but convert later via direct search. Where traditional SEO still fits Strong SEO metrics were a core across all our experiments, but we’ve stopped viewing them as the primary driver of value: Keyword rankings confirm search engines understand your entity. However, those high rankings don’t guarantee effective pre-selling. Traditional SEO became a supporting signal – proof that the foundation is sound, rather than the end goal. What this means for brands After running a variety of AI search experiments, here’s what I think brands should focus on. 1. Measure where AI influence actually lands Stop obsessing over prompt appearances (e.g., citations, mentions). These are shiny objects, but they fluctuate too easily. Instead, measure: Sales velocity (Did deals close faster?) Quality of the lead (Did they ask fewer questions to learn?) Value per lead (Did price friction ease?) 2. Make clarity more important than creativity AI hates vagueness. Making pages that make it clear what you do and who it’s for. Pay attention to content that answers questions about risk, comparison, and price. 3. Change the content to help people decide what to buy Focus on content that answers comparison, risk, and pricing questions. This makes a bigger difference than general category explanations. 4. Make entity consistency a crucial factor Lack of consistency makes people doubt themselves. Conversely, consistency boosts confidence. Check to see that your website, reviews, and digital PR all talk about your brand in the same way. 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 AI search compresses consideration, not discovery In the end, the results were the same across all experiments. What we got from our sales pipeline was typical: Clear intent. Tight positioning. Consistent signals of authority. AI search isn’t replacing basic SEO. Instead, it shows weak positioning more quickly than traditional search ever did. What does that mean? Simply put, AI speeds up decisions that were already forming. Dig deeper: From searching to delegating: Adapting to AI-first search behavior View the full article

Oracle NetSuite has unveiled a series of AI-driven innovations aimed at enhancing efficiency and accelerating growth for businesses. This announcement was made at SuiteConnect New York, where Oracle NetSuite, recognized as the top AI Cloud ERP, highlighted features designed to streamline financial operations, strengthen internal controls, and boost profit margins. Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president of Oracle NetSuite, emphasized the importance of these innovations, stating, “With a single unified suite and the ability to leverage powerful AI models, NetSuite turns disconnected tasks into intelligent end-to-end workflows.” This integration of AI across various business processes allows organizations to automate routine tasks, gain deeper insights, and respond more agilely to market demands. The new features include the Intelligent Close Manager, which automates the financial close process through a centralized command center. This tool shortens close cycles, enhances accountability, and improves data integrity by utilizing advanced analytics that monitor close activities and provide detailed insights into financial performance. For small business owners, this means less time spent on closing books each month and more focus on strategic decision-making. Another significant enhancement is the AI-powered bank transaction matching feature. By increasing the speed and accuracy of bank reconciliations, this innovation allows businesses to reduce manual reviews and close accounts more efficiently. With generative AI handling the classification of bank activities, small businesses can expect quicker and more reliable reconciliations, ultimately improving cash flow and financial oversight. AI-generated report narratives further empower organizations by transforming complex data into actionable insights. This feature enables users to generate comprehensive narratives within financial and operational reports with a single click, making it easier for small business owners to grasp critical information quickly and share it with stakeholders. Additionally, AI-powered customer summaries streamline issue resolution and improve engagement by providing tailored summaries of cases and transactions. This capability enhances customer service efficiency, allowing small businesses to resolve issues faster and foster stronger customer relationships. For those navigating pricing complexities, the AI-assisted advanced pricing tool centralizes and governs pricing strategies. This feature not only protects profit margins but also enables businesses to respond swiftly to market fluctuations. The ability to configure prices based on various factors, such as customer segments and item assortments, offers small business owners a competitive edge in pricing strategies. NetSuite also introduced the SuiteCloud Developer Assistant, which boosts productivity for developers and administrators by automating repetitive tasks and accelerating coding processes. This can significantly reduce the time needed for custom solutions, allowing small businesses to adapt their ERP systems to their specific needs more efficiently. The NetSuite EPM Planning Agent and EPM Reconciliation Agent are designed to enhance planning and reconciliation processes. The former allows for real-time financial planning and analysis, enabling businesses to conduct “what-if” scenarios that support informed decision-making. The latter automates transaction clearing using AI, which reduces manual effort and allows teams to focus on high-risk exceptions, enhancing overall financial accuracy. NetSuite’s commitment to supporting small businesses extends beyond these AI innovations. Their advanced subscription metrics provide early indicators of growth momentum and churn risk, while multi-subsidiary vendor payments enhance spend management and fraud protection. The flexible commitment allocation feature simplifies complex pricing structures, and improved consignment inventory management optimizes vendor-owned stock tracking. As these features roll out to NetSuite customers globally, the focus remains on empowering businesses to leverage data-driven insights for improved operational efficiency and strategic growth. This article, "NetSuite Unveils AI Tools to Streamline Financial Processes and Boost Efficiency" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

