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Water scarcity is often viewed as an issue for the arid American West, but the U.S. Northeast’s experience in 2024 shows how severe droughts can occur in just about any part of the country. Cities in the Northeast experienced record-breaking drought conditions in the second half of 2024 after a hot, dry summer in many areas. Wildfires broke out in several states that rarely see them. By December, much of the region was experiencing moderate to severe drought. Residents in New York City and Boston were asked to reduce their water use, while Philadelphia faced risk to its water supply due to saltwater coming up the Delaware River. Before the drought, many people in the region weren’t prepared for water shortages or even paying much attention to their water use. As global temperatures rise, cities throughout the U.S. are more likely to experience hotter, drier conditions like this. Those conditions increase evaporation, drying out vegetation and soil and lowering groundwater tables. The Northeast drought was easing in much of the region in early 2025, but communities across the U.S. should take note of what happened. They can learn from the experiences of cities that have had to confront major water supply crises – such as Cape Town, South Africa; São Paulo, Brazil; Melbourne, Australia; Las Vegas; and New Orleans – and start planning now to avoid the worst impacts of future droughts. Lessons from cities that have seen the worst Our new analysis of these five cities’ experiences provides lessons on how to avoid a water supply crisis or minimize the effects through proactive policies and planning. Many cities have had to confront major water supply crises in recent years. Perhaps the most well-known example is Cape Town’s “Day Zero.” After three years of persistent drought in the region, Cape Town officials in fall 2017 began a countdown to Day Zero—the point at which water supplies would likely run so low that water would be turned off in neighborhoods and residents would need to fetch a daily allocation of water at public distribution points. Initially it was forecast to occur in April 2018. Water rates were raised, and some households installed flow restrictors, which would automatically limit the amount of water that could be used. Public awareness and conservation efforts cut water consumption in half, allowing the city to push back its estimate for when Day Zero would arrive. And when the rains finally came in summer 2018, Day Zero was canceled. A second example is São Paulo, which similarly experienced a severe drought between 2013 and 2015. The city’s reservoirs were reduced to just 5% of their capacity, and the water utility reduced the pressure in the water system to limit water use by residents. Water pricing adjustments were used to penalize high water users and reward water conservation, and a citywide campaign sought to increase awareness and encourage conservation. As in Cape Town, the crisis ended with heavy rains in 2016. Significant investments have since been made in upgrading the city’s water distribution infrastructure, preventing leaks, and bringing water to the city from other river basins. Planning ahead can reduce the harm The experiences of Cape Town and São Paulo—and the other cities in our study—show how water supply crises can affect communities. When major changes are made to reduce water consumption, they can affect people’s daily lives and pocketbooks. Rapidly designed conservation efforts can have harmful effects on poor and vulnerable communities that may have fewer alternatives in the event of restrictions or shutoffs or lack the ability to pay higher prices for water, forcing tough choices for households between water and other necessities. Planning ahead allows for more thoughtful policy design. For example, Las Vegas has been grappling with drought conditions for the past two decades. During that time, the region implemented water-conservation policies that focus on incentivizing and even requiring reduced water consumption. Since 2023, the Las Vegas Valley Water District has implemented water rates that encourage conservation and can vary with the availability of water supplies during droughts. In its first year alone, the policy saved 3 billion gallons of water and generated $31 million in fees that can be used by programs to detect and repair leaks, among other conservation efforts. A state law now requires businesses and homeowner associations in the Las Vegas Valley to remove their decorative grass by the end of 2026. Since 2002, per capita water use in Las Vegas has dropped by an impressive 58%. Solutions and strategies for the future Most of the cities we studied incorporated a variety of approaches to building water security and drought-proofing their community—from publishing real-time dashboards showing water use and availability in Cape Town to investing in desalination in Melbourne. But we found the most important changes came from community members committing to and supporting efforts to conserve water and invest in water security, such as reducing lawn watering. There are also longer-term actions that can help drought-proof a community, such as fixing or replacing water- and energy-intensive fixtures and structures. This includes upgrading home appliances, such as showers, dishwashers and toilets, to be more water efficient and investing in native and drought-tolerant landscaping. Prioritizing green infrastructure, such as retention ponds and bioswales, that help absorb rain when it does fall and investing in water recycling can also diversify water supplies. Taking these steps now, ahead of the next drought, can prepare cities and lessen the pain. Sara Hughes is an adjunct professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan. Michael Wilson is a professor of policy analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. View the full article

