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What once was seen as a tax loophole is now becoming a mainstream strategy for business continuity—if done right. The Concierge CPA With Jackie Meyer For CPA Trendlines Go PRO for members-only access to more Jackie Meyer. View the full article

What once was seen as a tax loophole is now becoming a mainstream strategy for business continuity—if done right. The Concierge CPA With Jackie Meyer For CPA Trendlines Go PRO for members-only access to more Jackie Meyer. View the full article

To keep your Meta Ads performing at their best, it’s essential to regularly test new ad formats. This article explores the role of UGC and EGC ads – and how to effectively test them in your Meta campaigns. Understanding UGC and EGC ads User-generated content (UGC) refers to videos typically created by actual users of your product or service, often testimonials or a series of testimonials edited together. In some cases, UGC may even come from the company founder, recorded casually on a phone or using other non-professional methods. These videos are often recorded on a phone – or styled to look that way, even if professionally produced – to create an intentionally unpolished, organic feel. This helps them blend seamlessly into users’ social feeds and encourages engagement before viewers realize they’re watching an ad. UGC can also be replicated through influencer-created content. It’s common to pay an influencer to review a product or service and then obtain permission to repurpose their video as an ad. Employee-generated content (EGC) is content created by employees, such as the well-known “what it’s like to work at Amazon” ads. These videos typically highlight positive employee experiences and how the company has impacted their lives. EGC ads are usually part of a long-term branding strategy to enhance a company’s reputation and ultimately drive sales, even when the ad doesn’t promote specific products or hiring initiatives. While EGC can support recruitment efforts, it’s often used purely for brand storytelling. Dig deeper: A testing primer for B2B paid social creative optimization How to test UGC ads UGC ads can be tested using various formats, such as: Influencer product demos or reviews. Customer testimonial videos. Even the owner or creator recording a product walkthrough. The most common formats include: Product-in-use demonstrations. Review-style videos. “Unboxing” videos where someone opens the product packaging to show what’s inside. When testing UGC ads, you’ll often see an increase in view rates or CTR. However, it’s important to track whether that engagement leads to meaningful outcomes like sales or high-quality website traffic. This can be monitored through Meta Ads, Google Analytics, or third-party tracking tools. Higher views and clicks are only valuable if they translate into actual results. UGC vs. standard ads UGC ads typically run alongside standard formats, such as image ads or professionally produced videos. It’s best to test both types simultaneously and simply keep whichever performs best – regardless of whether it’s UGC. One reason to continue testing traditional, polished ads has to do with how the brain filters information – a concept rooted in the reticular activating system (RAS). This part of the brain helps determine what you pay attention to versus what gets ignored. For instance, if you’re shopping for a car, you suddenly start noticing and engaging with car ads, but when you’re not in the market, those same ads fade into the background. This effect explains why a conventional ad that looks like a car ad might outperform a UGC-style video that blends in like a friend’s social post. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach – performance will vary month to month – so it’s worth consistently testing both formats. UGC remains a strong contender, especially on Meta, YouTube, and TikTok. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. Using AI to make UGC video ads with characters A newer form of UGC uses AI-generated avatars or characters instead of real people. These videos follow the same casual, testimonial-style format but feature animated or AI-created figures to present or review the product. This approach helps the ad stand out – similar to how Geico has long used its animated gecko. Thanks to advancements in AI, even smaller brands with limited budgets can now experiment with this type of content to promote their products or services. Dig deeper: Top AI tools and tactics you should be using in PPC How to test EGC ads EGC ads are a strong addition to your Meta Ads strategy as a long-term branding campaign. While they typically don’t drive direct sales, they help strengthen your brand’s reputation and communicate your company’s values. These ads are often used by large brands with bigger budgets. Amazon, Walmart, and Goodwill, for example, have created EGC ads highlighting their offerings to employees and how they’ve positively impacted their lives. That said, EGC ads aren’t just for major corporations. If you have extra budget, you can test this format by running a separate Meta campaign with its own budget and objective. Instead of optimizing for conversions, you’d likely choose a goal like engagement, clicks, video views, or impressions. Rather than promoting a specific product or service, the landing page should align with the message of the ad, focusing on: Employee stories. Company values. Charitable efforts. Other reputation-building content. This format can also extend to ads featuring charitable initiatives. For example, TOMS promotes its giving model: “For every pair of TOMS shoes purchased, a pair of new shoes is given to a child in need.” This could be used as EGC, UGC, or general branding content. These types of ads help showcase a company’s values and impact, rather than focusing solely on what they sell. Maximize your Meta Ad results: Test UGC, EGC, and more As with all Meta Ads (and other platforms), consistently testing a mix of formats – UGC, EGC, and traditional ads – helps maintain performance and keeps your creative strategy fresh. Each format offers unique strengths: UGC brings authenticity, EGC builds brand trust, and traditional ads provide polish and clarity. By regularly experimenting and analyzing results, you’ll be better equipped to adapt, optimize, and grow your campaigns over time. Dig deeper: Here’s why PPC now looks more like paid social and what it means View the full article

Pharrell Williams has high hopes for the Met Gala, the first to focus exclusively on Black designers, and the first in more than 20 years to have a menswear theme. “I want it to feel like the most epic night of power, a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized, by which I mean policies and legislation that are nothing short of that,” he recently told Vogue. “It’s our turn.” Indeed. And welcome to the first Monday in May. How to watch the 2025 Met Gala Vogue will livestream the gala starting at 6 p.m. Eastern on Vogue.com, its YouTube channel and across its other digital platforms. Teyana Taylor, La La Anthony and Ego Nwodim will host the stream. Emma Chamberlain will also do interviews on the carpet. The Associated Press will livestream celebrity departures from the Mark Hotel beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern and will stream the gala carpet on delay beginning at 6:30 p.m. The feeds will be available on YouTube and APNews.com. E! will begin live coverage at 6 p.m. on TV. The livestream will be available on Peacock, E! Online and YouTube, along with the network’s other social media feeds. Who’s hosting the 2025 Met Gala? This year, the fundraising gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosted by a group of Black male celebrities, including Williams, the musical artist and Louis Vuitton menswear director, and Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo, and A$AP Rocky, with NBA superstar LeBron James as honorary chair. They’re joined by Vogue’s Anna Wintour, the mastermind behind the gala, considered the year’s biggest and starriest party. Also guaranteed to show up is a second tier of hosts from a variety of worlds: athletes Simone Biles and husband Jonathan Owens; Angel Reese and Sha’Carri Richardson; filmmakers Spike Lee, Tonya Lewis Lee and Regina King; actors Ayo Edebiri, Audra McDonald and Jeremy Pope; musicians Doechii, Usher, Tyla, Janelle Monáe and André 3000; author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; artists Jordan Casteel, Rashid Johnson and Kara Walker; playwrights Jeremy O. Harris and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; and fashion figures Grace Wales Bonner, Edward Enninful, Dapper Dan and Olivier Rousteing. The gala raises the bulk of the curation budget for the museum’s Costume Institute. This year’s Met Gala dress code is… It’s more like a firm suggestion. From Wintour. This year, it’s about tailoring and suiting as interpreted through the history and meaning of Black dandyism across the Atlantic diaspora. The theme is inspired by the annual spring exhibition, which this year is based in large part on “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” a book written by Monica L. Miller. She is guest curator of the exhibit. “Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style,” Miller writes in the exhibit catalog. “Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression.” How the dress code goes, in terms of taste and style, is anyone’s guess. Wintour has a hand in virtually all things gala, so the presumption is things can’t go too far off the rails. She recently knocked down the rumor that she approves all looks, telling “Good Morning America” she’ll weigh in if asked. The exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” draws on other sources beyond Miller’s book. It’s organized into 12 sections. Each symbolizes a characteristic of dandy style as defined by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1934 essay, “Characteristics of Negro Expression.” Among them: ownership, presence, distinction, disguise, freedom, respectability and heritage. Presumably, for gala guests who do deep-dive research (or have stylists to do it), some of these factors will play out on the museum steps that serve as the event’s red carpet. Who else is going to show up? The guest list amounts to about 450 high-profile people from tech, sports, art, entertainment and more. The mix, Williams said, is a must. “It’s so important to me to have successful Black and brown people of every stripe in the room: not just athletes and actors and actresses, entertainers, but also authors, architects, folks from the fintech world,” he told Vogue. “We’ve got to invest in each other. We’ve got to connect with each other, because it’s going to take everybody to coalesce the force of Black and brown genius into one strong, reliable force.” For full coverage of the Met Gala, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/met-gala —Leanne Italie, AP Lifestyles Writer View the full article

The top Wi-Fi news stories from the past week - enjoy. The post Roundup: WWC Mountain View, first Wi-Fi HaLow Global Summit, two new WiFi NOW Hall of Famers, 5 years of 6 GHz Wi-Fi, & Notre Dame’s Wi-Fi 6E. appeared first on Wi-Fi NOW Global. View the full article

