All Activity

While Google still dominates local search, ChatGPT has made notable strides. Its local results, though not yet on par with Google’s, have improved significantly since we ranked it last among AI search tools less than a year ago. The key change? ChatGPT’s integration with Microsoft Bing’s search index last fall. While it now pulls web content from Bing, it applies its own algorithm to organize results. As a result, the best way to make your business visible in ChatGPT is to ensure it’s included in Bing’s index. However, ChatGPT processes local queries differently than Bing does. Here are several key differences I uncovered by running side-by-side queries and digging into how ChatGPT compiles local results. ChatGPT uses, but doesn’t match, Bing Search When I asked ChatGPT to suggest dry cleaners in Red Hook, Brooklyn that are open on Sundays, I got back a map and three listings, not unlike a local pack on Google. The cited sources include city guides like Best of Brooklyn, business websites, and sources like Reddit and Yelp. When I perform the same search on Bing, I get a result that seems similar at first, but has several key differences. For example, the top-ranked result, The Cobble Hill Cleaners and Laundry, is the same in both cases. However, the second result from ChatGPT, Bridgestone Cleaners, is listed at rank position 14 on Bing as Bridgestone Dry Cleaners & Bridal Care. In contrast, the third listing, Brooklyn Cleaner & Tailor, cannot be found in the Bing listings result at all. There is a small overlap between the two results, but it’s clear ChatGPT is not merely repackaging Bing. What’s going on here? Dig deeper: How ChatGPT can help with local SEO ChatGPT doesn’t see Bing’s local profile details ChatGPT: Does not see the local profile data managed by businesses via the Bing Places for Business platform. Can’t access features added to Bing Places listings through partnerships such as reviews from Facebook and Yelp. Does not have access to the map showing the location of listed businesses that is displayed in Bing local results. I confirmed all of this through a series of questions with ChatGPT, where I delved into its process for creating local results (more on that below). ChatGPT does have access to Bing web results ChatGPT performs a Bing search for the relevant local query, gathers 20-30 of the top web results returned by Bing, and organizes those results using its own logic. And some of ChatGPT’s priorities are quite different from those of a search engine. For instance, ChatGPT told me that it follows this process when answering a query about top-rated local businesses in a certain category: Initial pass: ChatGPT scans the first 20-30 results, looking for store websites, review aggregators, niche blogs or local guides, and directories. Deeper dive: From those results, ChatGPT analyzes 5-8 sources that seem “most promising.” Selection filter: ChatGPT then picks 3-5 sources that clearly present an average star rating, do not hide content behind a paywall, and are “verifiable and linkable.” ChatGPT applies its own criteria for filtering and showcasing results I quoted two phrases from ChatGPT’s response in the section above that struck me as needing explanation. First is the phrase “most promising,” mentioned in the “Deeper dive” phase of the sorting process. I asked ChatGPT what “most promising” means in this context, and the answer was fascinating. ChatGPT said that, for a query like “best store for snow gear in Eugene Oregon,” it tries to identify “sources that look like they’ll contain trustworthy, specific, or structured information to answer your question well,” with criteria that include: Highly relevant titles/snippets, e.g., “Top 5 Ski Shops in Eugene”, “Eugene Outdoor Gear Guide.” Trusted domains, including sites like: REI.com (retailer website) Yelp.com (review aggregator) Local blogs (e.g., eugenemagazine.com) BBB.org, Facebook business pages, or news sites Rich metadata: “If the snippet includes hours, ratings, addresses, that suggests the page is structured and useful.” Unique content: “I skip over duplicative aggregator results or generic directories (like Yellow Pages or outdated TripAdvisor lists) unless nothing better is available.” As for what ChatGPT means by “verifiable and linkable,” it said that “verifiable” means the following: You, the user, can independently visit the source and see the same facts I reference. The info is specific, dated (if necessary), and attributed – not vague, anonymous, or unsourced. I avoid referencing anything that looks like user-generated fluff without moderation or oversight. It listed the following examples: An REI store page listing hours and gear brands. A Yelp page with a visible 4.7-star rating from 100+ reviews. A blog post with an author and a publish date. It also listed examples of sources that would not pass the “verifiable” test: A snippet from an unlinked forum post A vague business name with no physical or online footprint A site with no contact info or clear publishing source As for “linkable,” ChatGPT said that this means the page has a direct URL the user can visit that is not hidden behind a paywall or subscription service. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. ChatGPT does not reference Google directly This answer took some digging. In several of its responses, ChatGPT mentioned pulling data for local queries from various sources, including Google Search and Google Maps. But when pressed, ChatGPT clarified that it does not have direct access to Google. In some cases, ChatGPT may reference a business’s average rating on Google or provide a link to Google Maps, but this is only when a website indexed by Bing cites Google’s information. A pertinent example occurred when I asked ChatGPT the average Google rating of Bridgestone Cleaners in Brooklyn. It provided an answer, using the business website – which contained structured review data from Google – as its source. ChatGPT’s map is part of the interface If ChatGPT is applying its own logic to reorganize web results sourced from Bing, why do its results resemble a local pack with a map, as seen in Bing’s own local results? I asked ChatGPT about this, and at first, it confidently replied that it does not generate any maps, but may sometimes copy a map from a web page in a Bing search result. But this clearly wasn’t what I saw in my local query examples. When I pointed out to ChatGPT that the maps in its responses had special features like a “List/Map” toggle and a carousel of business listings, it clarified that the map is not generated by ChatGPT itself, the LLM, but rather by the interface layer of the ChatGPT website, or “OpenAI’s front end” as ChatGPT put it. ChatGPT states: “That map uses the structured data I supply (names, addresses) to visually organize businesses, likely via an integration with a mapping layer.” How should local businesses optimize for ChatGPT? I asked ChatGPT: “Given all of these explanations for how you handle local queries, what are the top recommendations you would offer to local businesses who want to optimize their online presence to appear prominently in ChatGPT answers?” ChatGPT offered eight tactics, which I summarize below with some commentary. Maintain an accurate, detailed website ChatGPT frequently references business websites when they appear in Bing search results. Make sure your website has structured content, preferably using schema.org markup, including business contact info, hours, and customer testimonials. Note that structured content apparently acts as a signal that your site is trustworthy. Claim and optimize your Bing Places Listing I was surprised to see this as a top tactic, since ChatGPT had previously explained that it did not look at Bing Places information. However, after some further questioning, ChatGPT clarified that Bing Places listings influence the web results ChatGPT looks at. For instance, a highly ranked business in Bing local listings will more likely have its website appear in organic results. Get listed on reputable review platforms Accurate profiles on sites like Yelp and Facebook that are public and contain positive, recent reviews will help you stand out. Encourage reviews on visible platforms This is a no-brainer for many reasons, and ChatGPT is now one of them. Earn links from local directories and press In particular, ChatGPT mentions local magazines, “best of” blog posts, and local chamber of commerce directories. Use consistent local SEO best practices ChatGPT mentions having consistent data across your website, local listings, and social profiles. However, many other best practices seem to apply to ChatGPT as already indicated above. Offer unique, searchable content “If your site includes helpful info like ‘How to choose ski boots’ or ‘Why eco-friendly dry cleaning matters,’ those pages can become entry points that I may find and reference.” Monitor what’s actually ranking on Bing Check what appears in the first 20 or 30 Bing organic results for queries relevant to your business. Look for opportunities to optimize your presence in the results ChatGPT will most likely reference. In summary, ChatGPT says: “Make your business easy for Bing to understand and easy for ChatGPT to cite.” Dig deeper: Top SEO tips for location-specific websites A final caveat Yes, I did use ChatGPT to help me write this article, and we should take these explanations and suggestions with a grain of salt – or rather, in the words of its own footer, “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.” Still, on the whole, the info ChatGPT provided correlates with the results I see for its local queries, and offers a more cogent explanation for how ChatGPT answers local queries than any I’ve previously seen. View the full article

Figures indicate labour market resilience despite The President administration’s deep cuts to federal workforceView the full article