A new browser from the Norwegian company Opera just launched today, and it wants you to stop stressing out so much. The free browser, called Opera Air, is billed as the first-ever “mindful browser.” While existing mindfulness apps like Calm and Headspace can help you take a break to reduce feelings of stress, Opera Air proposes a product that integrates mindfulness directly into working online. The browser comes with a sleek, minimal UI and built-in mindfulness tools—like breathing exercises and binaural beats—so users can code, type, or browse the web and get a brain boost simultaneously. Nikita Walia is a brand strategist at U.N.N.A.M.E.D, the creative partners behind Opera Air. According to Walia, who led the strategy behind the new browser’s launch campaign, the team landed on the key insight that most people don’t actually want to disconnect from technology—instead, they want “room to think clearly” in a busy digital world. “We noticed that there was a pretty binary relationship to technology as it’s presented by people’s opinions online,” Walia says. “Either you want to throw your phone in the ocean and disappear, or you’re super, super addicted to technology. We thought Opera could present a third way, where technology can be really supportive to your overall goals and your wellbeing.” For the sizable portion of the workforce that relies on computers for their livelihoods, chucking your Macbook into the sea isn’t exactly the solution to a better workday experience. As a remote journalist myself, ditching technology isn’t a sustainable solution, and even tried-and-true mindfulness practices like meditation can feel difficult to incorporate into a busy schedule. So, I gave Opera Air a try to see if it’s worth abandoning Google Chrome once and for all. [Image: Opera] A browser for minimalists The first thing you’ll notice when you open Opera Air is that there aren’t many bells and whistles—and that’s by design. According to Tomasz Stawarz, Opera Air’s senior director of product, Opera Air is a purposefully pared-down version of Opera’s other browser options, a choice that’s intended to combat the “chaotic” and “overwhelming” nature of the web. The browser’s default settings include one simple Google search bar, an uplifting quote at the bottom of the screen, and a sidebar with five preloaded icons, including Opera’s AI, Aria, and the browser’s two mindfulness tools. This sidebar can be updated to include any combination of apps, but Stawarz suggests that users get a feel for their most-used programs before updating it to keep the screen decluttered. [Image: Opera] Users can choose from a set of custom-designed CGI wallpapers by U.N.N.A.M.E.D and the creative studio Future Romance as their backdrop (I chose a green mountainscape). Opera Air’s features and launch campaign both emphasize a visual bubble metaphor, which pulsates and bounces to mimic the tempo of relaxed breathing. And all of the browser’s UI elements, including search bars, tabs, and icons, are rendered in what Stawarz calls a “frosted glass” effect, which is essentially a minimal, semi-transparent look. “We’ve kept distractions to a minimum by limiting the color palette and embracing clean, minimalistic design,” Stawarz says. [Image: Opera] As a loyal Chrome user, I found Opera Air quite easy to navigate. My main qualm with the browser itself is that, once you’ve racked up enough tabs, it becomes difficult to select one without inadvertently clicking the “X” and exiting out of it—a minor annoyance that got pretty frustrating after about the tenth time it happened. Still, I appreciated the simplicity of the default settings and the browser’s streamlined aesthetics. [Image: Opera] Putting Opera Air to the test The true test of Opera Air is in its two mindfulness features, called “Boosts” and “Take a Break.” I decided to give these tools a trial by fire by testing them out for the first time during a workday with several quick turn-around deadlines. The first feature, “Boosts,” uses something called binaural beats to help users achieve sensations ranging from “Energized Focus” to “Deep Relaxation.” Binaural beats are an auditory technique wherein two slightly different frequencies are played in each ear, causing the brain to generate its own perceived third frequency. According to a press release from Opera, “This is known to influence brainwave activity, helping to promote relaxation, focus, or a meditative state”—although, it should be noted that scientists are still debating exactly how effective binaural beats actually are, and under what conditions. [Image: Opera] Currently, Opera Air comes with 19 Boosts, each of which is composed of three elements: background music, ambient noise (like bird