The old turn-it-off-and-on-again adage has helped successfully troubleshoot computers for years, but there's more than one way to restart your hardware and software—including a lesser known option on Windows that may well be new to you. Having spent many years writing about tech, it isn't often that I come across something I didn't already know about. So when I stumbled across this old BetaNews article about an emergency restart feature in Windows, I was taken aback. It showed a screen and a keystroke combination I had genuinely never heard of before. A bit more digging revealed that this has been in Windows for decades, making it even stranger that I'd never come across it. Official information on this emergency restart in Windows seems to be thin on the ground, or has perhaps been lost to time. Essentially though, it seems to replicate what a long press on your PC's power button would do: A quick, no-questions-asked reboot of your computer, with the minimum of fuss. The Windows enthusiasts over on Reddit have spotted this feature before, and there appear to be plenty of people on the boards who hadn't come across it until their attention was drawn towards it. If you dig into those threads you'll find some technical information on what exactly is going on behind the scenes, and the different calls that the feature might be making. It's worth emphasizing that this is very much a last resort option, as indeed the feature itself will tell you. You're not going to get a chance to save anything you're working on, as is the case if you force a reboot by pressing and holding the power button. How to access the emergency restart option Use at your own risk. Credit: World of OSes If all is well with your Windows computer, you can of course click the Start menu button on the taskbar, then the power button on the right, and then Restart. But what if your computer has crashed and left you hanging, so you can't click anything? What if the situation is so bad that the Start menu has mysteriously disappeared? To get to the emergency restart option, you need to press the familiar Ctrl+Alt+Del keyboard shortcut, known by pretty much everyone who's ever had to fix a Windows PC at some point. This shortcut is designed to work even if your computer is otherwise unresponsive, and gives you access to options for locking your PC, signing out of your account, and bringing up the Task Manager. Down in the lower right corner, there's also a power button: Click this and you get the standard Sleep, Shut down, and Restart options. However, if you hold down Ctrl and then click the power button, that takes you to the emergency restart page, together with the warning about losing any unsaved data. Click OK, and your computer will reboot itself almost instantly. If you can get to the screen after Ctrl+Alt+Del, then you'll want to try the normal restart option first—you'll only need to go down the holding Ctrl route if that doesn't work. Presumably, that will be because there's a program or a part of the Windows code that isn't shutting down properly to clear the way for a restart. Should you need yet another way of restarting your computer without using the Start menu, you can do it from the command prompt or PowerShell utility, too: Just type "shutdown /r" and hit Enter. There are a host of extra flags you can add to that command if needed, including setting a timer for the restart and forcing applications to close: You can read full instructions here. Having now familiarized myself with the emergency restart option in Windows, I'm off to find more features that I haven't come across—even though they've been around for years. Any suggestions are most welcome. View the full article

French president warns that curbing scientific research puts America’s economy and democracy at riskView the full article

President Donald The President is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the U.S. In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, The President said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap a 100% tariff “on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.” “The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” he wrote, complaining that other countries “are offering all sorts of incentives to draw” filmmakers and studios away from the U.S. “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!” It wasn’t immediately clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented. It’s common for both large and small films to include production in the U.S. and in other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming “Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning,” for instance, are shot around the world. Incentive programs for years have influenced where movies are shot, increasingly driving film production out of California and to other states and countries with favorable tax incentives, like Canada and the United Kingdom. Yet The President’s tariffs are designed to lead consumers toward American products. And in movie theaters, American-produced movies overwhelming dominate the domestic marketplace. China has ramped up its domestic movie production, culminating in the animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” grossing more than $2 billion this year. But even then, its sales came almost entirely from mainland China. In North America, it earned just $20.9 million. In New Zealand, where successive governments have offered rebates and incentives in recent years to draw Hollywood films to the country, the film industry has generated billions of dollars in tourism revenue driven by the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” films, which featured the country’s pristine and scenic vistas. More recently, the blockbuster “Minecraft” movie was filmed entirely in New Zealand, and U.S. productions in 2023 delivered $1.3 billion New Zealand dollars ($777 million) to the country in return for NZ$200 million in subsidies, according to government figures. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was awaiting more details of The President’s measures before commenting on them but would continue to pitch to filmmakers abroad, including in India’s Bollywood. “We’ve got an absolutely world class industry,” he said. “This is the best place to make movies, period, in the world.” The Motion Picture Association, which represents major U.S. film studios and streaming services, didn’t immediately respond to messages Sunday evening. The MPA’s data shows how much Hollywood exports have dominated cinemas. According to the MPA, the American movies produced $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023. The President, a Republican, has made good on the “tariff man” label he gave himself years ago, slapping new taxes on goods made in countries around the globe. That includes a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a 10% baseline tariff on goods from other countries, with even higher levies threatened. By unilaterally imposing tariffs, The President has exerted extraordinary influence over the flow of commerce, creating political risks and pulling the market in different directions. There are tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more imports, including pharmaceutical drugs, set to be subject to new tariffs in the weeks ahead. The President has long voiced concern about movie production moving overseas. Shortly before he took office, he announced that he had tapped actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to serve as “special ambassadors” to Hollywood to bring it “BACK—BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!” U.S. film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Overall production in the U.S. was down 26% last year compared with 2021, according to data from ProdPro, which tracks production. The group’s annual survey of executives, which asked about preferred filming locations, found no location in the U.S. made the top five, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Toronto, the U.K., Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia came out on top, with California placing sixth, Georgia seventh, New Jersey eighth and New York ninth. The problem is especially acute in California. In the greater Los Angeles area, production last year was down 5.6% from 2023 according to FilmLA, second only to 2020, during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Last, October, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, proposed expanding California’s Film & Television Tax Credit program to $750 million annually, up from $330 million. Other U.S. cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco have also used aggressive tax incentives to lure film and TV productions. Those programs can take the form of cash grants, as in Texas, or tax credits, which Georgia and New Mexico offer. “Other nations have been stealing the movie-making capabilities from the United States,” The President told reporters at the White House on Sunday night after returning from a weekend in Florida. “If they’re not willing to make a movie inside the United States we should have a tariff on movies that come in.” Associated Press writers Gary Field in Washington and Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report from Washington. —Jill Colvin and Jake Coyle, Associated Press View the full article

Live and on-demand video constituted an estimated 66% of global internet traffic by volume in 2022, and the top 10 days for internet traffic in 2024 coincided with live streaming events such as the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match and coverage of the NFL. Streaming enables seamless, on-demand access to video content, from online gaming to short videos like TikToks, and longer content such as movies, podcasts and NFL games. The defining aspect of streaming is its on-demand nature. Consider the global reach of a Joe Rogan podcast episode or the live coverage of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft launch—both examples demonstrate how streaming connects millions of viewers to real-time and on-demand content worldwide. I’m a computer scientist whose research includes cloud computing, which is the distribution of computing resources such as video servers across the internet. ‘Chunks’ of video When it comes to video content—whether it’s a live stream or a prerecorded video—there are two major challenges to address. First, video data is massive in size, making it time-consuming to transmit from the source to devices such as TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones. Second, streaming must be adaptive to accommodate differences in users’ devices and internet capabilities. For instance, viewers with lower-resolution screens or slower internet speeds should still be able to watch a given video, albeit in lower quality, while those with higher-resolution displays and faster connections enjoy the best possible quality. To tackle these challenges, video providers implement a series of optimizations. The first step involves fragmenting videos into smaller pieces, commonly referred to as “chunks.” These chunks then undergo a process called “encoding and compression,” which optimizes the video for different resolutions and bitrates to suit various devices and network conditions. When a user requests an on-demand video, the system dynamically selects the appropriate stream of chunks based on the capabilities of the user’s device, such as screen resolution and current internet speed. The video player on the user’s device assembles and plays these chunks in sequence to create a seamless viewing experience. For users with slower internet connections, the system delivers lower-quality chunks to ensure smooth playback. This is why you might notice a drop in video quality when your connection speed is reduced. Similarly, if the video pauses during playback, it’s usually because your player is waiting to buffer additional chunks from the provider. Dealing with distance and congestion Delivering video content on a large scale, whether prerecorded or live, poses a significant challenge when extrapolated to the immense number of videos consumed globally. Streaming services like YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix host enormous libraries of on-demand content, while simultaneously managing countless live streams happening worldwide. A seemingly straightforward approach to delivering video content would involve building a massive data center to store all the videos and related content, then streaming them to users worldwide via the internet. However, this method isn’t favored because it comes with significant challenges. One major issue is geographic latency, where a user’s location relative to the data center affects the delay they experience. For instance, if a data center is located in Virginia, a user in Washington, D.C., would experience minimal delay, while a user in Australia would face much longer delays due to the increased distance and the need for the data to traverse multiple interconnected networks. This added travel time slows down content delivery. Another problem is network congestion. As more users worldwide connect to the central data center, the interconnecting networks become increasingly busy, resulting in frustrating delays and video buffering. Additionally, when the same video is sent simultaneously to multiple users, duplicate data traveling over the same internet links wastes bandwidth and further congests the network. A centralized data center also creates a single point of failure. If the data center experiences an outage, no users can access their content, leading to a complete service disruption. Content delivery networks To address these challenges, most content providers rely on content delivery networks. These networks distribute content through globally scattered points of presence, which are clusters of servers that store copies of high-demand content locally. This approach significantly reduces latency and improves reliability. Content delivery network providers, such as Akamai and Edgio, implement two main strategies for deploying points of presence. The first is the “Enter Deep” approach, where thousands of smaller point-of-presence nodes are placed closer to users, often within internet service provider networks. This ensures minimal latency by bringing the content as close as possible to the end user. The second strategy is “Bring Home,” which involves deploying hundreds of larger point-of-presence clusters at strategic locations, typically where ISPs interconnect: internet exchange points. While these clusters are farther from users than in the Enter Deep approach, they are larger in capacity, allowing them to handle higher volumes of traffic efficiently. Infrastructure for a connected world Both strategies aim to optimize video streaming by reducing delays, minimizing bandwidth waste and ensuring a seamless viewing experience for users worldwide. The rapid expansion of the internet and the surge in video streaming—both live and on demand—have transformed how video content is delivered to users globally. However, the challenges of handling massive amounts of video data, reducing geographic latency and accommodating varying user devices and internet speeds require sophisticated solutions. Content delivery networks have emerged as a cornerstone of modern streaming, enabling efficient and reliable delivery of video. This infrastructure supports the growing demand for high-quality video and highlights the innovative approaches needed to meet the expectations of a connected world. Chetan Jaiswal is an associate professor of computer science at Quinnipiac University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