SharkNinja has announced the voluntary recall of more than 1.8 million units of Foodi multi-function pressure cookers after more than 100 reports of burn injuries—many of them serious. Here’s what you need to know about the SharkNinja pressure cooker recall. What’s happened? On May 1, home appliance company SharkNinja issued a recall for some of its SharkNinja pressure cookers, according to a notice posted on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) website. The recall covers more than 1.8 million units of SharkNinja’s Foodi OP300 Series Multi-Function Pressure Cookers. The recall was issued after the company received 106 reports of burn injuries from people interacting with the cookers. The company has discovered that the pressure-cooking lids of the recalled units can be opened while the cooker is pressurized. This could result in “burn injuries from hot contents” in the cooker, according to the company’s recall notice. In addition to the cooking units themselves, SharkNinja is also recalling lid replacements for the units that were sold separately. What pressure cooker is being recalled? SharkNinja says the recall covers the “Ninja”-brand “Foodi” OP300-series Pressure Cookers/TenderCrisp Air. The following model numbers of that series are being recalled: OP300 OP300C OP301 OP301A OP301C OP302 OP302BRN OP302HAQ OP302HB OP302HCN OP302HW OP305 OP305CO OP305CCO OP350CO In addition to the models above, the OP300 lid replacement with the SKU 111FY300 has also been recalled. How many SharkNinja OP300-series units are affected? According to the notice posted on the CPSC website, about 1,846,400 units are being recalled, as well as about 184,240 that were sold in Canada. Where were the recalled units sold? According to the CPSC, the recalled pressure cookers were sold at some of the largest retailers nationwide. They were sold in both physical retail stores and online. The physical retail stores where the recalled units were sold at include: Walmart Costco Sam’s Club Amazon Target The recalled pressure cookers were also sold online at: Ninjakitchen.com walmart.com costco.com samsclub.com amazon.com target.com The recalled units were sold from January 2019 through March 2025. Each unit retailed for around $200. Have the recalled products injured anyone? Unfortunately, yes. SharkNinja says that it has received 106 reports of burn injuries involving the recalled products. Even worse, more than 50 of those injuries included second- or third-degree burns to a person’s body or face. What should I do if I have a recalled product? If you have the recalled pressure cooker or lid, you should immediately stop using the pressure cooker and ensure that no one else who has access to the pressure cooker uses it. You should then fill out the Ninja OP300 Series Recall form here. Once you’ve submitted the form, SharkNinja will send you a replacement lid. You should also dispose of your current faulty lid. You can view the full CPSC recall notice here, as well as SharkNinja’s full FAQ on the recall here. View the full article

The era of subway gate jumping could soon be over. By this fall, 20 stations across the New York City subway system will begin testing new gate systems that aim to make it all but impossible for someone to get through the gate to the subway platform without paying a fare. This week, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced the planned piloting of four gate control systems as part of its effort to crack down on fare evasion in the subway system. The four systems will be installed in five stations each across the MTA’s subway network to test their effectiveness. In contrast to the conventional turnstile gates seen in many subway stations, the MTA’s subway gates pilots are generally larger and more akin to sliding or swinging doors, making them more difficult to climb over or sneak under. Provided by vendors Conduent, Cubic, Scheidt & Bachmann, and STraffic, some may be familiar from other transit systems around the world, or security areas in airports. These off-the-shelf gate systems are vying for their chunk of the $1.1 billion the MTA has budgeted for improving fare gates at 150 stations over the next five years. The MTA’s subway gate pilot program is a calculated investment, which the agency sees as a way of increasing revenue and improving service. About 40% of the MTA’s operating budget comes from fares and tolls, and it sees reducing gate jumping as a way of bumping that number even higher. Previous investments seems to have worked. The agency reports that “multiple anti-fare evasion strategies” have helped total fare revenue rise to $5 billion in 2024, an increase of $322 million from the year before. “We will continue to use all the tools at our disposal—including increased enforcement efforts and new infrastructure—to prevent fare evasion, hold perpetrators accountable and keep these numbers trending in the right direction,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul in a statement. How will the new gates work? These approaches vary from station to station. About 200 stations have implemented guards to monitor gates, and the MTA reports that fare evasion is down 36% in these stations. Some turnstiles have even been retrofitted with “sleeves” and “fins”—add-on attachments that make them harder to climb on and over. Turnstiles are also being retrofitting to prevent “backcocking,” or pulling them back just enough to create space for some people to squeeze through. Adapting the existing infrastructure has contributed to the reduction in fare evasion, but the MTA sees an opportunity to do more with its new gate pilot program. “For the last two years, we’ve been attacking fare and toll evasion from all angles —hardening the system against fare beaters, simplifying fare payment, raising awareness about discounted fares and, yes, doing more enforcement,” says MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “Now those efforts are yielding positive results that will grow even more with the new modern fare gates that are coming.” View the full article

Shares in US company tumble as launch of latest version of best-selling game is delayedView the full article

This week we covered the ongoing Google Search ranking volatility. I posted the big Google webmaster report for May. Google admitted in a deposition that it used its search data for Gemini AI. Google Search Console leaked that it was showing desktop data...View the full article