There are few things everyone can rally behind as much as finding a lost dog. But what if that mission is actually a workaround for mass surveillance? That’s the question many people are asking following a Super Bowl commercial from Ring, Amazon’s doorbell camera and home security brand. The 30-second video shows a series of missing dog posters and claims that 10 million pets go missing every year. It pitches Ring’s Search Party feature as the solution. Launched in November, Search Party takes a photo of the pet and taps into Ring cameras across the area. They can then use AI to identify the missing pet and send an alert. The ad claims that at least one dog a day has been found since the feature launched. It sounds like a happy ending, except that critics of Search Party see the ad’s framing as a way to normalize widespread biometric identification and a loss of privacy. Take a response from WeRateDogs, a dog-lovers’ account connected to 15/10 Foundation, a nonprofit raising money to get necessary medical help for shelter dogs. In a video posted to Bluesky on Tuesday, the brand’s creator, Matt Nelson, states, “Neither Ring’s products nor business model are built around finding lost pets, but rather creating a mass surveillance network by turning private homes into surveillance outposts and well-meaning neighbors into informants for ICE and other government agencies.” Solutions for finding lost dogs already exist Nelson further claims that Ring’s success rate of one dog found per day equals about 0.03% of reports shared. Instead of using Search Party, he suggests dog owners get their pet microchipped—a common means of tracking lost dogs. Vets and some shelters can microchip dogs. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit focused on “defending civil liberties in the digital world,” takes a similar stance on Ring. “The addition of AI-driven biometric identification is the latest entry in the company’s history of profiting off of public safety worries and disregard for individual privacy, one that turbocharges the extreme dangers of allowing this to carry on,” EFF wrote in response to the ad. The nonprofit continues: “People need to reject this kind of disingenuous framing and recognize the potential end result: a scary overreach of the surveillance state designed to catch us all in its net.” EFF points to instances such as in 2023, when Ring had to pay $5.8 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after Ring employees were found to have had extensive access to customer footage—including in intimate spaces. In reaching the settlement, Ring denied violating the law. In early 2024, Ring claimed it would stop providing footage to the police without a warrant. But both Nelson and the EFF point to Ring’s late-2025 partnerships with Flock Safety and Axon. The companies can request footage from Ring customers—without a warrant—for a case and then send it to thousands of law enforcement agencies. Fast Company has reached out to Ring for comment and will update this post if we hear back. A May 2025 report by 404 Media found that police using Flock’s AI license plate reader regularly put the reason as “ICE.” In a specific case, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Texas, used Flock in its search for a woman who self-administered an abortion. How to turn off Ring’s Search Party feature Ring’s Search Party feature is on by default, but users can turn it off. According to Amazon’s Ring support, you can turn off the Search Party feature by: Going to the Ring app and tap the menu icon (three lines) Clicking Control Center Choosing Search Party Tapping Enable or Disable Search for Lost Pets (Click the blue Pet icon next to it if you want to turn it on or off for specific cameras) Nelson’s post on Bluesky has attracted thousands of shares and hundreds of comments, with some pointing to a Reddit thread in which users are saying they plan to return their Ring camera for a refund. View the full article

Amsterdam court upholds decision to suspend Chinese CEO, hand power to EU-based directors and probe mismanagement allegationsView the full article

Effective article-to-video workflows prioritize what to cut, what to keep, and how to structure 150 words that actually hold attention. The post From Article to Short-Form Video That Holds Attention appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

While ChatGPT has nearly a fifth of Google’s query volume, people use the platforms in different ways. I wanted to see how ChatGPT compared to Google, not just on the total number of searches, but also searches where they compete…Read more ›View the full article

The trove of documents released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in relation to Jeffrey Epstein have revealed just how close the convicted child sex offender and financier was to all sorts of politicians, academics, business leaders, and other prominent figures. These figures not only talked about visits to Epstein’s private island, but also shared news articles, discussed personal events, and had long debates about science and philosophy. Epstein’s views, those conversations reveal, included peddling climate denialism and ecofascism—and illustrate how the ultra-wealthy undermine meaningful climate action. ‘Potentially a good thing for the species’ In a series of July 2016 emails with Joscha Bach, a German philosopher, AI researcher, and cognitive scientist, Epstein brings up climate change in the middle of a discussion about cognition and race. “Maybe climate change is a good way of dealing with overpopulation,” Epstein writes. “the earths forest fire. potentially a good thing for the species.” Linking the conversation back to the earlier topic of how brains function, Epstein adds: “too many people . . . [it] is the fundamental fact that everyone dies at some time. make it [impossible] to ask so why not earlier. if the brain discards unused neurons, why [should] society keep their equivalent.” (Regarding his correspondence with Epstein, Bach recently told SFGate that he hadn’t been aware of Epstein’s crimes after his 2008 conviction and that “his second arrest came as a shock.”) Citing climate change as a solution to overpopulation isn’t a totally surprising position for someone like Epstein, says Michael Mann, a climatologist and coauthor, with Peter Hotez, of the 2025 book Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World. The overpopulation quote is “entirely keeping with the ethos of this group,” Mann tells Fast Company via email, referring to Epstein and his elite associates. Studies suggest that becoming richer makes you less empathetic, and that those with more power often care less about those with little power; the ultra-wealthy can then therefore be more dismissive of the needs of poor people, communities in developing countries, and their lived realities. An example of this way of thinking, Mann notes, comes from Bjorn Lomborg, a political scientist who has been criticized for spreading climate denialism. Lomborg, who also makes an appearance in Epstein’s emails, has argued that poor people need fossil fuels. “Lomborg cynically uses his feigned concern for the poor and downtrodden people of the Global South to justify continued fossil fuel dependence, when in fact it is they who will suffer the most from continued planetary warming,” Mann says. According to the Epstein files, Lomborg had a meeting with the financier in September 2012. That conversation was about philanthropic investments, a spokesperson for Lomborg’s think tank, the Copenhagen Consensus Center, told Drilled Media. But there wasn’t any contact afterward, and the think tank did not receive money from Epstein. Epstein and climate misinformation In some places where the topic of climate change appears in the Epstein emails, Epstein is revealed to have shared messages that perpetuate climate myths. In December 2016, for example, Epstein sent a YouTube video featuring a climate change denier to theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss. That video, titled “Nobel Laureate Smashes the Global Warming Hoax,” features Ivar Giaever (now deceased), who had long denied the climate crisis. Krauss does push back. “So you are listening to an old Nobel laureate whose expertise has nothing to do with this, who has never studied this in detail, built models, done experiments,” he replies. But Epstein isn’t fully deterred. “i liked the argument that more co2 is good for plants?” he says, repeating a classic myth from the climate denier’s playbook. (In reality, excess CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels leads crop yields to drop and also worsens drought, heat, and disasters that destroy harvests.) In a later reply, Epstein repeats another piece of climate change misinformation: “is the south pole getting colder and more ice?” Krauss responds that the “west Antarctic ice sheet is melting at an unprecedented rate.” This wasn’t the first time that the two discussed climate change—and seemed to disagree about it. In a 2013 email, Krauss sends Epstein an op-ed he wrote for The New York Times, headlined “Deafness at Doomsday,” which touched on how policymakers should not ignore scientists about climate change. “As usual i don’t have to agree but will support your decisions, congratulations,” Epstein replies. (Krauss recently told Nature, in response to questions about his interactions with Epstein, that he did not know about the “horrendous crimes” Epstein was accused of and that he was “as shocked as the rest of the world when Epstein was arrested.”) How plutocrats promote climate denialism Mann’s book details five forces that threaten science: plutocrats, pros, petrostates, phonies, and the press. “The Epstein Files is almost an advertisement for Science Under Siege because we see all of the key promoters of climate denial and anti-science that we talk about in the book,” Mann says. That includes, he notes, “propagandists” like Lomberg and Steven Koonin—a theoretical physicist who is only mentioned in the emails when others are sharing his work. In 2014, Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO of Microsoft, sent Epstein a Wall Street Journal piece headlined “Climate Science Is Not Settled,” by Koonin, calling it “a good summary.” Koonin has criticized climate science and was also an author on the The President administration’s 2025 Department of Energy report that downplayed the climate crisis. The Epstein files also mention connections to “petrostates” (nations whose economies are heavily driven by the extraction and export of petroleum, natural gas, and other fossil fuels), including Russia and Saudi Arabia. And finally, it’s filled with plutocrats, like Elon Musk and Bill Gates. (Musk has denied a personal connection to Epstein; Gates has said he “regrets” his time spent with Epstein and maintains that Epstein’s claims about him in the files are false.) Gates often writes and lectures about climate change; the billionaire Microsoft cofounder has invested billions of dollars into technologies like carbon capture and nuclear power. But Mann has also long criticized Gates’s approach for straying from the straightforward solution of stopping fossil fuel use. To Mann, this is a common tactic from the wealthy, one he describes as “stopping short of denying the basic science of climate change, but downplaying the impacts, dismissing the real solutions (i.e., clean energy), and ultimately acting as enablers of the fossil fuel status quo.” The Epstein files have offered a glimpse into the world of billionaires and the way they collect and wield their power—including billionaire philanthropists who are influencing our reactions to crises like climate change. At a time when public sentiment of billionaires has become increasingly negative, people are questioning just how much influence the ultra-wealthy should have on our society. Mann has previously made the point that the solution to the climate crisis isn’t going to come from “benevolent plutocrats.” “If nothing else,” he tells Fast Company, “the Epstein Files really drive home this point.” View the full article