You’ve probably heard of Charles and Ray Eames, the designers behind the iconic Eames chair and ottoman, and Georgia O’Keefe, the trailblazing artist. But you might not know about how these artists were connected during their careers—or the art that came from their camaraderie. Herman Miller, in collaboration with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, is bringing that history to light with a new limited-run furniture line. The New Mexico Collection, set to be released on May 20, celebrates the Eameses, O’Keeffe, and designer Alexander Girard, the founding director of Herman Miller’s textile division. Included in the launch are 300 special Eames Wire Chairs, retailing for $1,995, and 100 iterations of the never-before-sold Girard Snake Table, retailing for $895. Both of the items offer a look into the intertwined artistic legacies of three designers whose work continues to shape the art world today. An oft-overlooked network of friends Georgia O’Keeffe first met Alexander Girard and his wife, Susan, when the couple moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1953. O’Keeffe had already been living in the remote rural town of Abiquiú, New Mexico, since the 1940s, and was already a household name across the country at the time of their meeting for her lush and evocative depictions of the natural world, many of which were inspired by flora and fauna native to her local surroundings. “[The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum] can’t say for sure exactly when and how they met, but suffice it to say there weren’t too many world renowned artists and designers living in that area, and apparently they felt a real kinship,” says Kelsey Keith, brand creative director at Herman Miller. For the New Mexico collection, Keith visited the museum’s archives, where she learned that there are records of 20 to 30 years of correspondence between the Girards and O’Keeffe—not just to advise each other on artistic projects, which they did plenty of, but also to trade the kinds of casual stories that maintain a decades-long friendship. “They ended up traveling together all over the world,” Keith says. “Girard and his wife would go on these folk art collecting trips to Central and South America and to Japan, and [O’Keeffe] actually accompanied them on some of those trips. I think you have to be pretty good friends with someone to take those kinds of trips together.” It was through the Girards that the Eameses entered the picture. Girard was already close to the Eameses; in fact, the design duo had actually landed him his job. When the Eameses first began to design furniture for Herman Miller in the ‘40s (the company has now owned the exclusive distribution rights to Eames designs for decades), Charles and Ray asked for Girard to be brought on with them as “a real design partner, not just someone to sort of decoratively apply fabrics after the fact,” Keith says. Through this professional collaboration, the Girards and the Eameses became both close colleagues and friends. The Girards soon introduced the Eameses to O’Keeffe. While their friendship wasn’t as close, since the Eameses lived a state away from O’Keeffe in Los Angeles, they also kept up a correspondence, and were known to attend the Girards’ annual Christmas parties. At the heights of their careers, the personal links between Girard, O’Keeffe, and the Eameses informed the work of all four creatives. A new design and a revived prototype The new Eames Wire Chair Low Base and Girard Snake Table both serve as a window into this period of artistic cross-pollination. The chair is inspired by a wire chair originally gifted by Ray Eames to O’Keeffe as decor in her Abiquiú home and studio. O’Keeffe’s home and studio are now preserved as museum exhibitions, and for good reason: Her minimalist-yet-aesthetically pleasing and highly curated approach to interior design draws visitors to view her former residence year-round. Suffice it to say, O’Keeffe had high standards when it came to outfitting her space. Ray’s chair surpassed them. “Georgia loved [the chair] so much that she wrote a thank-you note and actually asked for another one just like it, which is hilarious—that someone sends you a gift, and you’re like, ‘I love it so much, can I have one more?’” Keith says. “But she could do that, obviously. The original chair has a little label on it that Ray hand-drew to Georgia.” Instead of making an exact replica of Ray’s original gift to Eames, Herman Miller decided to create a product that would merge elements of the Eames’ design and O’Keeffe’s interior decor. The New Mexico Collection’s wire chair is a classic Eames frame on a low base, an homage to the fairly low ceilings and smaller furniture in O’Keeffe’s home. The chair is upholstered in a bikini style (think two inverted triangles stacked together) with an ochre and sienna striped fabric designed by Girard and intended to match with the Abiquiú home’s adobe interiors. While the new wire chair is a contemporary design made from archival elements, the Girard Snake Table is a close replica of a prototype made by Girard in the ‘50s that was never widely produced (though it occasionally pops up on auction sites.) The table features a splayed-leg aluminum base and steel top, printed with a custom illustration of a snake made by Girard. Snake imagery was a preoccupation of both Girard’s and O’Keeffe’s. O’Keeffe was so enamored with the snake’s form, in fact, that when an archaeologist fan sent her a preserved skeleton, she had it encased in a bench in her living room. Today, visitors to the O’Keeffe house will find the snake’s final resting place, as well as an original pillow made by Girard featuring one of his snake drawings. “This is New Mexico, so snake motifs are really prevalent,” Keith says. “I think what’s interesting about this is that Girard interpreted that motif in his own way—in a very graphic sense—and then [O’Keeffe] also took inspiration from the natural world, and had this snake skeleton embedded in the banco in her house.” For Keith, the New Mexico Collection truly came together when she was able to see the final products arranged in O’Keeffe’s home, overlooking the New Mexico landscape through sweeping glass windows. “I will say, I think we hit it just right, because when we brought in the limited-run products to photograph in [O’Keeffe’s] house, they fit so perfectly, it looks like they were meant to be there,” Keith says. View the full article

Bad data = bad strategy. Duplicate conversions are one of the most overlooked – and most damaging – problems in conversion tracking. If your reporting inflates the number of conversions, your performance strategy is based on fiction. You’re not just getting the wrong numbers. You’re optimizing toward the wrong outcomes. This issue impacts everything: Bidding. Budget allocation. Long-term growth. This article breaks down: Why duplicate conversions happen. How to find them. Most importantly, how to eliminate them for good. The cost of inaccurate conversion data Paid search loves precision. Conversion data is your north star when optimizing for leads, purchases, or any user action that matters to your business. But if that data is compromised by duplicate tracking, you’ll be steering in the entirely wrong direction without realizing it. What’s at risk? Overstated ROAS and underreported CPA: This will lead you to think a campaign is profitable when it’s not. Wasted ad spend: Poor-performing campaigns get more budget than they deserve. Misguided optimization: Your automation and smart bidding strategies will now be optimizing on inaccurate, faulty signals. Duplicate conversions don’t just affect performance; they distort your entire campaign ecosystem. What causes duplicate conversions? Duplicate conversions are when the same action (i.e., form fill, purchase, etc.) is unintentionally recorded more than once. This can happen across platforms, tools, and user behaviors. Here are the common culprits. Technical misfires One of the most common causes of duplicate conversions is the incorrect implementation of conversion tags. Tags can fire more than once if the trigger settings are too broad or misconfigured. In some cases, event listeners are added multiple times during a single session, causing multiple conversion logs for a single action. Confirmation pages can also be problematic, especially if they’re not isolated from refreshes or revisits. When a user reloads a “thank you” page, the conversion tag may fire again unless specifically prevented. GA4 and GTM event conflicts It’s increasingly common for advertisers to accidentally track the same event twice when setting up both Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4’s Create Event feature lets you build custom events within the platform, but if you’ve already implemented the same event via GTM, you’re logging it twice. This creates duplicate events with the same names and parameters, making your conversion data unreliable and inflating your totals. Plugin and platform overlap Platform integrations can cause duplicate conversions when they layer tracking functionality on top of your custom setup. For example, Shopify’s Google Sales Channel automatically adds Google Ads tracking by default. If you’ve also installed GTM with your own conversion tags, you’re now recording the same event from two different sources. Similarly, third-party checkout or form plugins often include their own tracking scripts, which can fire alongside your primary implementation, resulting in multiple conversion entries for the same user action. User behavior Sometimes, duplicate conversions happen even when the tracking setup is technically correct because of how users interact with your site. A user refreshing a confirmation page can cause the conversion event to fire again. Likewise, if a user revisits the confirmation page from their browser history or a saved link, that same conversion might be counted again. Without built-in safeguards, these behaviors can turn a legitimate conversion into two or three recorded events. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. How to prevent duplicate conversions: Best practices Cleaning up your conversion tracking isn’t just about fixing a problem; it’s about ensuring your business decisions are made using reliable data. Here are the key practices every advertiser should follow to eliminate/prevent duplicate conversions. Audit your Google Ads conversion actions Start by reviewing your conversion actions in Google Ads. Go to Goals > Conversions > Summary and inspect each currently active action. Are multiple actions tracking the same outcome, like a lead form submission or purchase? Are you tracking the same event in two different ways, like one from your website and another imported from your CRM? These overlaps are a common source of duplication. Choose the cleanest, most consistent source for each conversion type and remove any redundant actions as they are no longer needed. Avoid double-tracking in GA4 and GTM Google Analytics 4 gives you multiple ways to define your events, but using more than one for the same action can cause issues. A common mistake is defining an event like “purchase” in Google Tag Manager and then creating that same event inside GA4’s Create Event tool. When this happens, GA4 may log the event twice from the same trigger. Choose one method to define each event – either GTM or GA4 – and stick with it to avoid duplication. Consider server-side tracking Server-side tracking shifts the conversion data collection from the user’s browser to your server. This gives you greater control over when and how data is sent to platforms like Google Ads or GA4. Because the data is handled on your server, it’s less likely to be affected by things like browser refreshes, ad blockers, or inconsistent page loads. Yes, the setup is more advanced and may require developer support, but the payoff is a cleaner, more reliable tracking system. Test and monitor your tracking setup You don’t know what you don’t know, which is why regularly testing your conversion tracking is important. Use tools like: GA4’s DebugView to watch how events are processed in real time. Google Tag Assistant to see which tags are firing and when. Don’t just solely rely on live pay-per-click traffic. Test your setup prior to your ads going live in a staging environment. This makes it easier to identify problems before they affect your real conversion data. Use unique transaction IDs (ecommerce) Assign a unique transaction ID to each purchase is also a great way to ensure duplication does not happen. This ID should be passed along with the conversion event, allowing platforms like GA4 and Google Ads to recognize and ignore duplicates. Unique transaction IDs help systems distinguish between a new conversion and a repeated action from the same transaction. Track clean or fall behind Your Google Ads campaigns will succeed or fail based on the quality of the data you provide. If your conversion actions are duplicated, you’re not just seeing inflated numbers – you’re making decisions based on faulty inputs. And that puts your bidding strategies, budget allocation, and performance reporting at risk. Just like a Google Ads campaign, clean conversion tracking isn’t something you set and forget. It’s an ongoing habit. The more disciplined you are about maintaining it, the more reliable your performance and the insights will be. View the full article