SAG-AFTRA is expanding its reach into the influencer economy. In late April, the union’s board unanimously voted to establish a new influencer committee, appointing New York-based lifestyle influencer Patrick Janelle as chair. SAG-AFTRA’s involvement with influencers isn’t new. In 2021, the union introduced an influencer agreement and waiver to cover branded content work—an initiative that thousands of members have used. While that agreement marked a major step forward, it notably excluded original creative content, which remains the core of many creators’ livelihoods. “It really became clear that if we’re going to continue to expand, and especially outside of the branded content space, we needed to have a formal structure in the union so that members who do this work could come together and give us guidance and leadership,” SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told The Hollywood Reporter. Online content creation is a fast-growing but still loosely regulated industry. Since 2020, the number of full-time content creators in the U.S. has surged from 200,000 to 1.5 million in 2024, according to Axios. Despite this growth, pay structures and content guidelines vary significantly across platforms—from Instagram Reels to long-form YouTube podcasts. To successfully advocate for creators across the board, the new committee plans to engage voices from all major platforms. “The goal of this committee is to provide the union with necessary guidance and feedback from the creator’s perspective as SAG-AFTRA continues its efforts to assist creators in their pursuit of stable, safe, sustainable careers,” Janelle posted to LinkedIn. “As a SAG-AFTRA member, I’m honored and excited to be stepping up and representing my fellow creators and the industry at large.” SAG-AFTRA doesn’t have a clear count of how many of its 160,000 members are influencers, but Crabtree-Ireland points to the 2023 actors strike as a moment of convergence. Influencers found themselves in a gray area, as the union warned that any nonmember who took work with struck companies during the strike would be barred from future membership. Many chose solidarity over a paycheck, something the union now wants to show in return. “During the theatrical strike, creators of influencers stepped up in big ways to stand by our members on strike,” Crabtree-Ireland told The Hollywood Reporter. “I think that just really cemented for us the obvious connection and nexus there.” View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. When I wrote my review of the Whoop 4.0, I kept it to the basics—how the strap looks, works, and charges, and what activities it can track. Today, I’m going to dive in to all the metrics Whoop reports, and give a reality check on what’s most useful and what isn’t worth paying attention to. I'll leave out the activity tracking features here, since I covered them in more depth in the review. (Bottom line: I love the way it tracks how hard your workouts are—strength workouts included—but it's not going to replace a true fitness watch for most people.) WHOOP 4.0 with 12 Month Subscription – Wearable Health, Fitness & Activity Tracker $239.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Get Deal Get Deal $239.00 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg I don’t wear the Whoop band as regularly as I do the Oura ring, for which I was able to give a four-year retrospective. But to research both this article and my updated review, I’ve been wearing the Whoop for about the last six weeks, tracking my workouts and sleep regularly. So here’s a deeper dive into what it’s actually like to wear the Whoop strap long-term, using it to judge and guide your habits and performance. A typical day with Whoop Credit: Beth Skwarecki Let me take you through a typical day. I’m wearing the Whoop band on either my wrist or upper arm, and it’s probably been a few days since I last charged it. (I get about five days on a charge.) I made sure I had it on when I went to bed. If I look at my Whoop app first thing in the morning, it will sometimes tell me that it’s still “processing” my sleep, and there’s a button I can press to “end sleep” and get my recovery results. The Whoop app will show you a survey called your “journal” the first time you open the app each day. I’ll talk more about the journal in a section below. Let’s say you’ve already filled out your journal, and you’re looking at the main app. From the home screen, I can see: My recovery at the top, color coded. Green is good, and you get that if your recovery is 66% or better. Yellow is OK (34% and up), and red is poor. Today, I have a yellow recovery, at 48%. (For the month of April, I got 19 green recoveries, 9 yellow, 0 red, and on two nights I forgot to wear the strap to bed.) Some notes about things I should pay attention to. Today it says that my HRV is lower than usual, which might be because of my hard workout yesterday. The health monitor, which tells me whether my respiratory rate, blood oxygen, resting heart rate, HRV, and skin temperature are within my normal ranges. Today, all five are within range. The stress monitor, which I guess tells me how stressed I am. I don’t find this useful. A "daily outlook" button I can press. This starts a conversation with Whoop Coach—more about that in a minute. Today’s timeline, showing when I slept. As I do other activities, like workouts, they’ll show up here. Recommendations for tonight’s sleep, including a recommended bedtime. After this, there is a scorecard for my current “plan” (more about that below), and a dashboard with the individual metrics I might care about, like heart rate variability (HRV) and a count of my steps so far today, a feature that’s still in beta. Along the top of the screen, I can select tabs that are specifically for Sleep, Recovery, or Strain. The Strain tab is interesting, since it gives a recommended Strain level for the day. Today, for example, it suggests that I take on a “moderate” level of Strain, between 8.9 and 12.9. You get most of your Strain from exercise, and a little from everyday activity like walking around. As I write this, I haven’t done any workouts or left the house, and I’m at 2.7 Strain just from a morning of sitting around. The Whoop Coach can help you plan your day—but don’t ask it to get too specific.Let’s return to that Daily Outlook button. Tap that, and you’ll be launched into a conversation with Whoop Coach, an AI chatbot. This is probably the only AI bot I converse with on the regular, because it does a decent job of explaining the app’s metrics and recommends workouts for the day. Today it compliments me on completing a running workout yesterday, and tells me my workout schedule has been consistent, with 162 minutes in active heart rate zones so far this week. It then describes a few trends in my metrics, including that my resting heart rate has improved over the past few weeks, but that my recovery today is lower than my usual. Then comes the fun part. It makes recommendations for workouts to do today, and habits to focus on. It tells me to aim for three liters of water today (that’s a little bit more than my usual) with plenty of fruits and vegetables. And for a workout, I can meet my recommended Strain score with something that is low impact to “support recovery,” since my heart rate and HRV suggested I may need a bit of a rest. Credit: Beth Skwarecki The Whoop Coach suggests three workouts to choose from, based on the kinds of activities it knows I like to do. They include a 30-minute run, mostly in zones 1 and 2, or an 80-minute weightlifting workout at a low-medium intensity. I can tap a button at the bottom of each workout that says “Commit,” and doing this will add it to my timeline for the day. I can do the workout later by just tapping that button, and it will start the activity timer for me. I love that it can recommend these workouts for me, since otherwise “get 8.9 Strain” is an inscrutable instruction. Unfortunately, the little graphic showing time in heart rate zones is all you get. I’ve asked the Whoop Coach if it could time me through those intervals, perhaps beeping when it’s time to switch from one zone to another, but it doesn’t have that functionality. It does offer a specific workout plan that I could punch into a workout timer app of my choice—in theory. The Whoop Coach, like many AI chatbots, cannot do math and can’t make sense of its own output. I asked it for specific intervals for the 30-minute run it recommended, and instead it gave me three different workouts I could try, none of them adding up to 30 minutes. I asked again for a 30-minute workout that meets my strain for the day, and it gave me a “30-minute run plan” that adds up to 25 minutes, and does not include any zone 2. It helpfully provides this as a card with a “commit” button, but the workout on the card is different still—a 28-minute workout, with three minutes in zone 2, and none of the numbers adding up to what the bot wrote to me in the text of our conversation. You can see the screenshots above. Sometimes, after enough back-and-forth, the AI can provide something useful. But it’s just not good enough to rely on for workout ideas. I found that the best way to use it is to see what it recommends, then use that as a sort of vague guidance if I have flexibility in my training program or my real-life plans for the day. For example, I have a hard 45-minute running workout planned today, but based on Whoop’s feedback I might see if I can swap that with an easy run that is scheduled for later in the week. How to use Whoop’s sleep metrics and features Credit: Beth Skwarecki Whoop gives you so many sleep metrics, it can be hard to know where to start. I see two major, useful features here: the report of how long you slept compared to how much sleep you needed, and the smart alarms that you can set in any of a variety of ways. On your Sleep tab, you’ll get a score for your sleep “performance,” comparing the amount of sleep you got to the amount it calculates you needed. Today I slept more than I needed, which doesn’t match with how I felt groggily dragging myself out of bed. The timing seems right, though—I was extra tired yesterday so I both got to bed early and slept a little late. I think it’s a fool’s errand to worry about how “accurate” sleep tracking is, since no wearable is truly accurate, but most of them are good enough. But for a comparison, the total sleep time is usually similar to what Oura reports, and the sleep phases are often more-or-less in the same ballpark. Here’s what I get today: Light sleep: 5:02 (Oura: 5:22) Deep sleep: 2:36 (Oura: 1:41) REM sleep: 1:46 (Oura: 1:37) Total: 9:18 (Oura 9:22) Total sleep matters more than the other numbers, in my book. Increase your total sleep and you’re likely to sleep better. (I have data backing this up from my long-term Oura trends—total sleep correlates closely with other metrics and scores of sleep quality.) Whoop also tracks your “sleep debt,” or how much sleep you needed but didn’t get. Six times in the past month I’ve had a “high” sleep debt of 45 minutes or more. Nine times it was moderate (30 to 45 minutes), and 14 times it was 30 minutes or less. Sleep coach and smart alarmsOne of Whoop’s most intriguing features is the sleep coach, which can advise you when to go to bed, and even help you decide when your alarm should go off. (It’s also one of the most hidden features. Tap on the “tonight’s sleep” card on your overview screen.) From this screen, called the Sleep Planner, you can choose whether you want to “reach my sleep need” (making up any sleep debt, as needed); “improve my sleep,” which will recommend times that help you to be more consistent in your sleep schedule; or “reach my weekly plan goal,” which I’ll say more about below. And then, there’s a second set of preferences. When you try to set an alarm, the app will ask if you’d like to wake up at an exact time, or when you’ve met your sleep goal for the night, or as soon as you’re “in the green.” That last one refers to a 66% or better recovery, which may not be ideal, but should ensure you’re not going to be dead on your feet. Realistically, I don’t use these features too often. I do have a sleep goal set in my weekly plan, but I’m not fiddling with an app every night to decide when to wake up. On the other hand, if I had a chaotic schedule, like that of a student or a pro sports player, I could definitely see making more use of this feature. Tracking your habits with the Journal Left: the journal screen you'll see each day. Right: the screen where you can choose your journal questions. Credit: Beth Skwarecki The activity and sleep tracking happen more or less automatically, and pretty much any fitness tracker or smartwatch can do those things. Where Whoop really shines, from a wellness perspective, is in helping you track all the little habits and factors that may be affecting your sleep or your athletic performance. This is where the Journal comes in. You can fill it out at any time during the day, but it will also pop up first thing in the morning and ask you what happened yesterday. Did you eat a late meal? Did you have any alcohol? Did you hydrate well? If you don’t like these questions, you can set it up to ask you different ones. It can also pull in data from other parts of the app or from connected apps—for example, if you log your menstrual cycle in Apple Health, that can show up here as well. Each habit or factor only becomes useful if you log at least five yeses and five noes. Anything that you almost always do, or that you almost never do, isn’t going to be very helpful. So I’ve narrowed down my Journal questions to only include things I’ll answer differently from night to night, or things I’m trying to improve on. One important caveat: leaving the question blank doesn’t count as a yes or a no. At first I only answered a question if I could say “yes,” and otherwise I’d leave it blank—for example, answering “yes” if I’d had alcohol that day. But when I looked at my results later, I found that with seven yeses and zero noes for alcohol, Whoop couldn’t give me any reports that used that information. I was able to backfill the last few days’ worth of journal entries, but you can’t go back more than about a week. Correlation, not causation—but interesting to see. Credit: Beth Skwarecki That extra week’s worth of data was enough to get an answer on alcohol, though: it hurts my recovery, taking it down an average of 9% on nights I had a beer or two. Or at least that’s how Whoop represents it—these are correlations, and Whoop doesn’t actually know what’s causing what. For example, taking melatonin hurts my recovery by 4%. But is melatonin really the culprit, or is this just a correlation where I take melatonin when I’m already having trouble sleeping? You need to take these results with a big grain of salt. To Whoop’s credit, it includes a note that “this impact is significantly different than the Whoop average. Note that impacts can sometimes be affected by other correlated factors that you don’t track.” The two things that do help my recovery, according to Whoop’s insights (which you can access from the top of the Journal screen), are sticking to a consistent bedtime—8% improvement—and being well-hydrated, a 4% improvement. The consistent bedtime was automatically filled out from Whoop data, while the hydration was just me answering a yes/no question each day. By the way, you can speed up the process of clicking all the little yes and no boxes by tapping the box that says “use previous answers.” It will set the answers to whatever you marked yesterday, and then you can manually change the ones that are different. Making a weekly planWeekly plans are a nice way to work on a small set of habits for a short time. Rather than trying to monitor everything for every outcome, you pick, say, three things you want to work on. Here are some examples that the app provides, and the habits or factors that each one tracks: Boost fitness: increase time in high intensity heart rate zones, meet a protein goal four days per week, do any strength training activity one day per week Feel better: increase daily steps, meet hydration goal four days per week, do “any recovery activity” three days per week Sleep deeper: increase sleep consistency, increase sleep performance, avoid late meals After experimenting with some of these, I ended up creating a custom plan for myself. I chose: Get 7:30 hours of sleep on average Avoid using my phone in bed four days per week Meet my hydration goal five days per week Throughout the week I can check in on how I’m doing, and at the end of the week Whoop gives me a little report and asks if I’d like to do the same plan next week, or change it up. I find this a useful way to work on a mini goal, and it’s a lot less overwhelming than poring over huge dashboards full of all the data Whoop can collect. Viewing weekly and monthly reports Credit: Beth Skwarecki For when you do want to pore over all your data, there are detailed weekly and monthly “performance assessments” that Whoop can share with you. Each of these is a PDF with graphs showing what you did over the course of the week or month, and how it compares with previous data. For example, my monthly report for April shows how my Strain and recovery compare with previous weeks throughout the year. I don’t wear my Whoop often enough to get any big insights from this—as I said, I only really wear it when I’m testing features or writing a review—but man, I would love this if it were available on one of the devices I do wear month in and month out. (As much as I admire the Whoop, I can only wear so many devices in addition to the ones I test for work.) My weekly report is more narrowly focused. The most recent one starts with a statement: “Strain was optimal. Sleep could use improvement.” My Strain is also down slightly this week compared with the previous week, and my sleep consistency was poor. I like the graph that shows how my bedtimes and wake-up times line up (or don’t) with the times the app recommended for me. What isn’t worth paying attention toThe Whoop app gives you a wealth of data, and honestly I would say most of it isn’t worth paying attention to. The app has so many data points and fractal little rabbit holes you can get lost in. You could spend hours perusing reports and tweaking settings. You could spend an unlimited amount of time chatting with the Whoop Coach AI. And you don’t need to do that. What is useful is choosing a few things to pay attention to and letting go of the rest. Fortunately, the app gives you plenty of ways to do this. You can select a few things that matter to you in the Weekly Plan, and you can hide things from your Dashboard that you don’t need to check on every day. As for the things I (almost) never pay attention to: Don’t overthink your sleep stages. Getting enough sleep, and consistent sleep, will cover your bases. Don’t read too much into the recovery scores; you are resilient enough to be able to handle your scheduled workout even if your sleep wasn’t perfect. The exception would be if you’re feeling truly awful—you’re sick or something—in which case, you would know because of how you feel, not because of a number on an app. Remember that the insights tell you about correlation, not causation—as in my melatonin example, where melatonin is correlated with worse sleep, possibly because I'm taking it when I expect to have worse sleep. These are not really "insights" at all, just data that you'll need to use your own brain (and further experimentation) to make sense of. I have found that paying too much attention to a recovery app can drive me a little crazy. Instead of waking up and not really thinking about how I feel—I’m fine, probably—I find myself wondering if the app agrees that I feel tired and sore. Or I’ll think I’m OK, but the app says my HRV is down, and now I have to think about what may have caused that. I wouldn’t recommend intensive tracking like this for a person who finds they can easily get sucked in to obsessing over numbers. But if numbers bring you joy, the Whoop app can certainly give you plenty of them. View the full article