The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its delayed January employment report Wednesday morning, showing the economy added 130,000 jobs in January. But the agency also sharply revised its estimates for total jobs created in 2025 to 181,000 from 584,000. View the full article

This number is slightly higher than our 2022 study on anonymized queries. However, that’s the average. Some websites in our research saw dramatically higher percentages of anonymized queries. Read on to see how it might impact you. The problem is…Read more ›View the full article

Sunday night’s Super Bowl and Bad Bunny fell short of setting records for most watched U.S. broadcast and halftime show. Seattle’s 29-13 victory over New England averaged 124.9 million viewers on NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, NBC Sports Digital, and NFL+, according to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel rating system. That fell short of the 127.7 million U.S. viewers that tuned in for Philadelphia’s 40-22 victory over Kansas City last year on Fox. However, Super Bowl 60 is the most-watched program in NBC history. The network is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Bad Bunny’s halftime show averaged 128.2 million viewers from 8:15-8:30 p.m. Eastern. That would make it the fourth-most watched halftime behind Kendrick Lamar (133.5 million, 2025), Michael Jackson (133.4 million, 1993) and Usher (129.3 million, 2024). Peak audience sets U.S. record The audience for the game peaked at 137.8 million viewers during the second quarter (7:45-8 p.m. Eastern), which is a record. That surpassed the previous mark of 137.7 million during the second quarter of last year’s Super Bowl. This year’s audience ended a streak where the last four Super Bowls had experienced audience increases. It is the fifth straight year the game has averaged over 100 million viewers. After three straight years of Super Bowls that came down to the final minute, the last two have lacked excitement. Sunday’s game was the second in Super Bowl history in which a touchdown had not been scored in the first three quarters. Seattle was up 12-0 going into the final 15 minutes. Last year’s game was decided in the first half as Philadelphia built a 24-0 lead en route to a 40-22 victory. Bad Bunny vs. Kid Rock The Turning Point USA halftime show featuring Kid Rock peaked at 5 million at one point on YouTube. Nielsen did not measure any of the YouTube live stream viewership. Of the linear networks that carried it, the only one Nielsen measures is broadcast network Charge! Full Nielsen ratings for the prior week will be released on Wednesday. According to YouTube figures though, there have been 21,208,583 views of the alternate halftime show through Tuesday night, according to the conservative organization’s page. Bad Bunny’s show has already had 61,311,972 views. Halftime show on social media Total social media consumption of Bad Bunny’s halftime show set a record of 4 billion views after the first 24 hours, according to the NFL and Ripple Analytics. That is a 137% increase over last year. The social media figures include fans, owned platforms, broadcast partners and influencers. The NFL said over 55% of all social views came from international markets. Full global viewership for the halftime show is expected to be available early next week. Spanish audience record Telemundo averaged 3.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl Spanish-language broadcast in the United States. The Super Bowl has been televised in Spanish in the U.S. since 2014. The audience peaked during the halftime show, averaging 4.8 million viewers — also making it the most-watched Super Bowl halftime in Spanish-language history. Olympics benefit from Super Bowl NBC’s “Primetime in Milan” Olympic show, which featured the women’s downhill and team figure skating events, averaged 42 million viewers, the network’s largest Winter Olympics audience since Day 2 of the 2014 Sochi Games. It also was a 73% increase from the Olympics show after Super Bowl 56 (24.3 million). “The Super Bowl and the NFL once again delivered a blockbuster audience across the NBC broadcast network, Peacock and Telemundo, and provided an unprecedented lead-in to our Primetime in Milan coverage,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella said in a statement. “The Super Bowl and the Olympics are the two most powerful events in the world, and we salute our talented production, tech and announce teams who delivered best-in-class presentations for our viewers, stations and partners.” Other NFL figures The NFL playoffs averaged 37 million viewers the first three weekends, up 5% from last year and the second-most watched in the last 10 years. That followed a regular season that averaged 18.7 million, the second-highest since audience averages began being kept in 1988. It was a 10% increase from last season. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl —Joe Reedy, AP Sports Writer View the full article