Key Takeaways Definition & Importance: Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that influences consumer decisions based on the actions and experiences of others. It’s essential for building trust and credibility, particularly in digital marketing. Types of Social Proof: Include reviews and testimonials, user-generated content, influencer partnerships, social media engagement, and targeted campaigns highlighting customer experiences to enhance brand authenticity. Influence on Consumer Behavior: Positive experiences shared by others, like reviews and social media interactions, validate choices for potential customers, making them more likely to trust and purchase from your brand. Strategic Implementation: Utilize testimonials prominently in your marketing, encourage authentic customer feedback through social media, and create engaging campaigns to foster community interaction and brand loyalty. Case Studies Insights: Successful brands, like GymShark and Partake Foods, demonstrate the effective use of social proof in building trust through visible customer engagement and feedback. Conversely, lack of engagement can harm brand loyalty. Continuous Adaptation: Monitor your social media analytics and adapt strategies based on customer feedback and engagement rates to maintain and enhance your brand’s online presence. In today’s digital world, social proof has become a powerful tool that influences our decisions. Whether you’re scrolling through reviews, checking out testimonials, or observing the popularity of a product, you’re likely relying on the experiences of others to guide your choices. This phenomenon taps into our innate desire for validation and reassurance, making it a crucial element for brands and businesses looking to build trust. Understanding social proof can transform how you engage with your audience. By leveraging the behaviors and opinions of others, you can create a compelling narrative that resonates with potential customers. As you explore the dynamics of social proof, you’ll discover how it can elevate your marketing strategy and enhance your credibility in a crowded marketplace. Understanding Social Proof Social proof plays a crucial role in shaping consumer behavior, particularly for small businesses on social media platforms. By leveraging reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content, you can enhance your credibility and foster trust among potential customers. Definition of Social Proof Social proof refers to the psychological phenomenon where individuals rely on the actions and experiences of others to inform their decisions. In the context of small business social media, this could mean consumers choosing your products based on positive reviews from others or engaging with your brand because they see peers or influencers doing so. Essentially, it validates your offerings and strengthens your online presence. Types of Social Proof Reviews and Testimonials Reviews from satisfied customers serve as powerful endorsements. Positive testimonials shared on platforms like Facebook and Instagram can significantly influence new customers. User-Generated Content Content created by your customers showcases their genuine experiences with your products. This fosters community interaction and enhances brand authenticity. Encouraging customers to share their experiences using specific hashtags increases your organic reach. Influencer Partnerships Collaborations with influencers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram can amplify your brand’s message. Their followers may view your offerings as more trustworthy due to the influencer’s endorsement. Social Media Engagement High engagement rates on your social media posts reflect a strong community presence. Frequent interactions, such as likes, shares, and comments, signify to potential customers that others find value in your brand. Social Media Campaigns Campaigns that highlight customer feedback and experiences can showcase your commitment to quality. Regularly sharing success stories across social media channels builds credibility and promotes brand awareness. By understanding and implementing these types of social proof within your social media strategy, you can strengthen your brand’s reputation and drive customer confidence. The Psychology Behind Social Proof Understanding social proof is essential for leveraging its power in your small business strategy. This psychological phenomenon influences consumer behavior significantly, particularly in uncertain situations. How Social Proof Influences Decisions Social proof shapes decisions by validating choices based on others’ behaviors. When consumers see positive reviews, testimonials, or social media posts from satisfied customers, they often perceive those actions as endorsements. For instance, a high engagement rate on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram can encourage potential customers to trust your brand. Implementing user-generated content in your marketing strategy amplifies this effect, as customers share their experiences, reinforcing your brand’s credibility. The Impact of Social Proof on Behavior Social proof impacts consumer behavior profoundly, particularly in digital environments. When individuals observe others interacting with your brand—whether through social media engagement on platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn, or participating in Facebook groups—they’re more likely to follow suit. Community management plays a pivotal role here; your proactive engagement can foster a sense of belonging and trust. Utilizing influencer partnerships effectively also enhances your social proof, as followers often view influencers as relatable figures. By sharing compelling video content and inspiring storytelling through social media campaigns, you can further boost your online presence and brand awareness, ultimately driving customer interaction and loyalty. Applications of Social Proof in Marketing Social proof plays a crucial role in shaping your marketing strategies, especially for small businesses. Utilizing the actions and opinions of your customers can significantly influence potential buyers. Utilizing Testimonials and Reviews Customer reviews are key in establishing trust. You can boost credibility by showcasing authentic testimonials on your website and social media platforms. Highlight verified reviews prominently; 86% of businesses assert that these reviews are critical in purchase decisions. Examples include featuring feedback on your home page, product pages, or in dedicated sections on social media posts. Collect reviews from platforms like Trustpilot, Google, and Yelp, and consider integrating them into your content calendar. This approach not only fosters confidence but also enhances your online presence. Social Media Influence Social media is an effective channel for leveraging social proof. By utilizing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, you can encourage user-generated content that showcases real experiences with your products. Engage your audience through storytelling and engaging video content. Create campaigns that encourage sharing and highlight their contributions to your brand’s narrative. Utilize specific hashtags to boost content visibility and enhance organic reach. monitor engagement rates and adapt your strategy based on social media analytics and customer feedback. By incorporating influencer marketing, you can expand your reach and tap into established trust networks. Social media followers are more likely to engage with a brand that highlights community management and customer interactions, creating a thriving online community. Case Studies of Effective Social Proof Social proof significantly influences consumer decisions. Numerous brands showcase successful strategies that small businesses can learn from. Success Stories from Brands GymShark: This fitness apparel brand prominently features customer reviews and testimonials, effectively building trust and community. By showcasing authentic customer feedback, GymShark enhances brand credibility and fosters a loyal customer base. Partake Foods: Partake Foods employs user reviews directly on product pages, amplifying positive feedback such as “You can’t just eat one.” This encourages visitors to make purchases, showcasing the power of visual testimonials in driving sales. Tofino Soap Company: Tofino Soap Company enables customers to share positive reviews along with images of their purchases. This strategy acts as a built-in recommendation platform, influencing potential buyers through relatable experiences. Lessons Learned from Failures Lack of Engagement: Brands that fail to manage community interaction miss opportunities to leverage customer feedback. Ignoring comments on social media platforms can lead to a decline in trust and absence of brand loyalty. Inconsistent Branding: Small businesses that do not maintain brand consistency across social media platforms dilute their messaging. Irregular engagement on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter negatively impacts their social media presence and audience retention. Underutilizing User-Generated Content: Many brands overlook the potential of user-generated content. Not incorporating this visual storytelling limits authenticity and decreases the connection with the audience, reducing overall engagement rates. By understanding these successes and failures, your small business can develop a stronger social media strategy that leverages social proof effectively. Emphasizing authentic customer interactions and consistent engagement across platforms fosters trust and enhances brand awareness. Conclusion Harnessing the power of social proof can transform your marketing efforts. By showcasing authentic customer experiences and leveraging user-generated content, you can build trust and credibility with your audience. Remember that social proof isn’t just about numbers; it’s about creating a community where your customers feel valued and heard. When you effectively implement social proof strategies, you’re not only enhancing your brand’s reputation but also driving customer loyalty and engagement. Stay attuned to the evolving landscape of social proof and adapt your approach to resonate with your audience. This will position your business for success in a competitive market. Frequently Asked Questions What is social proof? Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where individuals make decisions based on the actions and experiences of others. It refers to the tendency to rely on feedback, reviews, and endorsements from peers to validate choices, especially in uncertain situations. How does social proof affect consumer behavior? Social proof influences consumer behavior by providing validation and reassurance. Positive reviews, testimonials, and social media interactions can enhance trust in a brand, encouraging potential customers to make purchases based on popular opinion and community feedback. What types of social proof can businesses use? Businesses can use various types of social proof, including customer reviews, testimonials, user-generated content, influencer partnerships, and active social media engagement. These methods help establish credibility and foster trust among potential customers. Why is social proof important for small businesses? For small businesses, social proof is crucial as it builds trust and credibility in a competitive market. By showcasing positive customer experiences and leveraging social media, they can enhance their online presence and attract more customers. How can businesses effectively implement social proof? Businesses can effectively implement social proof by prominently featuring customer testimonials on their websites and social media. Encouraging user-generated content, engaging in community interactions, and collaborating with influencers can further expand their reach and strengthen brand trust. What are common mistakes with social proof strategies? Common mistakes include lacking engagement with followers, inconsistent branding, and underutilizing user-generated content. These issues can diminish a brand’s credibility and hinder audience connection, limiting the effectiveness of social proof. Can social proof drive sales? Yes, leveraging social proof can significantly drive sales. By building trust and credibility through positive customer experiences and social media interactions, businesses can encourage potential customers to feel confident in their purchasing decisions. Image Via Envato This article, "Harnessing Social Proof to Boost Trust and Sales for Your Business" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Key Takeaways Definition & Importance: Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that influences consumer decisions based on the actions and experiences of others. It’s essential for building trust and credibility, particularly in digital marketing. Types of Social Proof: Include reviews and testimonials, user-generated content, influencer partnerships, social media engagement, and targeted campaigns highlighting customer experiences to enhance brand authenticity. Influence on Consumer Behavior: Positive experiences shared by others, like reviews and social media interactions, validate choices for potential customers, making them more likely to trust and purchase from your brand. Strategic Implementation: Utilize testimonials prominently in your marketing, encourage authentic customer feedback through social media, and create engaging campaigns to foster community interaction and brand loyalty. Case Studies Insights: Successful brands, like GymShark and Partake Foods, demonstrate the effective use of social proof in building trust through visible customer engagement and feedback. Conversely, lack of engagement can harm brand loyalty. Continuous Adaptation: Monitor your social media analytics and adapt strategies based on customer feedback and engagement rates to maintain and enhance your brand’s online presence. In today’s digital world, social proof has become a powerful tool that influences our decisions. Whether you’re scrolling through reviews, checking out testimonials, or observing the popularity of a product, you’re likely relying on the experiences of others to guide your choices. This phenomenon taps into our innate desire for validation and reassurance, making it a crucial element for brands and businesses looking to build trust. Understanding social proof can transform how you engage with your audience. By leveraging the behaviors and opinions of others, you can create a compelling narrative that resonates with potential customers. As you explore the dynamics of social proof, you’ll discover how it can elevate your marketing strategy and enhance your credibility in a crowded marketplace. Understanding Social Proof Social proof plays a crucial role in shaping consumer behavior, particularly for small businesses on social media platforms. By leveraging reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content, you can enhance your credibility and foster trust among potential customers. Definition of Social Proof Social proof refers to the psychological phenomenon where individuals rely on the actions and experiences of others to inform their decisions. In the context of small business social media, this could mean consumers choosing your products based on positive reviews from others or engaging with your brand because they see peers or influencers doing so. Essentially, it validates your offerings and strengthens your online presence. Types of Social Proof Reviews and Testimonials Reviews from satisfied customers serve as powerful endorsements. Positive testimonials shared on platforms like Facebook and Instagram can significantly influence new customers. User-Generated Content Content created by your customers showcases their genuine experiences with your products. This fosters community interaction and enhances brand authenticity. Encouraging customers to share their experiences using specific hashtags increases your organic reach. Influencer Partnerships Collaborations with influencers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram can amplify your brand’s message. Their followers may view your offerings as more trustworthy due to the influencer’s endorsement. Social Media Engagement High engagement rates on your social media posts reflect a strong community presence. Frequent interactions, such as likes, shares, and comments, signify to potential customers that others find value in your brand. Social Media Campaigns Campaigns that highlight customer feedback and experiences can showcase your commitment to quality. Regularly sharing success stories across social media channels builds credibility and promotes brand awareness. By understanding and implementing these types of social proof within your social media strategy, you can strengthen your brand’s reputation and drive customer confidence. The Psychology Behind Social Proof Understanding social proof is essential for leveraging its power in your small business strategy. This psychological phenomenon influences consumer behavior significantly, particularly in uncertain situations. How Social Proof Influences Decisions Social proof shapes decisions by validating choices based on others’ behaviors. When consumers see positive reviews, testimonials, or social media posts from satisfied customers, they often perceive those actions as endorsements. For instance, a high engagement rate on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram can encourage potential customers to trust your brand. Implementing user-generated content in your marketing strategy amplifies this effect, as customers share their experiences, reinforcing your brand’s credibility. The Impact of Social Proof on Behavior Social proof impacts consumer behavior profoundly, particularly in digital environments. When individuals observe others interacting with your brand—whether through social media engagement on platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn, or participating in Facebook groups—they’re more likely to follow suit. Community management plays a pivotal role here; your proactive engagement can foster a sense of belonging and trust. Utilizing influencer partnerships effectively also enhances your social proof, as followers often view influencers as relatable figures. By sharing compelling video content and inspiring storytelling through social media campaigns, you can further boost your online presence and brand awareness, ultimately driving customer interaction and loyalty. Applications of Social Proof in Marketing Social proof plays a crucial role in shaping your marketing strategies, especially for small businesses. Utilizing the actions and opinions of your customers can significantly influence potential buyers. Utilizing Testimonials and Reviews Customer reviews are key in establishing trust. You can boost credibility by showcasing authentic testimonials on your website and social media platforms. Highlight verified reviews prominently; 86% of businesses assert that these reviews are critical in purchase decisions. Examples include featuring feedback on your home page, product pages, or in dedicated sections on social media posts. Collect reviews from platforms like Trustpilot, Google, and Yelp, and consider integrating them into your content calendar. This approach not only fosters confidence but also enhances your online presence. Social Media Influence Social media is an effective channel for leveraging social proof. By utilizing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, you can encourage user-generated content that showcases real experiences with your products. Engage your audience through storytelling and engaging video content. Create campaigns that encourage sharing and highlight their contributions to your brand’s narrative. Utilize specific hashtags to boost content visibility and enhance organic reach. monitor engagement rates and adapt your strategy based on social media analytics and customer feedback. By incorporating influencer marketing, you can expand your reach and tap into established trust networks. Social media followers are more likely to engage with a brand that highlights community management and customer interactions, creating a thriving online community. Case Studies of Effective Social Proof Social proof significantly influences consumer decisions. Numerous brands showcase successful strategies that small businesses can learn from. Success Stories from Brands GymShark: This fitness apparel brand prominently features customer reviews and testimonials, effectively building trust and community. By showcasing authentic customer feedback, GymShark enhances brand credibility and fosters a loyal customer base. Partake Foods: Partake Foods employs user reviews directly on product pages, amplifying positive feedback such as “You can’t just eat one.” This encourages visitors to make purchases, showcasing the power of visual testimonials in driving sales. Tofino Soap Company: Tofino Soap Company enables customers to share positive reviews along with images of their purchases. This strategy acts as a built-in recommendation platform, influencing potential buyers through relatable experiences. Lessons Learned from Failures Lack of Engagement: Brands that fail to manage community interaction miss opportunities to leverage customer feedback. Ignoring comments on social media platforms can lead to a decline in trust and absence of brand loyalty. Inconsistent Branding: Small businesses that do not maintain brand consistency across social media platforms dilute their messaging. Irregular engagement on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter negatively impacts their social media presence and audience retention. Underutilizing User-Generated Content: Many brands overlook the potential of user-generated content. Not incorporating this visual storytelling limits authenticity and decreases the connection with the audience, reducing overall engagement rates. By understanding these successes and failures, your small business can develop a stronger social media strategy that leverages social proof effectively. Emphasizing authentic customer interactions and consistent engagement across platforms fosters trust and enhances brand awareness. Conclusion Harnessing the power of social proof can transform your marketing efforts. By showcasing authentic customer experiences and leveraging user-generated content, you can build trust and credibility with your audience. Remember that social proof isn’t just about numbers; it’s about creating a community where your customers feel valued and heard. When you effectively implement social proof strategies, you’re not only enhancing your brand’s reputation but also driving customer loyalty and engagement. Stay attuned to the evolving landscape of social proof and adapt your approach to resonate with your audience. This will position your business for success in a competitive market. Frequently Asked Questions What is social proof? Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where individuals make decisions based on the actions and experiences of others. It refers to the tendency to rely on feedback, reviews, and endorsements from peers to validate choices, especially in uncertain situations. How does social proof affect consumer behavior? Social proof influences consumer behavior by providing validation and reassurance. Positive reviews, testimonials, and social media interactions can enhance trust in a brand, encouraging potential customers to make purchases based on popular opinion and community feedback. What types of social proof can businesses use? Businesses can use various types of social proof, including customer reviews, testimonials, user-generated content, influencer partnerships, and active social media engagement. These methods help establish credibility and foster trust among potential customers. Why is social proof important for small businesses? For small businesses, social proof is crucial as it builds trust and credibility in a competitive market. By showcasing positive customer experiences and leveraging social media, they can enhance their online presence and attract more customers. How can businesses effectively implement social proof? Businesses can effectively implement social proof by prominently featuring customer testimonials on their websites and social media. Encouraging user-generated content, engaging in community interactions, and collaborating with influencers can further expand their reach and strengthen brand trust. What are common mistakes with social proof strategies? Common mistakes include lacking engagement with followers, inconsistent branding, and underutilizing user-generated content. These issues can diminish a brand’s credibility and hinder audience connection, limiting the effectiveness of social proof. Can social proof drive sales? Yes, leveraging social proof can significantly drive sales. By building trust and credibility through positive customer experiences and social media interactions, businesses can encourage potential customers to feel confident in their purchasing decisions. Image Via Envato This article, "Harnessing Social Proof to Boost Trust and Sales for Your Business" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Everyone works with text while on their Macs, and PopClip is a simple and effective way to speed up all your text workflows. On the surface, it's really simple. The app, also available on mobile, simply adds a small popover menu to your screen every time you select text on your Mac. By default, it gives you access to four commonly used actions: search, cut, copy, and paste. This alone is good enough for most people, but the app can do a lot more. Mobile is a bit more limited, but on Mac, you can customize the popover menu by adding or removing features, and there's a big extension directory to make this even better. With some tweaking, you can use it for relatively basic operations such as text transformations, or more advanced ones such as sending text to the translation service of your choice. PopClip's free trial lets you use text actions 250 times, and once you've exhausted those, you can buy the app for $12 or $25. The lower price guarantees two years of updates, after which you can continue using it without new features, but if you pay more, you get access to app updates for as long as PopClip is in active development. Customizing PopClip Credit: Pranay Parab Customizing PopClip is a bit annoying, because the app's window is quite small and uses tiny font sizes. Click its menu bar icon to get started. The good news is that you won't have to use the menu bar window much, so I can look past its tiny size and barebones UI. In the app's window, begin by clicking the home icon, which will allow the app to launch at login. This way, you won't have to keep activating PopClip every time you restart your Mac. Next, go to the gear icon tab and change the size and position (above or below the selected text) of the popover menu to suit your needs. A larger size is more intrusive, but it makes it easier to click the buttons in the menu. On the same page, you can record a keyboard shortcut to access PopClip without using the mouse, too. The next tab has a puzzle piece icon, and it lets you configure your actions or add additional actions not included in the default set, like translation or dictionary tools. Uncheck the options you don't use, and drag the four dots next to each action upwards or downwards to reorder them. Finally, go to the next tab to customize a list of excluded apps. PopClip's menus won't appear when you select text in those apps. Adding extensions to supercharge the app Credit: Pranay Parab PopClip's real magic comes from its extension support. Just go to the extensions directory page, select any extensions you like, download them, and open the downloaded files. This automatically adds those extensions to PopClip. Simply go to back to the puzzle piece icon in the settings to see your new additions. There are plenty of extensions on this page, and it can be hard to stop adding them to the app, because most of them are quite useful. The extensions page even has an RSS feed, and you can add it to the RSS reader of your choice to get informed whenever a new tool shows up. It's hard to make a definitive list of the best PopClip extensions, since that depends on what you want to do with the app. Personally, I like to select text and send it into third-party apps (to quickly create to-dos or calendar entries, translate text, etc.), and there are plenty of great actions for that. I'm also a big fan of the Append to Clipboard action, which lets me copy multiple bits of text and adds it all to the clipboard. This way, I can quickly copy an excerpt and add the article's URL to the clipboard, then paste them both to a social media post in one go. Without PopClip, that would require pasting twice, plus switching between tabs. View the full article