LLMs and AI tools have transformed nearly every industry, including marketing. We’ve become accustomed to AI’s ability to: Generate text, images, and video. Summarize articles. Transcribe audio. Write code. Access webpages. But as these models evolve, their capabilities are entering a new phase with the introduction of Model Context Protocol (MCP) – a development that will also reshape how we think about search visibility. MCP allows LLMs and AI systems to connect more easily to external data sources and tools, giving organizations a new way to deliver meaningful content to both AI systems and their users. What is Model Context Protocol? Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol framework that allows AI systems to connect directly to a data server, standardizing how information provides context to LLMs. It also enables developers to build tools and applications that integrate with LLMs, allowing them to access external data and workflows through the integration. Here’s an analogy to understand how this works: Pretend LLMs are like librarians at your local library. They know every book in their local database and know how to search and find information within it. The limitation here is that the librarian only has working knowledge of this local library and cannot access any books or information outside of this library. This means that if you’re a library visitor researching a topic, the librarian can only offer you information available within the books in the local library’s database, which may include outdated information if the library only has books from 2015. However, with MCP, the librarian (LLM) is given the resources to instantly access any book in the world and can provide up-to-date information on a topic, straight from a primary source. MCP allows LLMs to: Easily access data and tools directly from a source. Get instantaneous, up-to-date information from a server, so they no longer rely only on pretrained knowledge. Leverage agentic capabilities, such as implementing automated workflows and search databases. Perform actions by connecting to custom tools created by third parties, developers, or organizations. Provide exact citations for information sources. Extend past data retrieval and into capabilities such as integrating with shopping APIs, allowing LLMs to purchase items directly. In a real-world example for an ecommerce business, this could look like an LLM: Having secure access to an internal inventory system to pull real-time data, such as product pricing. Providing a bulleted list of product specs directly from your inventory database. LLMs could not only market directly to a user searching for the season’s latest running shoes but could also purchase a pair of shoes for the user. MCP vs. RAG MCP may sound similar to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) in how LLMs can gather dynamic and up-to-date information beyond their static pretraining. Still, they vastly differ in how LLMs fundamentally access and interact with information. How RAG works RAG enables an LLM to retrieve information in a series of steps: Indexing: The LLM converts external data into a vector embedding database that is then utilized during a retrieval process. Vectorization: Submitted search queries are also converted into a vector embedding Retrieval process: A retriever then searches its vector database to fetch the most relevant information based on how similar the query’s vector embeddings are to those in its existing database. Providing context: Once the information is retrieved, it is combined with the search query to provide additional context through a prompt. Output generation: The LLM will then generate an output based on the retrieved information and its own training knowledge. How MCP works On the other hand, MCP essentially functions like a USB port for AI systems, standardizing how data is connected to the LLM. Unlike RAG, MCP follows a client-server architecture and is much more comprehensive and seamless in the way it accesses information by using the following process: Client-server connection: LLM applications are hosts that initiate connections. Through the host application, clients can have 1:1 connections with data servers, which provide the tools and context to the clients. Tools: Developers can create MCP-compatible tools, utilizing the open protocol to execute functions such as API calls or access external databases that allow LLMs to perform specific tasks. User requests: Users can make specific requests, such as “What is the price of the newest Nike running shoe?” AI system request: If the AI system or LLM is connected to a tool with a Nike-created inventory pricing database, it can request the price of the newest shoe. Output with live data: The connected database can deliver the live data to the LLM and provide up-to-date live data directly from Nike’s database. RAGMCP ArchitectureRetrieval system Client-server relationshipHow data is accessedRetrieval through vector databaseConnecting with custom tools created by partiesOutput capabilitiesRelevant information retrieved from database.Customized outputs and functions, including agentic capabilities, based on tools.Data recencyDependent on when content was last indexed.Up-to-date from the live data source.Data requirementsMust be vector encoded and indexed.Must be MCP compatible.Information accuracyReduced hallucinations through retrieved documents. Reduced hallucinations through access to live data from a source.Tool use and automated actionsNot possible.Can integrate with any tool flow provided on the server and perform any provided action.ScalabilityDependent on indexing and window limits.Can scale up easily depending on MCP-compatible tools.Branding consistencyInconsistent since data is pulled from various sources.Consistent and strong, since brand-approved data can be pulled directly from the source. Dig deeper: The next wave of search: AI Mode, deep research and beyond What this means for search marketers and publishers Although Anthropic was the first to introduce the concept of MCP in November, many companies, including Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft, are planning to adopt Anthropic’s MCP concept in their AI systems. This means that search marketers should focus on increasing content visibility through MCP tools and consider the following: Work with developers for integration Collaborate with developers to consider how to serve high-value content to users while providing meaningful context to LLMs through MCP-compatible tools. Consider how to take advantage of agentic capabilities executed through the MCP framework. Implement structured data Structured data and schema will continue to provide reliable reference points for LLMs. Use them to support machine-readability for content served through custom tools. This also improves visibility within AI-generated search experiences, ensuring that content is understood and surfaced accurately. Keep information up-to-date and accurate Since LLMs connect with data sources directly, confirm that all content provides relevant, up-to-date, and accurate data to support trustworthiness and a good user experience. For an ecommerce company, this would include verifying price points, product specs, shipping information, and other essential details, especially as this data may be delivered directly in AI search responses. Emphasize brand voice and consistency One clear advantage of customizing tools for MCP is the ability to establish a strong and consistent brand voice for LLMs. Rather than relying on fragmented information from various sources, MCP-compatible tools let you maintain a consistent brand voice by delivering authoritative content directly to LLMs. Integrate MCP tools into your marketing As AI systems adapt to MCP, forward-looking marketers should include this new framework within their strategies and collaborate cross-functionally to develop tools that can serve high-value content to LLMs and effectively reach users. These tools won’t just support automation – they may also become core to how brands appear in AI-driven search. View the full article