sounds or waves), and binaural frequencies. The Boosts have been created by the Opera Air team with different effects in mind. “Focused Calm,” for example, includes a slower music track and comes with more prominent binaural beats. “Energized Focus,” on the other hand, features a more upbeat soundtrack and less noticeable beats. Users can browse the Boosts’ descriptions to select one that’s right for their current task, and even customize them by adjusting the volumes of the three components of the beats. Both Boosts and “Take a Break” are easily accessible as icons in the browser’s sidebar, so it’s pretty simple to change your Boost or tweak its volume from whatever tab you’re working in. [Image: Opera] I frequently use binaural beats to get into a “flow state” while writing, so, predictably, I found myself better able to focus on my work while a Boost was playing. Still, I’m not entirely sold on the utility of this tool, considering that thousands of similar compositions are just a few clicks away on YouTube. Opera Air’s second mindfulness feature, “Take a Break,” is a bit more involved. This tool takes users to a variety of exercises, including guided breathing sessions, meditation, neck exercises, and a full-body scan, all designed to encourage a moment of relaxation. Each of the four categories includes several different session options, ranging from a three-minute “destress” breathing session to a 15-minute full body scan. During my workday trial, I was pleasantly surprised by a four-minute neck exercise, which gave me some much-need tension release after a few hours spent hunched over my laptop (though the program relies on tracking your facial movements, which I noticed could be somewhat finicky, especially for those with longer hair). Similarly, I observed a noticeable difference in my stress levels before and after a five-minute “box breathing” exercise. All of the sessions include voiceovers from a male or female narrator—you can toggle between “Alex” or “Emma”—which made it easy to close my eyes and really commit to slowing down for a moment. Going into this test, I was concerned that I might be irritated by the browser’s reminders to use “Take a Break,” but I actually found myself wishing it would badger me more. Opera Air lets you decide whether you want to be reminded to do your activities, and you can determine the frequency of reminders, ranging from every 45 to 180 minutes. When your time is up, the “Take a Break” icon on the browser sidebar will begin subtly flashing. Despite setting my reminder frequency to 45 minutes, I found that I often missed the flashing cue, and then ultimately decided to just skip the exercise and do it next time. Granted, there’s only so much a browser can do to convince us to actually practice self-care, but I hope the next iteration of Opera Air will include an option for more aggressive notification. Do I think Opera Air is the answer to my work-induced stress? No. But could it help make staring at my screen for hours more manageable? Definitely. View the full article

My mom used to always say, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” She was a very busy person who seemed to have endless energy and a knack for outperforming others in her real estate firm. While the origin of the quote isn’t clear, the idea is that someone who juggles several projects effectively probably has systems in place for prioritization and efficiency. This makes sense. But there is a point when said “busy person” hits overload. Tossing them one more ball could cause the person to drop all of them. About two-thirds of workers feel empowered to decline extra work, according to a recent report from résumé builder Resume Now, yet 59% feel frequent burnout. Gen Z is the hardest hit, reporting the highest levels of stress as well as difficulty managing their workloads. A recent study from the résumé-building service LiveCareer found that 77% of employees are asked to take on extra work each week, 56% reluctantly agree due to pressure from managers or leadership, and 8% admit they don’t even know how to say no. Why Is Extra Work Hard to Decline? Extra work can be hard to define, which is why it’s challenging to say no, according to Keith Spencer, Resume Now’s career expert. “It’s essentially work that is outside the normal scope of your role,” he says. “Some people are perfectly okay with taking on extra work, because it can allow you to try new things and learn new skills and work with different people. Gaining that new experience can be beneficial.” People often say yes because they’ve developed a pattern of wanting to help others, says Jenn Gunsaullus, a sociologist and relationship expert. “Many folks grew up believing that their main value is in giving and giving,” she says. “There are many positive things in that, but others can take advantage of it in the workplace.” Shira Gill, author of LifeStyled: Your Guide to a More Organized & Intentional Life, agrees. “Most of us are wired as people pleasers, and we don’t want to disappoint,” she says. “We also want to represent ourselves as somebody who’s capable of doing all of the things and rising to the occasion. People sometimes confuse saying no with failure, disappointment, and not rising to the occasion. It’s typically the opposite.” Get to the Root of Your ‘Yes Reflex’ To