Sunday's Super Bowl LX (aka sixty) arguably featured the most powerful stadium Wi-Fi network of all time. The post How Levi’s Stadium is redefining connectivity for the world’s biggest events with 6 GHz Wi-Fi 7 and AFC appeared first on Wi-Fi NOW Global. View the full article

For the past few weeks, political ads attacking Alex Bores have been running in New York’s 12th Congressional District. The ads are funded by a pro-AI political action committee that supports the expansion of artificial intelligence, yet they aim to weaken Bores’s candidacy by tying him to his past work in tech. They accuse Bores, who has recently called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, of hypocrisy because he previously worked at Palantir, a data-analytics company whose contracts with ICE have made it a frequent target of activists. The ads allege that Bores made hundreds of thousands of dollars building and selling technology for the agency. “Now he’s running from his past, while ICE is in our communities,” one ad warns. “ICE is powered by Bores’ tech… he should never, ever be in Congress.” Inside Palantir, the ads are starting to irk some employees. Two current employees and three former employees tell Fast Company that they view the campaign as opportunistic. Some believe the ads misrepresent Bores’s record at the company. Others say Palantir’s approach to its work with ICE has changed since Bores left the company many years ago. Several employees said they see the ads as less about immigration enforcement and more about politics within the tech industry. They point to the PAC funding the campaign, Leading the Future, as evidence that the effort is primarily about countering Bores’s support for AI regulation. That view is shared by one former Biden administration staffer who, speaking on condition of anonymity, emphasized that the ad campaign was “almost certainly” a response to Bores’s role as a lead sponsor of an AI safety bill in New York. “If Bores’ campaign is one that would restrict the tech industry’s growth, and his base is one that is already primed to be critical of Palantir, people (like me!) who watch this ad wouldn’t suspect that it’s people with significant interests in Palantir and the broader industry that are funding the ads, too,” one former employee tells Fast Company in a message. Bores, a member of the New York State Assembly who successfully pushed for AI regulation at the state level, is currently running for the Democratic nomination for New York’s 12th Congressional District. The district represents the very liberal and very wealthy neighborhoods of Manhattan’s Upper West and Upper East Sides, meaning the winner of the Democratic primary is all but guaranteed to win the general election. Bores has leaned into his tech background on the campaign trail. He says he is proud of his work at Palantir but left the company seven years ago in response to its work for ICE, a project he says he never worked on or participated in. Since then, however, he has been the subject of an extended ad campaign branding him an “expert in hypocrisy” and alleging that he profited from Palantir’s work with the Department of Homeland Security. The ads seek to capitalize on widespread anger over ICE, particularly following a massive escalation of raids and deportations and the killing of two American citizens. Bores’s campaign has since sent Leading the Future a cease-and-desist, Semafor recently reported. Joe Lonsdale’s role in the anti-Bores effort The ads are being released by Think Big, a group that describes itself as supporting pro-AI Democratic leaders. Think Big is funded by the Super PAC Leading the Future, according to Federal Election Commission documents. Leading the Future’s founding supporters, according to its own press release, include Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and the AI company Perplexity. Multiple donors associated with the group—such as Lonsdale and Andreessen—have also been major contributors to Republican candidates and causes. Campaign finance records show that Lonsdale Enterprises is the only donor, aside from Leading the Future itself, listed on filings associated with American Mission, a separate PAC affiliated with the same network. (Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited sums but are prohibited from donating directly to candidates. Traditional PACs face strict contribution limits but are allowed to donate to campaigns, leading many political networks to operate both.) “The co-founder of Palantir started a Super PAC that is lying to New Yorkers about my work and the fact that I quit seven years ago over the ICE contract they continue to profit off of to this day,” Bores tells Fast Company. The real issue, Bores argues, is his work on AI regulation. He co-sponsored a New York state law known as the Raise Act, which was signed last year by Governor Kathy Hochul and imposes safety requirements on frontier AI developers. He has said he plans to pursue similar legislation in Congress. John Vlasto, a leader at Leading the Future, said in an emailed statement: “Leading the Future will aggressively oppose policymakers and candidates in states across the country who play political games with the future of American leadership and jeopardize American workers, families, and communities ability to benefit from AI innovation and growth.” Palantir did not respond to Fast Company’s request for comment. Now Palantir employees are grappling with the growing public scrutiny of the company’s work with ICE and the way that criticism is being deployed politically. One current employee said Bores was always upfront internally about his background and found it jarring that a PAC backed by tech funders would attack someone for having worked in the technology industry. Another current employee said the ads and campaign materials highlighting Palantir’s ICE contracts feel “disingenuous,” adding that the work remains controversial inside the company. (Indeed, Wired reported on Tuesday that Palantir employees have spent weeks pressing company leadership for answers about its work with ICE, prompting CEO Alex Karp to address the issue in a prerecorded internal video.) That tension has fueled anger among some employees that Lonsdale, a Palantir co-founder, appears to be amplifying criticism of the company based on its federal contracts. There’s even a Slack thread where people have flagged the