Google is expanding AI Mode both in terms of features and access. Google is testing AI Mode in the wild with a limited number of searchers. Google also opened up its waitlist to all 18+ U.S. users. Google added product and place cards to the AI Mode results. Plus, Google added a history tab.View the full article

Google added a new way to search for your products in the Google Merchant Center console. There is a new search button named "Search for Products" that you can click on and will let you pick from a pre-defined set of searches or you can type your own search.View the full article

Navah Hopkins sat down with the Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin, and spoke about the topic of what is changing with Google Ads. The interview is about an hour and is well worth watching or listening to.View the full article

For one exhilarating moment, it sounded like Amazon was about to make a gutsy pro-consumer move. On Tuesday, Punchbowl News reported that the company would “soon show how much The President’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product” by specifying it “right next to the product’s total listed price.” That act of transparency would have been reminiscent of past precedent-shattering Amazon initiatives such as its 1995 introduction of user-written reviews—including ones so stinging as to drive customers away from a product. And then The President 2.0 reality set in. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attacked the idea of tariff disclosure as “hostile and political,” another confirmation that The President’s oft-expressed contention that American consumers wouldn’t bear the cost of higher tariffs never jibed with basic economics. An Amazon spokesperson claimed the notion had been under consideration only for the company’s Temu-like Amazon Haul bargain store and was “not going to happen.” The President himself chimed in to say he had called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who “solved the problem very quickly and he did the right thing.” To be fair, it’s unlikely that Amazon could have introduced anything like a universal tariff line item for the 600 million-plus products in its online store. It only designs a few devices itself, giving it the requisite intimate knowledge of their supply chain. Mostly, the company is a reseller, and more than half of the transactions on its site are third-party sales it facilitates for other merchants. It surely doesn’t know how much tariffs added to the cost of every random HDTV it sells—and if it did, presidential whim might change the math from day to day. Still, even if Amazon breaking out tariffs at the point of purchase turned out to be a fleeting fantasy, it was an instructive mental exercise—maybe even a powerful idea that’s tough to unimagine once you’ve thought about it. Why should anyone care about the percentage of an item’s price represented by tariffs—a form of taxation most of us have cheerfully ignored until recently, even though it has a 236-year history in the U.S.? First of all, a reliable accounting would counter misinformation spread by the president. He’s backpedaled some on his past stance that tariffs only burden manufacturers in other countries. However, absent dramatic developments such as iPhones suddenly going for $2,000, it may be tough to tell exactly what his increases are doing to our purchasing power. Explaining it on an item-by-item basis would help. But the impact of tariffs on my own wallet is just one reason why I crave hard facts. The President’s interpretation of global trade—that China is ripping off the U.S. because we buy more stuff from it than it buys from us—is plainly ridiculous. His attempt to use tariffs to spark a renaissance in American manufacturing is already backfiring, given that factories here need parts produced elsewhere, and other countries are retaliating with stiffer tariffs on U.S. products. (Fun fact: A Corning plant in Harrrodsburg, Kentucky, exports the Gorilla Glass pervasive in phones and other devices.) All of this, I already know. Yet except for a few high-profile items like the iPhone—whose production Apple may ramp up in India to avoid tariffs on Chinese imports—I don’t claim to understand much about the endlessly complex tales behind the products I buy. The tariff backstory for individual purchases we’re considering making is arguably a more valuable data point than a superficial, potentially misleading “Made in the U.S.A.” or “Made in China” label. It would be a visceral reminder of how fundamentally connected the world economy is. Globalists and isolationists alike would get something out of it. It’s not just tariffs. The more I ponder the situation, the less informed I feel as a consumer. I tend to take the Nutrition Facts information box on packaged foods for granted and rarely dig any deeper than the figures on calories and fat. But it’s hard to imagine life without that box. When I refreshed my memory about its history, I was startled to learn it came into existence only a little over 30 years ago, mandated by a 1990 bill signed by President George H. W. Bush. Before that, food makers got to choose what they disclosed—or didn’t—about the products they sold. An equivalent box for other goods would make us all smarter. There’s plenty of fodder beyond tariffs: other taxes, product recalls, warranty information, carbon footprint, and on and on. In the unlikely event that a Nutrition Facts for Everything bill passes The President’s desk, he’s not going to sign it, so I’m filing the idea away for future reference. In the meantime, I hope there are merchants out there willing to post tariff numbers, at least for certain products. Countless companies have spent this entire century trying to keep up with Amazon, often by copying its innovations. Here’s a rare chance for them to gain an edge on the e-commerce behemoth by going where it won’t. You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard. More top tech stories from Fast Company Why online shopping feels like a chore in 2025 A new Criteo study finds that most shoppers now view online shopping as functional, overwhelming, and even lonely—sparking a renewed interest in in-store retail and personalized digital experiences. Read More → Duolingo doubles its language offerings with AI-built courses The edtech giant launched 148 new classes developed by generative AI as it phases out contract roles and accelerates course creation. Read More → This new app helps chronic latecomers stay on time Lately sends timed alerts, tracks progress, and gamifies punctuality to help users overcome time blindness and improve daily time management. Read More → The NFT market fell apart. Brands are still paying the price Once a marketing gold rush, Web3 bets by brands like Nike and DraftKings are now ending in courtroom battles—and collapsing consumer trust. Read More → Skype saved me in a war zone. Now it’s going away Microsoft is shutting down the app that helped me call home from Ukraine during a Russian invasion. Read More → How to find and cancel forgotten online subscriptions that are costing you a fortune You can save a lot by ditching online subscription services such as apps and video, music, and news sites. Here’s how to do it—fast. Read More → View the full article

Finance minister Katsunobu Kato hints that country’s more than $1tn in Treasuries gives it leverage in negotiationsView the full article

Google Ads is updating its Ads Transparency policy to specify that it will display the payment profile name as the payer name for verified advertisers, if that name differs from their verified advertiser name, starting this month.View the full article

Fitch says large nonbank lenders are positioned to gain share as they manage debt maturities and outlast smaller rivals hit harder by market volatility. View the full article

Microsoft is not only testing removing the name "Microsoft Bing" from its search bar and logo, Microsoft is also testing shortening the underline under the search tab to about half the length.View the full article

Industry faces weakening demand as Donald The President’s trade war threatens economic outlookView the full article