start saying no to extra work, you need to get clear on why you’ve been saying yes. Gunsaullus suggests asking yourself a series of questions, such as, What stories am I telling myself about why I need to say yes? Who am I by saying yes? “There’s an underlying narrative that’s been trained into your brain throughout your lifetime, but it’s not necessarily factual,” Gunsaullus explains. “We need to pause and reflect on the story and where it came from, then do a little personal growth and work around those patterns.” Gunsaullus says it’s important to get clear on the emotions you have attached to this narrative. Ask yourself, “What emotions am I feeling? Am I scared? Am I anxious? Do I have shame, fear of disappointment or disappointing others?” Next, Gunsaullus suggests trying to pinpoint your physical response. A question like “Where do I feel a reaction inside of me?” shifts an abstract feeling to tangible sensations you can address. “Can you take some deep breaths? Can you pat yourself on the back for reflecting on this and bringing kindness to yourself? That’s a way of breaking the pattern in the moment by orienting to the sensations you’re feeling inside you,” Gunsaullus says. Finally, Gunsaullus says you can start to regain your personal power by determining how you want to respond differently in the future. “How can you respond in a way that you feel proud of yourself?” Gunsaullus asks. “How can you be strategic and productive for your big picture goals of workplace advancement?” Saying No Resume Now’s report found that 42% feel relieved after declining extra work, which means that 58% don’t. “[Saying no] can make people feel guilty,” says Spencer. “Maybe you really respect your manager and now they have to take it on. Or you want to be a team player, and you’re concerned about the perceptions people have of you. It comes down to finding that balance, setting some boundaries, and advocating for yourself to protect your mental well-being.” If you’re noticing the early warning signs of burnout, such as chronic fatigue or feeling irritable or detached at work, have a conversation with your manager as soon as you can. “You don’t want to sacrifice or jeopardize the quality of your work just to be able to deliver a larger quantity of work,” Spencer says. Setting clear boundaries starts with defining the most important outcomes and the amount of time, energy, and output you need to accomplish those, says Gill, who says, “Look at your time critically to assess if there is time and energy left for other smaller or less-meaningful tasks. We all have a slightly different capacity.” Gill also suggests asking your boss for help reprioritizing your workload by saying something like “My understanding was that this was the No. 1 priority. If I take on this new task or responsibility, I fear that it will stall or prevent this outcome from happening.” Gill adds, “Give the boss the onus of deciding by outlining very specifically what will happen if you take on this new task.” Work does need to get done, so Gunsaullus recommends these three considerations. “First, are these types of tasks being spread around?” she says. “Is there equality around it? Second, are you overwhelmed with your workload? Are you already having trouble keeping up with what you’re doing? And third, is there anything in what you’re being asked to do that would be beneficial to your career advancement?” She notes, “Be strategic. It’s saying, ‘I’ve done this the last three times and it’s taken me away from my workload and what I’m committed to doing here.’ Be very clear, factual, and logical.” The Risk of Not Saying No If you seem to be the go-to person for extra work, especially tasks that won’t further your career, it’s important to start to decline assignments. “Folks [who consistently say yes] are some of the most loving, giving people, but they can get taken advantage of in the workplace and become resentful,” says Gunsaullus. “Other people seem to not respect them as much, because they always say yes. They get pigeonholed as the person who always does these things.” Saying no is like building a muscle, Gunsaullus says, explaining, “It’s gaining comfort with discomfort in emotional, mental, social contexts, where we’re feeling triggered in some way and we have patterns, and then we have discomfort around trying something new. The more we train our brains and our neural networks to be able to be more comfortable with discomfort, the easier it becomes. The discomfort might never go away completely, but it’s not as overwhelming.” Gill says creating a not-to-do list and a personal mission statement can help you stay on track. Put them on a Post-it note or index card near your computer or workspace. “People often make long to-do lists, but they don’t make outcome or results lists. Instead of mindlessly doing all of these things, focus on achieving and finishing what’s important,” she says. “When we take on too much, we end up failing at everything.” View the full article