ads and other campaign materials they’ve received, one employee tells Fast Company. “Nothing says ‘principled stance’ like a founder denouncing their own company’s employees for their own company’s choices,” Varoon Mathur, who worked on AI at the Biden White House, tells Fast Company. Another former Biden administration official similarly emphasized that the campaign was almost “certainly because” Bores sponsored AI safety legislation in New York. Controversy over ICE and Palantir The ads targeting Bores come amid growing criticism of Palantir’s work with ICE. The company has worked with the Department of Homeland Security for more than a decade, but its current relationship with the federal government primarily centers on ICE. That work includes a product called ImmigrationOS, which assists the agency with deportation operations, as well as support for an ICE tip line that was recently disclosed in the agency’s AI inventory. Work on the tip line began years ago but was shifted to Palantir during the second The President administration, a former DHS employee tells Fast Company. (Palantir has also faced criticism for its contracts with the Israeli military during the war in Gaza.) The company’s growing political baggage has made it a liability for some elected officials. In New York City, finance officials are pressing for an inquiry into the city’s pension fund, which is invested in Palantir. In Colorado, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Jason Crow announced this week that they would offset campaign contributions from current and former Palantir employees by donating to immigrant rights groups. In Florida, far-right candidate James Fishback has called for banning the company from the state. For Bores, that scrutiny has extended to his own tenure at Palantir. He previously told Fast Company that he left the company when, “or soon after,” Palantir renewed an ICE contract that expanded the scope of its work with the Department of Homeland Security. However, City & State reported last month that Bores remained at Palantir after controversy over the ICE contract first emerged. (Bores’s spokesperson told the outlet that he left before the contract was renewed, and he believed the contract’s renewal was likely.) Two Palantir employees who spoke to Fast Company said they had no reason to believe Bores worked on the ICE contract specifically, and one said they remembered him opposing the company’s work with ICE internally. Some Palantir employees have also donated to his campaign, Bores has said. Current and former employees describe a company long divided over its government contracts, particularly those tied to immigration enforcement. One former employee said the ads were frustrating but predictable, given Palantir’s history of pursuing government work across administrations. Another said they left the company after its approach to ICE shifted away from earlier guardrails, adding that the advertisements felt like retribution. A third former employee recalled internal conversations that “look pretty different from at least what I’m seeing publicly about Palantir now.” Bores, for his part, has tried to turn the PAC’s focus on him into a political asset, framing it as validation of his push for AI regulation. “Judge me by my enemies,” he wrote in a recent tweet, referring directly to Lonsdale. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The 64GB refurbished Amazon Kindle Scribe is down to $278.99 right now, which is its lowest price to date, according to price trackers. A brand-new model costs $449.99, so the savings are significant. In this case, “like-new” means Amazon has cleaned, inspected, and cleared the device to function like a new unit, just without the shrink wrap. That price gap makes this Scribe more approachable, especially if you were curious about combining an e-reader with a digital notebook but did not want to pay flagship-tablet money. Like-New Amazon Kindle Scribe (64 GB) - Your notes, documents and books, all in one place. With built-in AI notebook summarization. Includes Premium Pen - Metallic Jade $278.99 at Amazon $404.99 Save $126.00 Get Deal Get Deal $278.99 at Amazon $404.99 Save $126.00 This is the Scribe with the Premium Pen bundled in, and paired with its 10.2-inch E Ink screen, it offers a nice balance of size and sharpness, with 300 ppi, and an adjustable cool to warm-toned front light, which helps during long reading sessions. But even with that crisp display, it’s still grayscale, and the lack of color does feel limiting when compared to competitors (if you’re curious about your options, PCMag has a comprehensive roundup of the best e-readers for 2026). The software has gotten better, though—note-taking now includes direct annotation on books via something called Active Canvas. Just don’t expect the fluidity of an iPad or Supernote. Also, according to this PCMag review, things like drawing arrows or circling aren’t supported, and even Amazon’s AI features (like cleaning up your notes or summarizing) feel a little half-baked, considering the Scribe’s price point. That said, for pure reading, the Scribe still holds up. It’s light, looks good with its aluminum frame, has ample storage, and offers a battery that can last over two months with basic use. If you’re writing or sketching regularly, that drops to around three weeks—but even then, it’s more than respectable. You do need your own USB-C charging brick, though. And unless you like slippery backs, a case is basically required. At $278.99, this version makes more sense than it ever did at launch. Just know going in that while the writing feel is great, thanks to the paper-like texture of the screen, the software may not be as smooth or intuitive as you’d expect from a premium device trying to be both a digital notebook and Kindle. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $139.99 (List Price $179.00) 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) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Blink Mini 2 1080p Security Camera (White) — $23.99 (List Price $39.99) Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus — $29.99 (List Price $49.99) Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ 10.9" 64GB Wi-Fi Tablet (Graphite) — $149.99 (List Price $219.99) Bose QuietComfort Noise Cancelling Wireless Headphones — $229.00 (List Price $349.00) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article