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Saturday that he wants to step down as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year. The revelation came as a surprise because the 94-year-old had previously said he did not plan to retire. Buffett, one of the world’s richest people and most accomplished investors, took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 when it was a textiles manufacturer. He turned the company into a conglomerate by finding other businesses and stocks to buy that were selling for less than they were worth. His success made him a Wall Street icon. It also earned him the nickname “Oracle of Omaha,” a reference to the Nebraska city where Buffett was born and chose to live and work. Here are some of his best and worst investments over the years: Buffett’s Best National Indemnity and National Fire & Marine: Purchased in 1967, the company was one of Buffett’s first insurance investments. Insurance float—the premium money insurers can invest between the time when policies are bought and when claims are made—provided the capital for many of Berkshire’s investments over the years and helped fuel the company’s growth. Berkshire’s insurance division has grown to include Geico, General Reinsurance and several other insurers. The float totaled $173 billion at the end of the first quarter. Buying blocks of stock in American Express, Coca-Cola Co. and Bank of America at times when the companies were out of favor because of scandals or market conditions. Collectively, the shares are worth over $100 billion more than what Buffett paid for them, and that doesn’t count all the dividends he has collected over the years. Apple: Buffett long said that he didn’t understand tech companies well enough to value them and pick the long-term winners, but he started buying Apple shares in 2016. He later explained that he bought more than $31 billion worth because he understood the iPhone maker as a consumer products company with extremely loyal customers. The value of his investment grew to more than $174 billion before Buffett started selling Berkshire Hathaway’s shares. BYD: On the advice of his late investing partner Charlie Munger, Buffett bet big on the genius of BYD founder Wang Chanfu in 2008 with a $232 million investment in the Chinese electric vehicle maker. The value of that stake soared to more than $9 billion before Buffett began selling it off. Berkshire’s remaining stake is still worth about $1.8 billion. See’s Candy: Buffett repeatedly pointed to his 1972 purchase as a turning point in his career. Buffett said Munger persuaded him that it made sense to buy great businesses at good prices as long as they had enduring competitive advantages. Previously, Buffett had primarily invested in companies of any quality as long as they were selling for less than he thought they were worth. Berkshire paid $25 million for See’s and recorded pretax earnings of $1.65 billion from the candy company through 2011. The amount continued to grow but Buffett didn’t routinely highlight it. Berkshire Hathaway Energy: Utilities provide a large and steady stream of profits for Berkshire. The conglomerate paid $2.1 billion, or about $35.05 per share, for Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy in 2000. The utility unit subsequently was renamed and made several acquisitions, including PacifiCorp and NV Energy. The utilities added more than $3.7 billion to Berkshire’s profit in 2024, although Buffett has said they are now worth less than they used to be because of the liability they face related to wildfires. Buffett’s Worst Berkshire Hathaway: Buffett had said his investment in the Berkshire Hathaway textile mills was probably his worst investment ever. The textile company he took over in 1965 bled money for many years before Buffett finally shut it down in 1985, though Berkshire did provide cash for some of Buffett’s early acquisitions. Of course, the Berkshire shares Buffett began buying for $7 and $8 a share in 1962 are now worth $809,350 per share, so even Buffett’s worst investment turned out OK. Dexter Shoe Co.: Buffett said he made an awful blunder by buying Dexter in 1993 for $433 million, a mistake made even worse because he used Berkshire stock for the deal. Buffett says he essentially gave away 1.6% of Berkshire for a worthless business. Missed opportunities. Buffett said that some of his worst mistakes over the years were the investments and deals that he didn’t make. Berkshire easily could have made billions if Buffett had been comfortable investing in Amazon, Google or Microsoft early on. But it wasn’t just tech companies he missed out on. Buffett told shareholders he was caught “sucking his thumb” when he failed to follow through on a plan to buy 100 million Walmart shares that would be worth nearly $10 billion today. Selling banks too soon. Not long before the COVID pandemic, Buffett seemed to sour on most of his bank stocks. Repeated scandals involving Wells Fargo gave him a reason to start unloading his 500 million shares, many of them for around $30 per share. But he also sold off his JP Morgan stake at prices less than $100. Both stocks have more than doubled since then. Blue Chip Stamps: Buffett and Munger, Berkshire’s former vice chairman, took control of Blue Chip in 1970 when the customer rewards program was generating $126 million in sales. But as trading stamps fell out of favor with retailers and consumers, sales steadily declined; in 2006, they totaled a mere $25,920. However, Buffett and Munger used the float that Blue Chip generated to acquire See’s Candy, Wesco Financial and Precision Castparts, which are all steady contributors to Berkshire. —Josh Funk, AP Business Writer View the full article