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Search today sure ain’t what it used to be. On the one hand, you’ve got the escalating sense that Google’s once-reliable results are stuck in a downward spiral. It’s a perception we’ve been seeing take shape for some time now, even before Google Search started pushing accuracy-challenged AI answers into its search engine and steering people away from first-party sources. On the other hand, you’ve got AI-powered info engines ranging from ChatGPT and Perplexity to Google’s own Gemini chatbot now browsing the web for you and offering up immediate (if occasionally also inaccurate) answers. For the first time, that’s raising pressing questions about the long-term fate of the conventional search experience—all while Google and other providers struggle to keep junky AI-generated info from clouding their results. It’s a rare moment when something that’s long felt like an unshakable part of our lives suddenly seems vulnerable, and the way we seek out info online is open to reassessment. Amid all of that, Kagi—a company with a minuscule fraction of Google’s resources—sees an opportunity to convince people to stop turning to Google for search, quit leaning on inconsistent AI answers for important information, and start seeking out a smarter way to find what they need without all the cascading compromises. Kagi’s founder insists it isn’t a “Google killer”—and, quite critically, it was never meant to be. But two arenas’ worth of early adopters see it differently, including plenty of Redditors, Hacker News commenters, and even Apple oracle John Gruber, who recently declared Kagi “the best search engine in the world.” And the more you hear about this utopian vision for what the web could be, the easier it is to understand the enthusiasm. “red pill moment” Vladimir Prelovac started sensing a shift in the online search arena as far back as 2018, long before the name ChatGPT had entered the common vernacular or most people thought Google might be in any way vulnerable to a serious search competitor. Prelovac had just sold his former company, a WordPress management platform called ManageWP, to GoDaddy and was raring for a fresh challenge. While the exact price of the acquisition was never made public, Prelovac had enough cash in his coffers to bootstrap a new startup, without any outside funding, and he knew exactly what problem he wanted to pursue. “I had my red pill moment,” Prelovac says, referring to the scene in The Matrix when Keanu Reeves’s character takes a red pill, unplugs from the simulation he’s been living in, and sees the world as it actually exists for the first time. “I realized Google is basically insulting my intelligence, and the [Google Search] product wasn’t being built for me. It was pretty eye-opening.” (Kagi did eventually raise a small round of $670,000 in 2023 and then a second round of $1.9 million in 2024.) As Prelovac recounts the revelation, he increasingly saw signs that Google’s actual customers were the businesses paying to advertise on its search result pages—not the people looking to those same pages for information. He grew disillusioned with what he describes as a deteriorating experience and a lack of exceptional alternatives. So he decided to do something about it. “I thought it was ridiculous that we didn’t have a product that’s actually serving the users, not the advertisers,” he says. “I quickly realized the only way to [fix that] is to create a paid subscription-based service, because that’s the only business model that would align incentives.” Prelovac set out to prove his theory. Within about a year, he had an early prototype of a new service called Kagi—a Japanese word that rhymes with “froggy” and means key, suggesting the way Prelovac hoped to unlock a friendlier, more user-centric web model. Now, seven years later, Kagi boasts 38,000 paying subscribers, a figure that continues to grow, with rates running from $5 to $25 per month. (Most people should probably pick the middle-of-the-road $10 “Professional” plan, allows unlimited searches and access to some of the simpler AI features.) Those figures pale in comparison to the throngs of people who visit Google each day and the billions of dollars Google makes from its search product, of course. But in Prelovac’s mind, that’s precisely the point—and the key to Kagi’s future. Unlocking a smarter search journey The best way to describe Kagi is as a less cluttered, more capable, and more customizable version of what we’re all used to seeing from Google Search—only without the ads, the shopping results, and other assorted distractions. Kagi sports a refreshingly clutter-free and customizable interface. You also won’t find artificial intelligence “answers” forced in your face above regular web results, though you can get to Kagi’s own version of the chatbot concept if you like. (More on that and how it differs from the typical AI chatbot experience in a moment.) Primarily, Kagi is about taking you to the first-party web info related to whatever you’re seeking and making that experience as effective, premium-feeling, and pleasant as possible. It really is a refreshing change, too, once you get past the inevitable initial adjustment and the occasional muscle-memory-jarring moment—one that opens your eyes to the type of web experience that almost feels more aspirational than realistic in this day and age. And yet, here it is. “If the user is paying you as a search product company, then you’re incentivized to make search better and better,” Prelovac reasons. “Otherwise, they walk away with their wallet.” To that end, in addition to the lack of ads and sponsored elements