When left to its own devices, there are a couple of things Performance Max is absolutely great at doing for lead gen campaigns: Driving volume. Finding the lowest-quality leads it possibly can. It’s not inherently surprising that Google is doing what’s best for Google – that is, lining its own pockets – by heavily optimizing toward the cheapest, path-of-least-resistance conversion events. From experience with campaigns we inherit from new clients, this performance often catches brands off guard – especially those who take Google sales reps’ “helpful advice” at face value. It can take time for those brands to look past PMax’s shiny, low CPAs and realize the truth: those leads do little to nothing for real pipeline or revenue. However, Performance Max, when given the proper guardrails, can be a good source of incremental, quality leads – but the trick is in building those guardrails. This article covers lead quality tactics that work and how to execute them, tactics that don’t work, and important differences between Performance Max campaigns in Google and Bing. How to improve lead quality in PMax campaigns These are the specific levers that consistently influence lead quality in Performance Max. Use conversion goals focused on metrics that indicate a higher quality lead than just form fills. Depending on your data density, this could mean closed-won leads, opportunities, or (if you need to go up the funnel to get enough volume) sales-qualified leads. It’s important to note that the effectiveness of this tactic depends on good offline conversion tracking implementation and a clean CRM instance, so don’t turn on PMax lead gen campaigns until you’re confident in your HubSpot or Salesforce integrity. Use high-value lists for audience signals. This can be based on a certain activity, like “booked a meeting,” instead of simply including all converters. Keep the focus on the right audiences. Exclude irrelevant ones and upload Customer Match lists to help Google’s algorithm find similar users. Be smart with your campaign settings. Use brand exclusions to ensure you’re not letting PMax cannibalize your brand traffic. Restrict your location targeting to high-performing geos. Set strategic scheduling, such as excluding early-morning hours if those conversions tend to be lower quality. Evaluate search themes and placements, and be aggressive about negative keywords and placement exclusions. Use sitelinks to steer traffic to pages with full, detailed forms. Refine the forms themselves. Implement reCAPTCHA or honeypot fields in forms that keep bots from “converting.” Use field validation: Block disposable domains. Block freemails. Add freeform or disqualifying questions. “How did you hear about us?” “Do you have a budget for [solution]?” “How many employees are in your organization?” Dig deeper: Top Performance Max optimization tips for 2026 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 Tactics that won’t affect lead quality On the other hand, some of the usual campaign optimization strategies won’t do much to move the needle on PMax lead quality. If that’s your sole focus, you can de-prioritize: Switching bid strategies (e.g., switching from Max Conversions to tCPA helps a little but doesn’t fix everything). Adding more assets. Adding more budget. Asking Google support (something I’d just stay away from in general these days). Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. Important (and subtle) differences to know between Google and Bing PMax campaigns Both Google and Bing have Performance Max campaigns, but there are differences in their offerings. Google’s Performance Max network spans search, display, YouTube, discovery campaigns, and Gmail. It’s an absolutely huge amount of inventory – especially display and YouTube, which can be huge spam drivers if left unchecked. Microsoft has far less video and display inventory. Their PMax campaigns primarily include Bing search, syndicated search, and the Microsoft audience network (which spans display, Outlook, and MSN). When comparing performance between the two, we haven’t seen any notable differences, but it’s worth monitoring updates to each platform’s reporting and inventory going forward. Dig deeper: Google and Microsoft: How their Performance Max approaches align and diverge 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 Performance Max isn’t broken, but it needs control If you’re considering running PMax for lead gen, you should approach it with a healthy dose of skepticism. While PMax has been effective at driving scalable revenue for ecommerce,those campaigns need considerable guidelines to maintain lead quality. For instance, preventing a high-end shoe retailer from racking up tons of conversions on things like replacement laces and shoe polish will require that the campaign develop sufficient PMax guardrails. Considering how Google is moving toward additional automation and AI in campaigns, it’s important to keep testing and experimenting to gain an understanding of the tools available to analyze and shape PMax campaigns. Google has issued some new releases to help as of late, including channel-level reporting, more options for exclusions, and campaign-level negative keywords.) There is a lead scale out there that can provide a healthy ROAS if you’re willing and able to wrestle the algorithm into submission. If you’ve tested Performance Max campaigns for lead gen but paused them once it was clear they weren’t driving revenue, do a quick post-mortem on your past efforts. You might find there’s room to whip Google into shape to do better this time around. Take note of the tactics you haven’t yet implemented and prioritize putting them in place before you waste another dollar of your 2026 budget on poor-quality leads that just junk up your CRM. View the full article

A canine health startup called Loyal has now raised more than $250 million to develop drugs that could help dogs—and perhaps one day humans—live longer, healthier lives. The company on February 11 announced it had raised $100 million in Series C funding as it pursues FDA approval of LOY-002, a beef-flavored daily prescription pill designed to extend the healthy lifespan of senior dogs. The drug mimics some of the effects of a calorie-restricted diet in addressing age-related metabolic issues without requiring pet owners to cut their dogs’ food supply or curbing canine appetites. “People do not want their dogs to not have food motivation, because that’s how you train dogs,” says Loyal founder and CEO Celine Halioua. “How we domesticated dogs was sharing meals with them; losing that can actually really impact the dog-human bond.” But, of course, people do want to share that bond longer than the typical canine lifespan allows. Halioua started Loyal in late 2019 after a stint as chief of staff at The Longevity Fund, a lifespan-focused investment fund founded by Laura Deming and an early backer of Loyal. She says she realized that dog longevity drugs could one day lead to similar treatments for humans, since the species are similar in many ways, and are easier to test, since dogs’ short lives mean tests of lifespan extension can be run in a shorter amount of time. And as a dog lover—a recent interview with Fast Company also included Halioua’s freshly adopted Rottweiler, Wilma—she also saw the potential market among owners and pets. Celine Halioua “It felt like a really tractable way to work on a problem that everyone cares about, which is having too little time with the dogs you love,” she says. LOY-002 is one of three canine longevity medications under development by the company, and Halioua says she’s hoping Loyal can submit the final requirement for the FDA’s expanded conditional approval of the drug this year. That would likely start a roughly six-month review process of what would be the first FDA-approved lifespan extension drug for any species. And its progress comes as interest rises overall in the potential of developing medical treatments that can help humans as well experience longer and healthier lives. “When I started pitching The Longevity Fund in 2013, it was a niche concept and people laughed me out of their offices,” Deming tells Fast Company in an email. “Now it’s a legitimate category of investment.” Loyal’s Series C backers include Age1, a new longevity-focused VC firm cofounded by Deming and Alex Colville, as well as Baillie Gifford and other existing investors in the company, which had previously raised more than $150 million in investments. “Aging is something that really affects everybody—every human and every dog on the planet experiences aging,” Colville says. “And I think that’s something that’s really unique about it as an opportunity and a space to work in.” Already, LOY-002 has met two of three milestones for FDA approval, known as the “target animal safety” and “reasonable expectation of effectiveness” sections of its conditional approval application. The final milestone involves demonstrating that the drug can be consistently manufactured at scale, Halioua says. The drug will likely be labeled for use by dogs at least 10 years old weighing at least 14 pounds, she says. Dosing, and thus costs, will depend on animal size, but Halioua says she’s optimistic the average dog will be able to take the drug for less than $100 per month. The company announced last July that it had completed enrolling dogs in a study it calls STAY, designed to test the effectiveness of LOY-002, which Halioua says is the largest-ever animal health clinical trial. Loyal has enrolled roughly 1,300 dogs in the study through 72 veterinary clinics, and Halioua says she’s hoping they’ll find that the drug confers at least one healthy to participants. Loyal also has two other dog drugs, a vet-administered injection called LOY-001 and a daily pill called LOY-003, in the works. Though Halioua says the company hasn’t publicized the exact biological mechanisms beyond the drugs, she says would look to extend lifespans of larger dogs by targeting a growth hormone that’s correlated with a shorter life, with big dogs usually living a shorter time than their smaller counterparts. “Once the dog is fully grown, you can then reduce the levels of growth hormone to hopefully extend their healthy lifespan and kind of compensate for the historical genetic issue that we gave them when we selectively bred for size,” says Halioua. If all goes well, those drugs could launch a year or two after LOY-002, she says. And if Loyal’s drugs prove helpful to dogs, they could one day lead to similar treatments for humans. “If we’re able to do something helpful for dogs, I think we’re going to learn a lot about how to do something helpful for humans, too,” says Halioua. View the full article