Reddit expanded its global reach in Q1 2025, with logged-in and logged-out user activity growing sharply in both the U.S. and international markets The post Reddit Q1 Report: What It Means For Digital Marketing And SEO appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Andreessen Horowitz is done being another innocuous techie brand. Gone are the sans serif minuscules (lowercase letters) of its old a16z logo that tried to blend in, apologizing for their own presence. In their place is a flourished, Art Deco-style wordmark, alongside a giant gold coin featuring what looks like a female Hermes, the Greek messenger of the gods associated with trade and wealth. The imagery, part of an ongoing rebrand that kicked off earlier this year, visualizes a marked shift at the investment firm. With cofounder Marc Andreessen’s 2023 “Techno-Optimist Manifesto” as its guiding ethos (“It’s time the build”), the firm has spent the past year cozying up to Donald The President and growing its investments in companies that its sees as essential to the future of America, many of them defense tech and security startups. It’s now pairing this new perspective with visuals that seem straight from Objectivism, the 20th-century philosophy developed by author Ayn Rand. “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute,” Rand wrote in the appendix to her novel Atlas Shrugged, first published in 1957. No wonder the philosophy resonates so deeply with entrepreneurs and investors; these are creators who need to tune out the naysayers of the world in order to change it. But, of course, the flip side of Objectivism is that it prioritizes the individual at the expense of everyone else. Charting a16z’s shift toward Objectivist principles For years, a16z was, like most of the Valley, liberal-leaning in both its endorsements and in its donations. More recently, though, cofounders Ben Horowitz and Andreessen have backed the The President agenda, supporting his reelection with $5 million in donations and celebrating his ensuing win. Andreessen called the new administration “a boot off the throat” for him and his companies. Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, served as a keynote speaker at the firm’s recent American Dynamism Summit. Their reasoning has been that the country needs unbridled investment in technology above all else—and needs a federal government that will leave these companies and their founders unmolested by regulation. In a January interview with Ross Douthat of The New York Times, Andreessen described his growing frustration with the Biden administration’s regulatory approach to crypto, AI, and DEI issues. “The Biden administration turned out to be far more radical than even we thought they were going to be,” he said. But in The President—with his vocal support of crypto, AI, and military might, and his vows to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion—the firm sees opportunity. Even, apparently, if it comes at the expense of free speech and other fundamental human rights. Where most of us might see deep moral conflicts, an Objectivist wears blinders, cropping out anything but their own vision. Perhaps that’s how Marc Andreessen can comfortably make proclamations like AI will eliminate most jobs but his own. And how Andreessen Horowitz can justify welcoming Daniel Penny to its investment team, who last made headlines when he choked to death a homeless man named Jordan Neely on a New York City subway. (Penny was acquitted on charges of criminally negligent homicide.) Another Objectivist tendency: to honor the singular visionary above all else. Perhaps that’s why we’re seeing a16z deliver unprecedented voting power for its own founders, like Mira Murati, who now leads AI company Thinking Machines Lab. “The Strong Form of the argument, action or aesthetic is almost always better than the weak form. Yet for decades we’ve been told the opposite is true,” argued a16z partner Katherine Boyle in a post on X earlier this year. “We’re entering an era where the Strong Form is now prized and on display all the time. It’s going to be jarring to see this way of being in government and business but the good thing is, the strong form becomes infectious once it becomes acceptable to implement.” You could almost imagine the same words on the back of a book by Ayn Rand. Why we equate Art Deco with Objectivism in the first place Rand’s The Fountainhead, the story of individualism triumphing over collectivism, was published in 1943, trailing the Art Deco movement by a few years. But Rand, Objectivism, and Art Deco are associated thanks to the work of illustrator Nick Gaetano. In 1981, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Rand’s second iconic Objectivist novel, Atlas Shrugged, Gaetano created new illustrated covers for 10 of Rand’s books, featuring heroic statues carved in simple, fluid lines. “These guys are naked and statuesque, like Greek gods. I meant for them to be icons,” he said in a 2011 interview. Ironically, Gaetano viewed The Fountainhead as anti-capitalist, and he likened the visionaries in Rand’s books to the writers and artists he knew, rather than captains of industry. “I saw the capitalists as the enemy,” he noted in that 2011 interview, adding, “I see heroism as creative. I know that capitalism is their church, but I don’t know what their vision of heroism is. When you get a project like this, you have to try to distill some kind of visual direction that gives meaning to the cover.” Gaetano might have been only an “accidental Objectivist” (as Interview magazine once called him). But he nevertheless created an indelible visual link between Rand’s egoistic philosophy and the aerodynamic forms of Art Deco. And it’s that connection, it seems, that a16z picked up on. I’m a fan of a lot of what a16z has helped usher into the world, from Instagram to Airbnb to Figma to Krea. But I’ll never be a fan of Ayn Rand. That said, I have nothing critical to offer regarding a16z’s rebranding. I think it’s superb in a way: A perfect manifestation of the firm’s values, and a dog whistle for the types of people it’s hoping to attract. This is an investment firm that’s telling you exactly what it believes in: itself. View the full article

Donald The President had a message for America’s children this week: Two dolls is plenty. “Somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are gonna be open,’” the president said while discussing his 145% tariffs on China. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more.” The President’s new message of austerity oddly echoes Jimmy Carter’s era-defining “Crisis of Confidence” speech from 1979. It’s a far cry, though, from the gilded lifestyle The President is famous for and the promises he made on the campaign trail. “Vote The President and your incomes will soar,” he told a crowd in Pennsylvania last September, without explaining just how he’d make that happen. “Your net worth will skyrocket. Your energy costs and grocery prices will come tumbling down.” Still reeling from the persistent sting of inflation, a slim majority of voters proved amenable to The President’s message of imminent relief. According to a Gallup poll from October, 52% of voters said the economy would be “extremely important” to their presidential vote—the highest number since the Great Recession election in 2008. After the election, two-thirds of voters described the economy as “not good” in exit polls. If The President came into office with a mandate, as he repeatedly claims, it was a mandate to “Make Groceries Less Pricey Again.” So far, The President’s promised stratospheric incomes and subterranean grocery prices have yet to materialize. Instead, after The President’s tariffs, recession indicators are everywhere. Tariff surcharges are showing up in some receipts and websites, and pointedly not showing up in others. Meanwhile, YouTubers and TikTokers are going all in on homesteading as a way to thrive in lean times. Even some senior The President officials are reportedly beginning to hoard groceries and supplies in advance of high prices and shortages to come. The President’s widely reported comments on frugal doll-shopping mark his starkest appraisal yet of the gale-force economic headwinds consumers are now facing. Previously, The President had only hinted at the possibility of economic turmoil from his tariffs. Throughout his campaign, he framed tariffs as a cost-free way to stop foreign countries from taking advantage of the U.S., bring back domestic manufacturing, rid consumers of all that pesky inflation, and generally transform America into an economic Hercules. It wasn’t until after the election that he refused to rule out higher prices as a result of his tariffs, and not until after he’d already been re-inaugurated did he finally admit there will be “some pain.” For the past few months, The President has been quiet about what that pain will actually feel like in practice. Will it be a pinprick or something closer to a shattered fibula? As recently as March, the president was assuring Americans, “We’re going to become so rich, you’re not gonna know where to spend all that money.” On Wednesday, however, following reports that the U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter of his term, The President finally defined the contours of hardship to come. With his statement promoting the two-doll lifestyle, The President flatly relented that pain would take the form of higher prices, scarcity, and diminished buying power. His subdued confession sits in stark contrast to his first term in office. In 2020, when COVID hit, The President seemed loath to ask Americans to make sacrifices. The President left it to the states to decide whether to advise citizens to shelter in place or not. He also refused to mandate mask use, despite the advice of top immunologists. (“I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don’t believe in that,” he said at the time.) Of course, it would be a lot easier to take at face value the president’s new embrace of American sacrifice and the two-doll lifestyle if it wasn’t coming from a billionaire who thinks other billionaires deserve more billions. As the president advises parents on how to budget, his supporters in Congress are hard at work figuring out how much they can cut from Medicaid to ensure The President’s tax bill passes muster. It seems that part of the calculus guiding his tariff strategy is knowing he and his fellow billionaires will be fine no matter what. View the full article

Strategy launched in 2019 to refinance stretched deals or help shore up companies’ finances is now the group’s best-performingView the full article