within its results, Kagi empowers you to do things like block specific websites from your results, increase the weight of sites you like in results, and customize nearly everything about the interface—ranging from which widgets and types of results show up to all sorts of settings around the site’s appearance and behavior. Kagi continuously works to remind you that it’s your search experience, and you should be in control. It’s a lovely upgrade from the effort-requiring work-arounds we’ve all grown accustomed to pursuing for any manner of meaningful customization or unreliable-AI-answer avoiding in the standard search arena, and it’s something you really resent losing when you go back to Google or any other more conventional search service. You can customize practically everything about the way Kagi looks and functions. Kagi even allows you to create your own custom “lenses,” which are search filters that show you results only from specific sets of websites, making it easy to limit a search to something like academic sites, forums, or your own personal domains on demand and with virtually no ongoing effort. Kagi’s lenses are an interesting way to limit certain searches to specific sorts of sites. And all of that is still just scratching the surface of how Kagi works to reshape search, both inside and out. A revamped window to the web Even if you don’t customize a thing or exert much energy thinking about the interface, you’ll notice some significant differences in what Kagi’s like to use compared to the status quo. The service combines its custom web index with search results from “almost every other search engine in the world,” as Prelovac describes it—which, rather ironically, suggests you’re actually seeing at least some Google results within Kagi. But Kagi puts all of that data through its own special blender before serving it up to you—and, as you’d imagine, it includes assurances that your search data will never be saved or used for any manner of advertising. The aim is to create the perfect mix of high-quality results that actually answer what you’re after without making you want to gouge your eyes out. “We push down sites that have a lot of ads and trackers, because that usually correlates with low-quality content, and we push up results that have very little ads or no ads and tracking on them, which usually correlates with high-quality content and somebody writing because it’s their passion,” Prelovac says. Kagi’s index also brings in an added emphasis on what Prelovac calls the “noncommercial” or “small” web—personal blogs, discussions, and other off-the-beaten-path sites that tend to get buried in results from Google as well as the newer breed of large language model chatbots. This atypical approach is apparent with practically every search you perform within Kagi. If I search for “best usb-c to 3.5mm adapter,” for instance, Google gives me a screen that’s heavy on ads and other sales-oriented offerings. Kagi, in contrast, focuses on Reddit threads and recommendations from lots of lesser-known sites that would never show up in a standard search setup. Google’s results, left, compared to Kagi’s If I enter a more specific, black-and-white question—like “Is the Galaxy S25 worth buying?”—Google gives me a bunch of YouTube videos followed by related queries, a block of news stories, and then a single Reddit thread and some more YouTube videos. Kagi serves up a simple summary of different opinions, with clear citations alongside each point, followed by articles at a variety of sites both big and small that seek to answer the inquiry. Kagi also offers a one-click “Quick Answer” option to get a summary of all the top results for any inquiry on the spot. Plus, within each individual result, it provides a handy “Summarize page” command that shows you the high points of any page’s contents right there, no extra clicks or browser tabs required. By and large, though, Kagi really does make its AI elements easy to avoid. The options are available if you want ’em—some tucked away into the service’s $25-per-month “Ultimate” subscription. That plan gives you access to Kagi’s Gemini- and ChatGPT-like Assistant chatbot, which combines large language models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta, and other organizations together with Kagi’s own web results. The system keeps all of your data private and lets you see info from any of those sources with Kagi’s custom filtering in place, which Prelovac hopes will lead to more refined results than what you’d get directly from any of the associated chatbots. “AI is limited by what you feed into it,” Prelovac explains. “It all goes back to incentives.” The big question, then, is how many people are willing to cough up the cash to enjoy these enhancements. The search for sustainability Prelovac says Kagi is already profitable, achieving a level of success never experienced by the higher-profile Neeva, a paid search service launched by former Google executives in 2021 and shut down roughly two years later. In Prelovac’s view, the key differences between Neeva and his creation are the motivation and the metric for success. Neeva raised $77.5 million in funding, with investments from venture-capital bigwigs like Greylock and Sequoia. So despite amassing a pool of 2 million paying users—a number that dwarfs Kagi’s