Zillow Group Inc. forecast first-quarter profit that falls short of analyst estimates as the home-search site balances legal costs from ongoing litigation and expenses from the company's partnership with Redfin. View the full article

Figure points to improvement in labour market following string of bleak dataView the full article

Country currently has 9.1mn permanent residents and experts fear the move would limit companies’ access to foreign talentView the full article

Client loyalty cards are programs designed to encourage repeat business by rewarding customers for their purchases. These cards can provide points, discounts, or exclusive benefits, depending on the business’s strategy. Customers typically register, sharing personal information, and accumulate rewards with each transaction. This system not only incentivizes customers to return but additionally helps businesses better understand their buying habits. To fully grasp the mechanics and impact of these programs, let’s explore their history and functionality further. Key Takeaways Client loyalty cards are tools that reward customers for repeat purchases, enhancing retention through discounts, points, or benefits. They can be physical cards or digital applications linked to a points system, tiered rewards, or discounts. Customers accumulate points or rewards with each purchase, typically requiring personal information for registration. Transactions are tracked through point-of-sale systems, facilitating easy rewards management for both customers and businesses. Different types of loyalty programs include points-based, tiered, and value-based, catering to various customer motivations. What Is A Client Loyalty Card? A client loyalty card is a strategic tool that businesses use to cultivate repeat purchases by rewarding customers for their loyalty. These cards allow you to earn rewards, discounts, or points with each purchase, making it easier for you to enjoy benefits over time. Client loyalty cards can come in various forms, such as custom punch cards, plastic cards, or even digital wallets. Often, they’re tied to your personal information, which helps businesses track your purchases and preferences effectively. Research shows that 75% of customers are more likely to buy when offered incentives through loyalty programs. This not only boosts your engagement but also aids businesses in grasping customer buying habits, allowing for targeted marketing efforts. Moreover, loyalty card printing can create visually appealing designs that improve your experience, making it easy to keep track of your rewards as you shop. The History Of Loyalty Card Programs Loyalty card programs have a rich history that dates back to the late 18th century, when businesses began using copper tokens to encourage repeat purchases. As time progressed, loyalty punch cards evolved, with the late 19th century introducing printed stamps. Betty Crocker‘s box tops were among the first notable frameworks for modern loyalty initiatives. By the early 1900s, box tops and similar rewards systems gained traction, leading to brand-specific loyalty programs that offered coupons and discounts. The late 20th century marked the rise of card-based loyalty programs, simplifying customer participation and tracking rewards. With the advent of digital technology in the 21st century, loyalty cards transformed considerably, facilitating mobile apps and POS integration for improved accessibility. Year Range Key Developments Program Types Late 18th Century Copper tokens Early loyalty programs Late 19th Century Printed stamps Betty Crocker’s box tops Early 1900s Box tops and coupons Brand-specific programs Late 20th Century Card-based programs Simplified tracking 21st Century Digital apps and POS systems Enhanced user experience How Do Client Loyalty Cards Work? When you participate in a client loyalty card program, you accumulate points or rewards for every purchase you make, which can later be redeemed for discounts, free products, or special offers. After registering for a loyalty card, you typically provide personal information, allowing businesses to tailor marketing efforts and understand your purchasing behavior better. Each transaction you make with your loyalty card is tracked through a point-of-sale system, which automatically calculates the points you earn based on the purchase value. You can choose between physical and digital loyalty cards; the latter often provide greater convenience through mobile apps for easy access and management. Many successful loyalty card programs feature tiered rewards, motivating you to spend more to reveal higher levels of benefits. This structured approach improves your shopping experience as well as promotes customer loyalty for businesses that offer these loyalty cards. Advantages And Disadvantages Of Client Loyalty Cards Client loyalty cards offer several advantages and disadvantages that can greatly impact both businesses and consumers. On the positive side, these cards notably boost customer retention, as research shows that existing customers are 60-70% more likely to make purchases than new ones. They also encourage repeat business, with 75% of customers more likely to buy after receiving rewards. Plus, satisfied members often share their experiences, improving brand reach through word-of-mouth marketing. However, there are drawbacks. Privacy concerns arise from the collection of personal information, which can lead to distrust if not handled properly. Moreover, loyalty programs can complicate the checkout process, resulting in longer wait times for customers. Advantages Disadvantages Increased customer retention Privacy concerns Encourages repeat business Decreased point-of-sale efficiency Improved brand reach Potential distrust among customers Word-of-mouth marketing Longer wait times at checkout Rewards encourage purchases Complicated transaction processes Where To Create Client Loyalty Cards When you’re ready to create client loyalty cards, you’ll find a variety of design options and printing services to choose from. Companies like VistaPrint and GogoPrint offer customizable templates for physical cards, whereas platforms like Design Wizard and My Creative Shop focus on digital designs. It’s essential to select a service that not only meets your design needs but additionally integrates seamlessly with your existing systems for efficient customer management. Design Options Available Creating effective client