Today (Monday, May 5, 2025) is Cinco de Mayo. The day celebrates the May 5, 1862, victory of Mexico against France in the Battle of Puebla. However, while Cinco de Mayo celebrates an important event in Mexican history, the day is widely observed in communities across America and is now frequently one used to celebrate Mexican-American culture in the United States. Many brands in America—especially restaurant chains—like to participate in Cinco de Mayo by offering deals and freebies to customers. This is especially true of restaurants that serve Mexican or Mexican-American food. Here are some deals to be had today if you are up for celebrating Cinco de Mayo with your tastebuds. Baja Fresh Use the code CINCO at checkout to get $5.55 off your order of $20 or more. California Pizza Kitchen The pizza chain is offering free white corn guacamole and chips to customers who show this web page to their server. California Tortilla The Mexican food chain is offering a coupon for a free taco on their next visit to people who purchase something today. Chipotle Chipotle is offering several Cinco de Mayo deals, including $0 delivery fees when using the promo code DELIVER and free chips and Queso Blanco when using the promo code CINCO25. The company is also giving away the chance to win one of 50,000 burritos when you play its Burrito Builder experience on Roblox. Full details of the offers can be found here. Del Taco Get a free burrito with any $10 purchase. Jack In the Box The fast food chain is giving away free Tiny Tacos of any style if you order in the app and spend at least $5 today. Laredo Taco Company Buy one burrito and get one free. 7-Eleven Order Laredo Taco Company food through the 7NOW Delivery app and get 50% off the total as long as the order is $20 or more. View the full article

Discover 10 practical tips to write website content that attracts, engages, and converts in 2025. View the full article

This week, the Out-of-Touch Guide grapples with an eternal question of man vs. beast, sees Gen Z throw a hilarious right cross at millennial decorating trends, contemplates whether refusing to wash your face is a skincare routine or a cry for help, and explains why serving booze at weddings has become a generational flashpoint. What is "100 men vs. 1 Gorilla?"In a video posted three years ago, TikToker yuri5kpt2 was the first online to ask a seemingly simple question: who would win in a fight between 100 men and a single gorilla? It took some time for the general population to catch on to this intriguing hypothetical, but critical mass was achieved this week, and the debate has spread everywhere online. My first thought was 100 men are taking it, without a doubt. I mean, it's a hundred guys! But then I considered the overwhelming power of an enraged gorilla, how it could literally tear off limbs and bite off faces, and the scale started tipping heavily the other way. I mean, look at this thing: On the other hand, actual primatologist Dr. Tara Stoinski gives it to humans: But I don't think she's considering the panic factor. If the question assumes 100 average dudes with no training, I'm guessing about 99 of them run screaming as soon as the most unlucky of the bunch has his face bitten off. I know I would. But the gorilla is going to panic when it sees a mob of 100 men screaming at the top of their lungs! Then there's stamina to consider. According to this (self-proclaimed) animal expert, the gorilla would be gassed after killing 30 or 40 dudes, so the men would ultimately triumph, but only after taking heavy casualties. Right now, I'm leaning slightly toward humans, based on the combined stamina of 100 people and our natural survival instinct. This is the kind of question that won't be answered until someone does it for real, and good luck making that happen with all the "laws" we have. Because this is 2025, the question couldn't be left to quietly drift away like previous internet imponderables like "what would you do if a super intelligent, deadly snail was following you?" Instead, it's become a part of the tedious "gender wars" with people hijacking the format to ask questions like, "Can we get 100 women vs. accountability?" Responses include "how about 100 men vs. shutting the fuck up?" Can we just have one fight between a gorilla and 100 men without people ruining it? What is "caveman skincare?"Moving up the evolutionary ladder from gorillas, we have "caveman skincare," a minimalist approach to personal hygiene that involves not washing your face, or at least not using soap. The idea has been kicking around since at least the 1960s, but TikToker Tia Zakher brought it to the world's attention in April by documenting her experiment of not applying any products to her face, or even washing it at all. The idea is to "reset" your skin to a more natural, and presumably healthier, state. The result is not exactly pretty. But this is temporary, at least according to Zakher. She says the uneven, bumpy skin on her face is a build-up of dead skin cells that would normally be washed away, and underneath is healthy, clear skin. Most commenters don't seem to agree, and suggest that it's actually a fungal infection, or maybe she's rage-baiting, faking it for the attention, or it's just gross. There's a lot going on here culturally. Widespread interest in the technique seems like a backlash to the elaborate, expensive skincare routines many people feel they need, and the online trashing of Zakher is depressingly predictable, given that she's a young woman who is doing something other than presenting herself as alluringly as possible. But all that aside, is this actually a good idea? According to dermatologists, not really, but a little, maybe, kind of. "It could temporarily help some people whose skin is extremely irritated from overuse of products, as it reduces the chances of chemical irritation," dermatologist Dr. Angela J. Lamb told Teen Vogue, but she added that if you're still wearing makeup and working out, not washing will likely clog your pores and could make acne worse or lead to fungal infections. According to another dermatologist quoted by Teen Vogue, Dr. Asmi Berry, the caveman method is not backed by scientific evidence, and there's a better approach to dealing with strengthening your skin. "Stick to a gentle cleanser, a hydrating moisturizer, and a mineral sunscreen," Dr. Berry suggests. What is millennial green and why is it so cringe?Maybe it's my inner mean girl, but I can't get enough of members of Generations Z noticing lame details about millennial culture and savagely roasting them for it. First it was being overly into Harry Potter, then eating at millennial burger joints, and now it's "millennial green." Sometimes called "sage" or "forest green," Millennial green is an evolution of the "sad beige" aesthetic from a few years ago. It hovers around here on the Pantone scale: Credit: Pantone Once you notice it, you notice it everywhere—just as evolution eventually leads to crabs, all decorating eventually leads to millennial green. I love this trend because millennials are still young enough to care what kids think of their decorating choices, and they're posting funny/poignant videos about discovering that they're not cool: Wait, I just realized that Lifehacker's color is kind of a millennial green. We're not super cringe, are we? Oh my god. I'm going to rethink my life now. Gen Z and cash bars at weddingsOK, I'm back. Our website may be millennial green, but at least Lifehacker understands the importance of free booze at weddings. With June marriage season approaching, many young people are defending the practice of charging their guests for drinks at their weddings. This is against the order of nature and should not be allowed. Check out the discussion in this X comment section: This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. On the other side of the debate are Gen Z members calling people "alcoholics" for expecting free drinks. Seriously, people should be able to have whatever kind of wedding they'd like, but this debate highlights another cultural divide between Gen Z and We Who Have Come Before: Youngsters aren't drinking as much as previous generations, proving that the real generation gap isn’t about napkin colors; it’s whether you think vodka should come with a price tag. Viral video of the week: I Hid in Viral YouTube Videos and Nobody Noticed… This weeks' viral video is about viral videos. So meta. YouTuber Airrack has made a name for himself with challenge and prank videos, often involving sneaking into and hiding in unlikely places, like the Superbowl or Disneyland. This week, he decided to sneak into other YouTubers' videos. The idea is that Airrack would disguise himself and appear in the background of videos from online celebrities like cooking YouTuber Nick Digiovanni, fitness influencer Jesse James West, filmmaker Darman, gadget-maker Mark Rober, and car destroyer Whistlin' Diesel. If the commenters spot him, they get a point. If they don't, Airrack does. I won't spoil the ending, but Airrack has promised that if he loses, he'll do whatever the most upvoted comment says. That comment is "Legally change your name to diddy," which really raises the stakes. Whether the entire project is a delightful sitcom-crossover-style experiment or an annoying influencer stunt depends on your point of view, but the kids, as they say, love it. View the full article