current base of paying members—it never managed to make enough money to be seen as sustainable. “It’s funny that for them, it’s a failure—[and] for us, it’s a success,” Prelovac says. On that note, Prelovac deliberately doesn’t think of his service as attempting to be a “Google killer,” as I alluded to earlier. In his eyes, Kagi and Google don’t share the same customers, so there’s no way they could be competing with each other directly—despite the fact that they serve similar surface-level purposes. “Google’s customers are the advertisers. Ours are the users,” he says. “The source of money for Google and source of money for us comes from totally different market segments.” ​Kagi is also working to set itself apart by developing its own WebKit-based browser, Orion, which includes a smattering of privacy-minded additions while putting the Kagi search service front and center. It’s available only for macOS and iOS at the moment, which means I wasn’t able to use it, personally, as I’m more of a Windows and Android kind of guy. But Prelovac says it’ll make its way to other platforms eventually. ​ ​Without Orion in the mix, getting other browsers to rely on Kagi for their native search functions can be a bit of an adventure. Kagi offers an extension that handles the setup for you, and if you’re using Safari, that’s the only choice you’ve got. With Chromium-based browsers and also Firefox, you can instead just make a few reasonably easy adjustments in your browser’s settings to accomplish the same feat. ​ The same applies for most mobile browsers—again with the exception of Safari, which requires the use of the Kagi extension—or you can just download the native Kagi Android and iOS apps and start your searches there. The real challenge, then, is continuing to convince people to deal with those hurdles while also paying for something they’ve so long seen as a freebie. “We are going against one of the most entrenched habits in society—that search is somehow God-given and free, almost like a right—where in reality, it’s just a service provided by one of the wealthiest tech companies in the world,” Prelovac says. One stat he finds encouraging is that once people get in the door at Kagi, they tend to stick around at unusually high numbers. All Kagi subscriptions start with a 100-search free trial, and Prelovac says about 20% of people who start a trial continue on to a paid plan from there. Even just in the few weeks that I’ve been watching the service closely, I’ve seen its self-reported stats of paying members climb by around 1,000 people—which is somewhere in the ballpark of 3% growth, at this scale. (Kagi has also grown internally, with 40 employees as of the start of 2025, up from 25 when Fast Company wrote about the company just over a year ago.) Still, convincing people to pony up $5 to $25 per month for something they’ve been trained to expect at no cost is a constant mountain to climb. “It’s easy to compete with cheap and bad [by offering] high-quality and expensive,” Prelovac says. “But there are very little analogies in the past where a company has tried to compete with free.” The real saving grace may be Kagi’s goal, which is less about stealing a significant share of Google’s users and more about simply finding enough interest to make itself sustainable long into the future. Speaking of that long-term view, Kagi’s next ambitions include releasing a stand-alone version of its Assistant AI chatbot later this year, launching more native apps across all desktop and mobile platforms after that, and eventually building up an entire integrated portfolio of cross-platform products that equip people to say so long to Big Tech in all sorts of areas beyond just search. But for now, it’s one day and one won-over user at a time. And as for the question of if and when a mass of internet citizens might join the movement and decide search is something worth paying for—for the moment, at least, that’s a question even Kagi can’t answer. Discover all sorts of off-the-beaten-path productivity treasures with my free Cool Tools newsletter—a single new inspiring discovery in your inbox every Wednesday! View the full article

Beijing announces measures as 10 per cent levy on Chinese imports comes into effectView the full article

Botox can be expensive. You know what isn’t? Bananas. A new beauty hack making the rounds online involves rubbing the inside of a banana peel all over your face for a few minutes to brighten and tighten skin. You’ve heard of chemical peels for your skin? Now it’s all about the banana peel. “This actually made my face feel so much tighter,” one TikToker said after giving the hack a go. “Me, after seeing a banana peel can help with hydration, brightening, hyperpigmentation & be preventative Botox,” wrote another over a video of them rubbing the peel on their skin. “POV: When you’re 37 years old & do banana peel scrubs instead of Botox,” a third creator posted. “Why didn’t I see this 5,000 bananas ago,” read one of the comments. Can it be that the key to glowing skin has been sitting in our fruit bowls all this time? Dermatologist Geeta Yadav posted a TikTok video sharing her thoughts on the hack: “First off, ew,” she says. And while yes, she acknowledges that bananas contain antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and antimicrobial