America’s federal public lands are unique, part of our birthright as citizens. No other country in the world has such a system. More than 640 million acres, including national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges, as well as lands open to drilling, mining, logging, and a variety of other uses, are managed by the federal government but owned collectively by all American citizens. Together, these parcels make up more than a quarter of all land in the nation. Congressman John Garamendi, a Democrat representing California, has called them “one of the greatest benefits of being an American.” “Even if you don’t own a house or the latest computer on the market, you own Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and many other natural treasures,” he wrote in 2011. Despite broad, bipartisan public support for protecting public lands, these shared landscapes have come under relentless attack during the first 100 days of President Donald The President’s second term. The administration and its allies in Congress are working feverishly to tilt the scale away from natural resource protection and toward extraction, threatening a pillar of the nation’s identity and tradition of democratic governance. “There’s no larger concentration of unappropriated wealth on this globe than exists in this country on our public lands,” said Jesse Deubel, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, a conservation nonprofit. “The fact that there are interests that would like to monetize that, they’d like to liquidate it and turn it into cash money, is no surprise.” Landscape protections and bedrock conservation laws are on the chopping block, as The President and his team look to boost and fast-track drilling, mining, and logging across the federal estate. The administration and the GOP-controlled Congress are eyeing selling off federal lands, both for housing development and to help offset The President’s tax and spending cuts. And the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is wreaking havoc within federal land management agencies, pushing out thousands of civil servants. That purge will leave America’s natural heritage more vulnerable to the myriad threats these lands already face, including growing visitor numbers, climate change, wildfires, and invasive species. The Republican campaign to undermine land management agencies and wrest control of public lands from the federal government is nothing new, dating back to the Sagebrush Rebellion movement of the 1970s and ’80s, when support for privatizing or transferring federal lands to state control exploded across the West. But the speed and scope of the current attack, along with its disregard for the public’s support for safeguarding public lands, makes it more worrisome than previous iterations, several public land advocates and legal experts told Grist. This is “probably the most significant moment since the Reagan administration in terms of privatization,” said Steven Davis, a political science professor at Edgewood College and the author of the 2018 book In Defense of Public Lands: The Case Against Privatization and Transfer. President Ronald Reagan was a self-proclaimed sagebrush rebel. Deubel said the conservation community knew The President’s return would trigger another drawn out fight for the future of public lands, but nothing could have prepared him for this level of chaos, particularly the effort to rid agencies of thousands of staffers. The country is “in a much more pro-public lands position than we’ve been before,” Deubel said. “But I think we’re at greater risk than we’ve ever been before—not because the time is right in the eyes of the American people, but because we have an administration who could give two shits about what the American people want. That’s what’s got me scared.” The Interior Department and the White House did not respond to Grist’s requests for comment. In an article posted to the White House website on Earth Day, the The President administration touted several “key actions” it has taken on the environment, including “protecting public lands” by opening more acres to energy development, “protecting wildlife” by pausing wind energy projects, and safeguarding forests by expanding logging. The accomplishments list received widespread condemnation from environmental, climate, and public land advocacy groups. That same day, a leaked draft strategic plan revealed the Interior Department’s four-year vision for opening new federal lands to drilling and other extractive development, reducing the amount of federal land it manages by selling some for housing development and transferring other acres to state control, rolling back the boundaries of protected national monuments, and weakening bedrock environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act. Meanwhile, The President’s DOGE is in the process of cutting thousands of scientists and other staff from the various agencies that manage and protect public lands, including the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM. Nearly every Republican senator went on the record this month in support of selling off federal lands to reduce the federal deficit, voting down a measure that would have blocked such sales. And Utah has promised to continue its legal fight aimed at stripping more than 18 million acres of BLM lands within the state’s border from the federal government. Utah’s lawsuit, which the Supreme Court declined to hear in January, had the support of numerous Republican-led states, including North Dakota while current Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was still governor. To advance its agenda, the The President administration is citing a series of “emergencies” that close observers say are at best exaggerated, and at worst manufactured. A purported “energy emergency,” which The President declared in an executive order just hours after being inaugurated, has been the impetus for the administration attempting to throw long-standing federal permitting processes, public comment periods, and environmental safeguards to the wind. The action aims to boost fossil fuel extraction across federal lands and waters—despite domestic oil and gas production being at record highs—while simultaneously working to thwart renewable energy projects. The President relied on that same “emergency” earlier this month when he ordered federal agencies to prop up America’s dwindling, polluting coal industry, which the president and his cabinet have insisted is “beautiful” and “clean.” In reality, coal is among the most polluting forms of energy. “This whole idea of an emergency is ridiculous,” said Mark Squillace, a professor of natural resources law at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “And now this push to reinvigorate the coal industry seems absolutely crazy to me. Why would you try to reinvigorate a moribund industry that has been declining for the last decade or more? Makes no sense, it’s not going to happen.” Coal consumption in the U.S. has declined more than 50% since peaking in 2005, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, largely due to market forces, including the availability of cheaper natural gas and America’s growing renewable energy sector. Meanwhile, The President’s tariff war threatens to undermine his own push to expand mining and fossil fuel drilling. The threat of extreme wildfire—an actual crisis driven by a complex set of factors, including climate change, its role in intensifying droughts and pest outbreaks, and decades of fire suppression—is being cited to justify slashing environmental reviews to ramp up logging on public lands. Following up on a The President executive order to increase domestic timber production, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins signed a memo declaring a forest health “emergency” that would open nearly 60% of national forest lands, more than 110 million acres, to aggressive logging. Then there’s America’s “housing affordability crisis,” which the The President administration, dozens of Republicans, and even a handful of Democrats are pointing to in a growing push to open federal lands to housing development, either by selling land to private interests or transferring control to states. The The President administration recently established a task force to identify what it calls “underutilized lands.” In an op-ed announcing that effort, Burgum and Scott Turner, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, wrote that “much of” the 500 million acres Interior oversees is “suitable for residential use.” Some of the most high-profile members of the anti-public lands movement, including William Perry Pendley, who served as acting director of the Bureau of Land Management during The President’s first term, are championing the idea. Without guardrails, critics argue the sale of public lands to build housing will lead to sprawl in remote, sensitive landscapes and do little, if anything, to address home affordability, as the issue is driven by several factors, including migration trends, stagnant wages, and higher construction costs. Notably, The President’s tariff policies are expected to raise the average price of a new home by nearly $11,000. Chris Hill, CEO of the Conservation Lands Foundation, a Colorado-based nonprofit working to protect BLM-managed lands, said the lack of affordable housing is a serious issue, but “we shouldn’t be fooled that the idea to sell off public lands is a solution.” “The vast majority of public lands are just not suitable for any sort of housing development due to their remote locations, lack of access, and necessary infrastructure,” she said. David Hayes, who served as deputy Interior secretary during the administrations of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and as a senior climate adviser to President Joe Biden, told Grist that The President’s broad use of executive power sets the current privatization push apart from previous efforts. “Not only do you have the rhetoric and the intentionality around managing public lands in an aggressive way, but you have to couple that with what you’re seeing,” he said. “This administration is going farther than any other ever has to push the limits of executive power.” Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, a Colorado-based conservation group, said The President and his team are doing everything they can to circumvent normal environmental rules and safeguards in order to advance their agenda, with no regard for the law or public opinion. “Everything is an imagined crisis,” Weiss said. Oil, gas, and coal jobs. Mining jobs. Timber jobs. Farming and ranching. Gas-powered cars and kitchen appliances. Even the water pressure in your shower. Ask the White House and the Republican Party and they’ll tell you Biden waged a war against all of it, and that voters gave The President a mandate to reverse course. During The President’s first term in office, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke repeatedly boasted that the administration’s conservation legacy would rival that of his personal hero and America’s conservationist president, Theodore Roosevelt—only to have the late president’s great-grandson, Theodore Roosevelt IV, and the conservation community bemoan his record at the helm of the massive federal agency. Like Zinke, Burgum invoked Roosevelt in pitching himself for the job. “In our time, President Donald The President’s energy dominance agenda can be America’s big stick that will be leveraged to achieve historic prosperity and world peace,” Burgum said during his confirmation hearing in January, referencing a letter in which the 26th president said to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” The Senate confirmed him to the post in January on a bipartisan 79 to 18 vote. Some public land advocates initially viewed Burgum, now the chief steward of the federal lands, waters, and wildlife we all own, as a palatable nominee in a sea of problematic potential picks. A billionaire software entrepreneur and former North Dakota governor, Burgum has talked at length about his fondness for Roosevelt’s conservation legacy and the outdoors. Whatever honeymoon there was didn’t last long. One hundred days in, Burgum and the rest of The President’s team have taken not a stick, but a wrecking ball to America’s public lands, waters, and wildlife. Earlier this month, the new CEO of REI said the outdoor retailer made “a mistake” in endorsing Burgum for the job and that the administration’s actions on public lands “are completely at odds with the longstanding values of REI.” At an April 9 all-hands meeting of Interior employees, Burgum showed off pictures of himself touring oil and gas facilities, celebrated “clean coal,” and condemned burdensome government regulation. Burgum has repeatedly described federal lands as “America’s balance sheet”—“assets” that he estimates could be worth $100 trillion but that he argues Americans are getting a “low return” on. “On the world’s largest balance sheet last year, the revenue that we pulled in was about $18 billion,” he said at the staffwide meeting, referring to money the government brings from lease fees and royalties from grazing, drilling, and logging on federal lands, as well as national park entrance fees. “Eighteen billion might seem like a big number. It’s not a big number if we’re managing $100 trillion in assets.” In focusing solely on revenues generated from energy and other resource extraction, Burgum disregards that public lands are the foundation of a $1 trillion outdoor recreation economy, nevermind the numerous climate, environmental, cultural, and public health benefits. Davis, the author of In Defense of Public Lands: The Case Against Privatization and Transfer, dismissed Burgum’s “balance sheet” argument as “shriveled” and “wrong.” “You have to willfully be ignorant and ignore everything of value about those lands except their marketable commodity value to come up with that conclusion,” he said. When you add all their myriad values together, public lands “are the biggest bargain you can possibly imagine.” Davis likes to compare public lands to libraries, schools, or the Department of Defense. “There are certain things we as a society decide are important and we pay for it,” he said. “We call that public goods.” The last time conservatives ventured down the public land privatization path, it didn’t go well. Shortly after The President’s first inauguration in 2017, then-Congressman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican representing Utah, introduced legislation to sell off 3.3 million acres of public land in 10 Western states that he said had “been deemed to serve no purpose for taxpayers.” Public backlash was fierce. Chaffetz pulled the bill just two weeks later, citing concerns from his constituents. The episode, while brief, largely forced the anti-federal land movement back into the shadows. The first The President administration continued to weaken safeguards for 35 million acres of federal lands—more than any other administration in history—and offered up millions more for oil and gas development, but stopped short of trying sell off or transfer large areas of the public domain. Yet as the last few months have shown, the anti-public lands movement is alive and well. Public land advocates are hopeful that the current push will flounder. They expect courts to strike down many of The President’s environmental rollbacks, as they did during his first term. In recent weeks, crowds have rallied at numerous national parks and state capitol buildings to support keeping public lands in public hands. Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, who voted to confirm Burgum to his post and serves as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has taken to social media to warn about the growing Republican effort to undermine, transfer, and sell off public lands. “I continue to be encouraged that people are going to be loud. They already are,” said Deubel, the executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. “We’re mobilizing. We’ve got business and industries. We’ve got Republicans, we’ve got Democrats. We’ve got hunters and we’ve got nonhunters. We’ve got everybody speaking out about this.” In a time of extreme polarization on seemingly every issue, public lands enjoy broad bipartisan support. The 15th annual “Conservation in the West” poll found that 72% of voters in eight Western states support public lands conservation over increased energy development—the highest level of support in the poll’s history; 65% oppose giving states control over federal public lands, up from 56% in 2017; and 89% oppose shrinking or removing protections for national monuments, up from 80% in 2017. Even in Utah, where leaders have spent millions of taxpayer dollars promoting the state’s anti-federal lands lawsuit, support for protecting public lands remains high. “Even in all these made up crises, the American public doesn’t want this,” Hill said. “The American people want and love their public lands.” At his recent staffwide meeting, Burgum said Roosevelt’s legacy should guide Interior staff in the mission to manage and protect federal public lands. Those two things, management and protection, “must be held in balance,” Burgum stressed. Yet in social media posts and friendly interviews with conservative media, Burgum has left little doubt about where his priorities lie, repeatedly rolling out what Breitbart dubbed the “four babies” of The President’s energy dominance agenda: “Drill, Baby, Drill! Map, Baby, Map! Mine, Baby, Mine! Build, Baby, Build!” “Protect, Baby, Protect,” “Conserve, Baby, Conserve,” and “Steward, Baby, Steward” have yet to make it into Burgum’s lexicon. —By Chris D’Angelo, Grist This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here. View the full article

Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture. Costco has been on a good run lately. The beloved big-box club chain has been winning new fans for its no-nonsense stand on continuing its DEI policies, with comparable store sales up 6.8% in its most recent quarter. But as Costco shoppers know, its in-house Kirkland Signature brand, which includes everything from underwear to frozen pizza, has long been the discount club’s not-so-secret weapon. Kirkland marks its 30th anniversary this year, and in what’s shaping up to be a challenging economy for consumers across the board, it’s poised to become more important than ever. Kirkland-branded products (excluding gas) already account for nearly a quarter of Costco sales—some $56 billion in its fiscal year that ended September 1. That makes Kirkland bigger by revenue than Nike ($51 billion last year) or Netflix ($39 billion). Like all private labels, it competes with brand-name consumer products largely on price—an obvious advantage in belt-tightening times. But Kirkland is also the rare private label that’s developed its own powerful, and surprisingly elastic, brand identity. When it was founded in 1983, Costco offered only name-brand goods, but over time the company became concerned with rising prices, sometimes even when underlying commodity prices were going the other way. So it decided to jump on the then-burgeoning trend of creating lower-priced house-brand alternatives. At first, it followed the practice of Sears and other major players of that era who created multiple distinct private brands for different categories. But ultimately this struck management as confusing: Consumers couldn’t be expected to associate dozens of newly invented brand names with Costco. Kirkland Signature—first used on vitamins and shampoo, in 1995—was named after the Seattle suburb where Costco was based at the time. The biggest-selling Kirkland products tend to be staples like toilet paper, paper towels, and bottled water. But as the label has developed a quality reputation, Costco has gradually become more and more adventurous about where the brand can go, and there are now an estimated 500-plus Kirkland-branded products, from high-end liquor to aluminum foil to sushi. It’s hard to think of any other single brand successfully competing in such a dizzying array of categories. Meanwhile, the discounter’s core strategy of limiting choices in each category and generally offering far fewer SKUs (stock-keeping units) than most big-box stores ended up making Kirkland even more potent. A few years ago, according to The Wall Street Journal, Costco decided Kirkland would become one of its two diaper offerings—meaning either Huggies or Pampers had to go. Costco and Huggies-maker Kimberly-Clark made a deal to manufacture the Kirkland diapers; Huggies stayed. (Costco later switched to another manufacturer, but Huggies kept its slot.) Speculating about which big brands actually make Kirkland products—are its apparent dupes of a popular pair of Lululemon pants actually made by Lululemon?—is a Costco-fan pastime. Costco generally doesn’t comment (and did not respond to an inquiry from Fast Company), but it’s widely accepted that Starbucks supplies some Kirkland coffee, its batteries are made by Duracell, and Bumble Bee supplies its tuna fish. And plenty of Kirkland’s supply partners are quite open about the relationship: Ocean Spray’s logo is right below Kirkland’s on its cranberry juice bottles. And while Grey Goose has in the past denied supplying its vodka, Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery has put its logo on the popular Kirkland Signature Helles-Style Lager it now brews for Costco. Traditional brands continue to outsell private label alternatives by a wide margin, but store-brand sales continue to grow. (Target, Walmart, and others still have multiple private labels, but direct Costco rival Sam’s Club has moved to a similar model built around its Member’s Mark cross-category house brand.) And Costco has reiterated that it believes it can continue to grow private-label sales. While it’s not yet clear what the full fallout of the The President administration’s nascent and ever-changing trade war policies will look like, it’s a safe bet that shoppers are going to become increasingly price-sensitive this year; the Conference Board’s “expectations” index of forward-looking consumer sentiment has plunged, with tariffs a cited concern. That means more interest in lower-cost private labels in general—but maybe especially for a private label with a quality reputation. It may not be as attention-grabbing as a $1.50 hot dog, but Kirkland Signature seems positioned to become more popular than ever. View the full article

Whether it’s political leaders like Donald The President expressing concern about immigration, or individuals forced to leave their homes due to conflict, the movement of people across borders—and where they end up—is a highly debated global issue. It’s also an area plagued by a lack of high-quality data. But a new solution may be on the horizon, offering near-real-time data sourced from Facebook. Researchers from Meta, the parent company of the social media platform, used anonymized data from more than 3 billion Facebook users to track and estimate global migration patterns. Their study, published in Cornell University’s preprint server arXiv, monitors changes in users’ predicted home locations, covering 181 countries with monthly data from January 2019 to December 2022. It identifies genuine moves to another country—defined as living abroad for 12 months or more, according to United Nations standards—by analyzing location signals such as IP addresses, self-reported hometowns, and activity patterns. In 2022, the system estimated that 39.1 million people migrated to a new country, representing about 0.63% of the study’s population. The United States recorded the largest net inflow of migrants—nearly 3.3 million people—while Ukraine saw the greatest outflow, with 2.34 million leaving after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The data revealed the rapid and vast scale of such movements: Migration from Ukraine increased tenfold after the war began, according to Facebook data. Traditional destination countries like the U.S., UAE, and Saudi Arabia led the inflow rankings, while India, Ukraine, and Pakistan topped the outflow list. But Ukraine wasn’t the only example of migration following major events. After Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, the model tracked a fivefold increase in migration to Singapore. Likewise, emigration from Hong Kong to the U.K. surged fifteenfold after the 2020 passage of a controversial national security law critics saw as ushering in a Chinese-style surveillance state. To account for potential biases in the dataset, researchers implemented a correction. “A single worldwide offset, which is calculated based on administrative migration data from New Zealand, is added to control the degree to which the bias of migrants on Facebook varies with GDP/capita,” Guanghua Chi, a research scientist at Meta, writes in an email to Fast Company. “This method allows us to account for the fact that in poorer countries, wealthier individuals are more likely to both use Facebook and also more likely to migrate.” The results closely aligned with established migration datasets, but were produced much more quickly. “We benchmarked our estimates against administrative datasets drawn from statistical offices of different countries and found a very high level of accuracy,” Chi writes. “For example, the correlation between our estimates and those produced by the New Zealand Statistical Office is 0.98.” Chi hopes this level of accuracy will make the data a tool for future policymaking. “We find that our estimates are aligned with administrative figures where they are available,” he writes. “In the [three in four] countries where these estimates are not available, we hope that these estimates can inform evidence-based policies and programs that benefit diverse communities and the governments that support them.” View the full article