PPC helps brands expand into new markets, but real success depends on everything around it, from measurement and localization to trust, cultural differences, and more. The post Breaking Into New Markets With PPC: Key Considerations appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Advisers who work on acquisition deals emphasize the importance of being open and transparent with employees about potential changes and differences in a new workplace. View the full article

Most marketers know the abbreviation ABC – “always be closing.” In SEO, there’s an even more important one – ABT, or “always be testing.” The more you test your theories about what works for your users, the more you’ll learn new strategies to optimize and improve your site. And testing is always valuable, even if your tests aren’t always winners (and they definitely won’t all end up the way you predict). One of the most interesting tests I’ve ever run was actually a failure. Our testing team developed some new CTA button copy, backed by user testing and keyword research, that we hypothesized would improve conversion rate. After testing our new button copy, our results showed that: The original version, the control, was actually the winner, and by a huge margin. The test pages’ conversion rate underperformed the control by about 40%. That failed test taught us that keeping our default CTA text was the best option, so we rolled back the tests to our original copy. But to put it another way, we could have lost 40% of our revenue if we hadn’t stopped to test it first. We learned that button copy can be one of the biggest factors impacting conversion rate, compared to past tests around CTA color, design, and headers. It was a good lesson in the value of testing hypotheses, measuring results, and sharing learnings. Lay the groundwork: How to test SEO the right way Before you start testing, set up a testing process that will make it easy to measure and define success or failure. Establish your hypothesis: What are you expecting to happen with each test and why? Define key metrics: Which stats do you think will be impacted the most? Can you accurately measure all of those numbers? Choose appropriate content: Which pages are good candidates based on those metrics? Set the time frame: How much time do you need to run the test to reach a high degree of confidence or statistical significance? Plan ahead: If the test works, what will you do next? What happens if you need to roll back your test? For example, if your theory is that too-similar pages are cannibalizing keyword rankings and that merging them will improve rank, start by collecting baseline data on the keywords, rank, and traffic for both pages. After merging content and setting up your 301 redirect from one page to the other, you might monitor the page for a few weeks to see if the page’s traffic and rank have improved above your baseline. 1. Learn from pages that are already performing well If you’re struggling to come up with new test theories, start with what you know already works. Find your pages that are already driving traffic, engagement, and conversions, then create theories about why they’re working. Use Google Analytics, Search Console, and other SEO tools to find your top-performing pages. You can also look for specific pages that are outperforming similar ones based on intent, topic, or relevance. Compare the pages side by side to identify what’s working about your star performer. Now, take those elements and turn them into tests to improve similar pages. Consider the most important SEO factors like: Page layout. Content structure. Headers. Readability. UX. Keyword optimization. Visuals. Links. CTAs. For example, you might find one of your key landing pages has a higher conversion rate than ones with a similar intent. You might decide to test the specific CTA language and placement from that page on similar ones. 2. Get ideas from competitive analysis Look at what your competitors are doing well and where they’re dropping the ball. This will help you find easy opportunities to beat your competitors’ strategies. Start by auditing competitors’ top pages by traffic and rank, then comparing them with your similar pages. Consider elements like: Content depth. User experience. Expertise. Schema. Internal linking. Page speed. Mobile experience. Information quality. Keyword optimization. Multimedia and visuals. Rank your test ideas based on the biggest impact opportunities. For example, if your competitors are all optimizing for video, how much estimated traffic are they getting from video SERPs? Does that mean users expect that info in video format? Even if you decide to test into videos, that doesn’t mean you need to copy your competitors’ video format exactly. Consider ways you could make your video stand out with its format, schema, content, style, etc. Even more importantly, think about whether there are things none of your competitors are doing well or at all. Could you build a better calculator? Or test a unique CTA that lets users customize their options? Or speak to a niche set of users your competitors aren’t targeting at all? 3. Add interactive features to encourage and track engagement Embedding interactive elements on your site can improve time on site, engagement rate, and bounce rate, which can also indirectly impact rank. Some examples of interactive features could include: Survey. Quiz. Calculator. Poll. Map. Dropdown. Video. Infographics. Animations. Sliders. Add tracking to anything you add or build so you can measure how often users interact with or click each element. Even a basic heatmap tool should be able to provide some rough stats on interaction rates. Then, use this data to continue to test optimal variations of each element. Depending on how your website is built, you may already have features like this that you can test on your site in new ways. If not, consider how you can test features before investing time in fully building them out, like with user testing or A/B testing. For example, a very simple way to test whether you should invest time in creating a video on a page could be to add a clickable image of a fake video screenshot with a play button. You can measure how many users click it to estimate the potential interest in actually creating a video. Optimize visual elements for search by including descriptive alt text, structured data, and fast-loading formats. Also, make sure nothing you add hurts page speed or Core Web Vitals. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. 5. Run regular CTA tests across the site Your CTAs (calls to action) are what get users to take the next step in their search journey. Spend time on CRO (conversion rate optimization) by continuously testing and building different types of CTAs on your site. Think about all the actions your users might want to take on each page and encourage them to move forward with their decision by staying on your site. Who: Customize copy for the specific users coming to each page as much as you can. What: Use the right type or format of CTA for the right intent and impact. An obtrusive CTA that looks too much like an ad could cause users to leave your site, while a CTA that’s buried or not easy to understand could have the same effect. Where: Consider all the places a user might expect CTAs, such as headers, footers, sidebars, in content, etc. Also consider how you’re drawing users’ focus to each element. When: Encourage users to take action only after the user has gotten the main answer to their question. Consider placement of secondary CTAs as users get into the details or might think of other questions. Why: The copy in and around the CTA should show users how taking this action will get them to what they need. 6. Focus your testing on your top content If you’re just starting out with SEO testing, it’s a good idea to prioritize your time wisely. Focus your first tests on the high-impact content: Top traffic/engagement pages. Top of page content. The more views or clicks, the quicker the results. Just don’t test on any high-risk pages until you’re confident in your results first (meaning don’t run brand new tests on your top revenue-driving pages). Look at page heatmaps and you’ll probably find most of your users don’t get very far down most pages. The cutoff point is often much higher than you’d expect: maybe the 1st or 2nd main sections of the page, or ⅓ of the way through the page. That’s why testing the above-the-fold experience will have the biggest impact on metrics like conversion rate, bounce, and time on page. You can use heatmap data to find which features or sections users spend more time viewing or engaging with, then optimize based on your findings. You might also find users are jumping down to specific sections of the page to find what they want, which can give you insights about what content to lead with. Use this to your advantage, too. If you want to add a new feature to the site and see how it performs, add it to the top of the most relevant page that gets the most traffic. That will give you more click data to work with to measure the success of the new feature. This applies to on-page testing only. For example, if you want to test adding star rating schema to improve SERP CTR, you can add the schema but show the stars on the page in whatever format or location you like. If you want to add an FAQ to a page to try to rank in a PAA, you can put the FAQ content anywhere on the page, and it can still get pulled into SERP features. 7. Optimize content for user intent One of the simplest SEO tests involves optimizing your content for intent. Aligning your page’s content hierarchy with user intent means users get the right info at the right stage in their journey. Order: Users like getting answers to their questions as quickly and efficiently as possible. Structure: Users prefer a well-ordered page that makes it clear what the page is about. Headers: Users want to scan headlines and bold content to hunt for the info they need. Format: Users tend to prefer lists and graphics that are easy to understand over long prose. Language: Users need to understand the words and concepts you’re describing without much prior knowledge. Authoritative: Users want a solution to their problems that makes them feel confident about their decision. For example, if users are searching for “best RPGs on Switch,” they’re probably expecting to see a page with a list or table comparison of games, plus more details on why each game is the best. But for someone landing on a page about “best RPGs on Switch for 12-year-olds,” they might be shopping for a gift. Including info or filtering with the maturity rating and price of each game may be more important to feature than details about the game’s plot or art style. A good exercise to get started Pick a page with a poor bounce rate. Write down the target keyword and headline, then draft what you think would be a good outline for the page. Look at the actual headline order and copy, and see how well they match your outline. You can also try giving the page’s current section outline to someone on your team who has never read it before and asking them to rank each section in the order they’d expect for that topic. Get started with your own ABT method Start with a clear testing process, then run smart, focused experiments on high-impact content. Roll out what works, roll back what doesn’t, and document everything. Share wins, failures, and surprises with your team because every test is a chance to get smarter. ABT isn’t just a tactic – it’s how great SEO teams stay ahead. View the full article