loyalty cards involves exploring various design options that suit your business needs. You can choose paper loyalty cards from services like VistaPrint and GogoPrint, which offer templates customized to your branding. If you prefer a digital approach, platforms such as Design Wizard and My Creative Shop allow for unique graphics that integrate easily with mobile apps. For added durability, consider custom plastic loyalty cards from companies like Plastic Resource, designed to fit specific point-of-sale systems. Many printing services additionally enable bulk ordering, helping you reduce costs while maintaining quality consistency. Utilizing design software or online tools can help you create visually appealing loyalty cards that reflect your brand identity and resonate with your target audience. Printing Services Recommendations Where can you find the best printing services to create your loyalty cards? Online platforms like VistaPrint and GogoPrint offer a range of design templates and customization options customized to your brand. If you prefer a hands-on approach, local print shops may provide competitive pricing and the chance to discuss your ideas in person. For user-friendly design, consider Design Wizard and My Creative Shop, which allow you to personalize cards easily. If durability is a priority, Plastic Resource specializes in custom plastic loyalty cards that fit various POS systems, ensuring longevity. Moreover, many services offer bulk order discounts, helping you save costs when producing large quantities for your loyalty programs. Choose the option that best suits your needs. Successful Examples Of Client Loyalty Cards Client loyalty cards have become an essential tool for businesses aiming to improve customer engagement and retention. For instance, Starbucks Rewards allows you to earn stars with every purchase, enabling you to redeem them for free drinks and food. Members typically spend 20% more than non-members. Sephora’s Beauty Insider program offers tiered rewards based on your annual spending, providing exclusive discounts and early access to new products, resulting in high engagement among its 25 million members. The North Face XPLR Pass rewards you with points for purchases and outdoor activities, nurturing a community of outdoor enthusiasts. Similarly, the Chick-fil-A One app lets you earn points for every purchase, contributing to a 14% increase in sales since its launch. Finally, CVS‘s ExtraCare program personalizes coupons and rewards based on your shopping history, boasting over 70 million active members and greatly boosting customer retention rates. Best Practices For Implementing A Client Loyalty Card Program Establishing a successful client loyalty card program requires careful planning and a strategic approach. Start by defining clear goals that align with your customer experience strategies and understand your customers’ preferences. This guarantees that the rewards you offer resonate with their interests and keep them engaged. Choose a loyalty card program type that suits your business model—whether it’s points-based, tiered, or value-based—to effectively target different customer motivations. Regularly review and analyze your program’s performance, utilizing detailed reporting features to adapt based on customer feedback and purchasing trends. Marketing your loyalty program effectively through various channels, like social media and in-store promotions, is vital for attracting and retaining members. Finally, streamline the registration process, allowing for both in-store and online sign-ups to maximize participation and collect valuable customer demographic data. By implementing these best practices, you can create a loyalty program that truly benefits both your clients and your business. Frequently Asked Questions What Is a Loyalty Card and How Does It Work? A loyalty card is a program that rewards you for repeat purchases. When you shop, you present your card, whether it’s physical or digital, to earn points or discounts. You usually need to register your information, which helps businesses track your buying habits. This data allows them to tailor offers to you, enhancing your shopping experience. In the end, loyalty cards encourage you to return, making you more likely to choose that brand again. What Are the 4 C’s of Customer Loyalty? The 4 C’s of customer loyalty include customer centricity, consistency, communication, and community. Customer centricity focuses on comprehending your needs and tailoring experiences accordingly. Consistency guarantees you receive reliable products and services every time. Effective communication keeps you informed about benefits and promotions, enhancing your loyalty. Finally, community nurtures connections among customers and the brand, creating a sense of belonging that encourages you to engage and advocate for the brand. What Are the 3 R’s of Customer Loyalty? The 3 R’s of customer loyalty are Retention, Referrals, and Revenue. Retention focuses on keeping customers satisfied, as it’s often cheaper to retain them than to acquire new ones. Referrals utilize positive customer experiences to attract new customers, which can lead to higher retention rates. Revenue comes from loyal customers, who typically spend more on repeat purchases. What’s the Point of Loyalty Cards? Loyalty cards serve to reward you for your repeat business, encouraging you to spend more at specific retailers. By accumulating points or rewards with each purchase, you can eventually receive discounts or free items. These programs not only improve your shopping experience but additionally provide businesses with insights into your preferences, leading to targeted marketing. Conclusion In conclusion, client loyalty cards are effective tools for encouraging repeat business by rewarding customers for their purchases. They operate through point-of-sale systems, allowing customers to accumulate points or benefits that incentivize return visits. Although these programs offer advantages like increased customer retention, they likewise come with challenges such as the need for personal data collection. By comprehending their function and considering best practices, businesses can successfully implement loyalty card programs to improve customer engagement and satisfaction. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Are Client Loyalty Cards and How Do They Function?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article