The narrative that women entrepreneurs receive less than 2% of venture capital (VC) funding has been widely circulated. It stems from data provided by Pitchbook, a respected research firm that delivers insights on global capital markets. However, a closer examination of their data reveals a more nuanced perspective. Pitchbook only studies investments funded by VC firms, which is a big part of the market but does not include the very substantial investments made by angel investors. Significant progress has been made in these early stages of the venture market. Twenty years ago, a mere 3% of angel-funded startups were led by women. Fast-forward to today, and women now account for well over 30% of angel-funded companies. Researching and monitoring these shifts have been a critical part of our own investing journey as the co-CEOs of Golden Seeds, an organization that invests exclusively in early-stage women-led U.S. companies. Back in 2004, when Golden Seeds was founded, there was a data void. Insights on women entrepreneurs and women’s leadership were rarely collected because they simply weren’t considered important. Thankfully there is now more research into these topics. Pitchbook has been a leader in this effort, particularly as it relates to later-stage venture capital funding. But in the process of deciphering the data around female founders, a misleading narrative has inadvertently been created. Understanding the methodology behind these—and any venture—statistics is crucial to appreciating the strides made by women in the startup ecosystem. Here are the two biggest misrepresentations worth clarifying about women entrepreneurs and their ability to secure capital. Misinterpretation #1: Women get less than 2% of capital Countless articles, books, and panels have cited that only 2% of VC funding goes to women entrepreneurs. However, this interpretation is incorrect because Pitchbook collects data only on company founders, which excludes women in executive leadership roles or those who might move into executive roles and hold substantial equity. These women are not included in these calculations but they play important roles in the success of their companies. Furthermore, when including funding received by gender-diverse founding teams, the numbers reveal a more encouraging trend. In 2024, companies founded by at least one woman secured 23% of total VC capital, a considerable increase from just 9% in 2008. Additionally, the percentage of deals VCs invest in that include at least one female founder has more than doubled in the same time frame, from 12.2% to 25.4%. That number may in fact be even higher when you consider that this data excludes companies that have non-founder women in key roles who hold substantial equity. The growing presence of gender-diverse teams signals a positive shift in the funding landscape, as startup investors increasingly recognize the benefits of diverse leadership in driving business success. It also more accurately reflects the full universe of startups seeking capital today. Of course, the reality remains that 75–80% of VC funding goes to companies with all-male founding teams (although we do not have information on the gender diversity of the management teams of these companies at the time of funding). More work is needed to get the venture industry closer to realizing gender parity. And it’s critical that we analyze the current data beyond just the single point of the initial founders. Misinterpretation #2: Female founders need a male cofounder to successfully raise VC capital One notable trend in the VC space is the increased success of mixed-gender founding teams in securing investment. While some may interpret this as a disadvantage for all-female teams, this conclusion is misleading. Founding teams form in many different ways, and most investors prioritize skill, determination, and the strength of the business over gender composition. Research consistently highlights the advantages of diverse teams, including broader skill sets, varied perspectives, and enhanced problem-solving capabilities. These benefits may make mixed-gender teams attractive to investors seeking to maximize their returns. And in our experience, founding teams are increasingly more likely to include both women and men. Systemic biases, however, still persist within the VC industry. Historically, VCs have favored investing in industries such as software and AI—sectors where women have been underrepresented. Additionally, many investors prefer to back serial entrepreneurs with prior successes, a criterion that disproportionately benefits male founders due to historical inequalities in startup funding. Addressing these biases is essential to ensuring that innovative ideas from women and underrepresented founders receive the recognition and investment they deserve—and that the progress made at the earliest stages of the market continues into later stages. Women are doing well raising capital from angel investors. They are receiving funding at a comparable yield to other entrepreneurs. (The yield is the rate at which companies seeking funding receive funding.) This trend has been growing for a long time now, as more women are actively pitching their businesses to angel investors. Forty-six percent of all companies seeking funding in 2023 were women-owned, up from 5% in 2004. In addition the growth of women angels, now over 40% of angel investors in the country, would seem to have played a significant role in increasing the share of funding. It’s worth noting that the pace of VCs funding women-led companies has also been steadily improving, as described above, albeit slower than the progress in the angel market. And remember, VCs aren’t the only path to later-stage capital. Many entrepreneurs, both women and men, successfully seek subsequent funding from family offices, corporate ventures, and other high-net-worth individuals. Embracing a more empowered narrative Transforming an industry is challenging and oftentimes frustratingly slow. For 20 years, we’ve tracked the trends, educated investors, and rallied the support, both financial and otherwise, that women entrepreneurs need to grow their businesses. The world is recognizing the contributions and value of women-led companies and that progress shows up in the numbers when you look closely. But progress is a continuum, and the work isn’t finished. Encouraging greater diversity among investors, expanding funding opportunities in traditionally male-dominated industries, and addressing biases in investment decision-making will be crucial in leveling the playing field. Moreover, continued advocacy and accurate representation of data are essential in shaping mindsets and initiatives that support women-led businesses. Perpetuating a narrative that overlooks the resilience and ingenuity of women entrepreneurs over the past 20 years discredits the progress we’ve made and subtly signals defeat. What’s needed is a nuanced understanding of the ecosystem so that a clearer picture of the barriers, progress, and opportunities of women-led companies is continually embraced and acted upon. View the full article

Google may be testing replacing local pack at the top of the Google Search results for "near me" related queries with an AI Overview. So instead of showing a map and the three or so local listings, Google is showing an AI Overview with some local information.View the full article

For a while, the comforting narrative went like this: AI won’t take your job. But someone using AI will. So, all you had to do was to use AI, and even if you lost your job you could take someone else’s? The idea that you only needed to worry about AI secondhand—via another human—is in fact somewhat naive. AI is coming for your job directly. Not with fanfare or grand announcements, but through silent, pervasive creep: software agents booking meetings, writing reports, sending personalized emails, making decisions. There are even tools to send your digital clone to videoconference meetings, without people even noticing it’s not the real you—yes, an AI deepfake of your professional self capable of intervening exactly as you would, if not more cleverly. Soon, fully autonomous agents will do entire workflows without human hand-holding. So, if you are an ambitious knowledge worker the question is no longer whether AI will automate aspects of your job. It’s whether you’ll have the initiative and creativity to out-evolve the automation. The more you use AI, the more vulnerable you become Here’s the paradox you need to internalize: the more you leverage AI to become hyperproductive, the more you expose yourself to being replaced by it. It’s no different from making your memory or spatial awareness redundant by relying too much on Google Maps or Waze, or abandoning any hopes of memorizing anything because you can always reach for your smartphone. In an age where AI can handle the bulk of our cognitive labor, we risk intellectual atrophy. When Scott Galloway called AI “corporate Ozempic” he was onto something: a tool that suppresses the need to think, even as it sharpens our output. Our ancestors didn’t need gyms or Pilates classes to stay fit; survival took care of that. But we might soon require the cognitive equivalent—structured, even artificial, forms of mental exertion—just to keep our brains from becoming intellectually obese. Efficiency is a trap. If your value to an organization is framed entirely in how quickly and predictably you can produce outputs, congratulations—you’ve just turned yourself into a template. And templates are easy to automate. Does this mean you shouldn’t use AI? Absolutely not. It means you have to reinvest your newfound time intelligently. Most organizations haven’t yet figured out what to do with the massive time savings AI is generating—largely because managers, bless their quarterly obsessed hearts, lack the imagination to redesign jobs beyond output metrics. A recent survey by Deloitte found that while 94% of executives believe AI will dramatically shift work models, only 17% have a clear plan for what that shift actually looks like. Which brings us to the golden opportunity: you don’t need to wait for your manager to reimagine your job. You can start now. Indeed, here are 10 strategies to de-risk being automated by AI: 10 Ways to Avoid Being Automated by AI Reinvest time saved by AI into higher-value, human-centric tasks. Use automation to eliminate drudgery, but spend that freed-up time deepening client relationships, mentoring colleagues, or solving problems that require empathy or judgment. Bridge communication gaps. Act as the translator between technical and nontechnical teams. AI still struggles with nuance, humor, and reading the emotional temperature of a room. Combine skills in unique and strategic ways. Be a generalist with spikes—someone who blends multiple competencies across fields, forming a professional fingerprint that’s hard to replicate. Make yourself unpredictable. Routine and predictability are blueprints for automation. Engineer variability into your tasks. Experiment. Cross disciplines. Add complexity that AI can’t model easily. Strengthen emotional intelligence. Cultivate empathy, persuasion, adaptability, and the ability to resolve conflicts—core human capabilities that are still well outside AI’s reach. Own niche domain knowledge. Carve out expertise in verticals where context and nuance matter—areas where even the best AI stumbles due to lack of real-world grounding. Invest in your personal brand. Write, speak, and share your thinking. Visibility creates optionality. People hire (and retain) people they know, not templates they can replace. Master AI tools in your domain. Don’t compete with AI—promote it. Be the go-to person for AI literacy in your field. People who understand the tools are less likely to be replaced by them. Be the human-in-the-loop. AI often needs human oversight—editing, refining, validating. These judgment calls are increasingly valuable. Stay curious and adaptable. Treat this era not as a tech shift but a cognitive revolution. Your ability to unlearn and relearn will be more important than any static skill set. Evolve faster than your environment You can’t sit this out. You can’t wait and see. The dodo bird strategy—stay passive, hope predators ignore you—didn’t work out great for the dodo. Nor will it for the knowledge worker who thinks “AI-proofing” means hiding behind corporate inertia. You need to evolve faster than your environment. That means embracing AI as a tool, even as you actively cultivate the parts of yourself AI can’t touch. Learn to become a less predictable, more creative version of yourself or be ready to face automation. The choice, for now, is still yours. So, where does that leave you? Somewhere between irreplaceable and obsolete, depending on what you choose to do next. View the full article

Google is testing a new label or green text on its shopping ads to tell you when the price of that item is low. The label says "Lowest in 30 days," which says the price is the lowest it has been in the past month.View the full article