properties, Dr. Yadav wouldn’t recommend using banana peels in place of an over-the-counter skincare product. As for being “nature’s Botox”? “There’s no topical or food supplement that is going to give you the same effect Botox can when [it’s injected],” she adds. One TikToker points to the lutein in the banana peel as the reason for its possible brightening, hydrating, and soothing properties. “It’s more like preventative Botox,” she says. Skin and aesthetics expert Nina Prisk, founder of Update Aesthetics clinics in the U.K., cautions that while bananas do contain lutein, an antioxidant that may help brighten the skin, it won’t be absorbed properly simply by rubbing a banana all over your face. “It may, in fact, result in skin irritation, especially for those with sensitive skin,” she adds. Unless you are allergic to bananas, this beauty hack is unlikely to do any harm. As for the Botox claims, “rubbing banana skins on the face is simply not comparable to something which has scientific backing and has been used for over 20 years with proven results,” Prisk says. “Although some people might experience a temporary feeling of skin tightening, this will be short-lived, and it will not offer long-lasting results like injectable aesthetic treatments can.” That doesn’t mean bananas don’t have a host of benefits when used as nature intended (i.e., eaten). Naturally rich in potassium, bananas can help keep your skin moisturized and hydrated from the inside out. So just eat the banana, compost the tossed peel, and book an appointment with a professional for any Botox needs. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. My company’s head of DEI outed me to 800 people I’m a nonbinary trans person working in sales for a multinational company. I’m out-ish at work. I’ve told my direct team I’m nonbinary, I have they/them pronouns in my email signature, and I wear a mixed wardrobe. I’ve not told anyone I’m trans directly, but I wouldn’t deny it if it came up. That said, the industry is conservative. Most colleagues assume I’m a man regardless of what I wear and everyone still get my pronouns wrong, even those who’ve asked. I mention this to say that I’m open but cautious about declaring my status at work. Our leadership has spoken up a lot about working on DEI in the last few years. Part of the plan to improve culture has been roundtables between senior leadership, the DEI team, and volunteer employees on their experiences with the company and where there have been struggles (think “improving the work environment for neurodivergent staff,” that sort of thing). I’d taken part in several of these before (as someone with ADHD) and found them a positive experience. Because of this, I didn’t think anything of it when our head of DEI asked if I would be comfortable speaking with the DEI team on my experience as a trans person in the workplace. She knew I was trans as I’d spoken to her previously about problems with our benefit system (a whole other story, but if you’re in charge of benefits, maybe don’t assume all your staff are cis and lock your healthcare options accordingly?). I assumed this invitation was more of the same and accepted. It was not more of the same. Four days later, I get an email invite to an all-staff Zoom panel for Pride Month. I’m named as one of the three speakers about “navigating changes to the industry while trans” and it explicitly outs me in the description. The Zoom panel is scheduled for the next day. The invite has gone out to all 800+ employees across the country. I immediately emailed the head of DEI, said this wasn’t what I expected and I didn’t appreciate being put on the spot this way, and pulled out of the panel. Was this a huge error on her part or just a miscommunication? I was probably at least partly to blame for not checking what exactly she was asking of me, but her original email just said “speaking with the DEI team,” not “speaking with the DEI team in front of all of your colleagues.” But it’s weighed on my mind since and I can’t help but wonder if being outed this way has impacted my career opportunities. It’s definitely made me feel less safe speaking with HR. It was absolutely a huge error on her part. This was different than what she had invited you to participate in previously, and she should have spelled out what she meant — and if the wording in your letter about how she approached you (“asked if I would be comfortable speaking with the DEI team on my experience”) is the wording she used with you, her wording wasn’t at all in sync with what the event actually was. This isn’t on you — it’s on her. I’m curious how she handled it once you pointed out what had happened. Your company sounds like they’ve tried to invest in safety and inclusion, so unless she was profoundly apologetic and has talked to you about what will change as a result, you could consider speaking to someone above her about what happened. Related: a VP wants me to out myself at work and won’t take no for an answer 2. My coworker keeps interfering with my work I am having problems with a coworker who repeatedly oversteps onto my tasks. She and I have the same role, me being three years her senior. We used to be on the same team but after a recent reorganization, she moved to another team under the same department. I have never been very fond of her working style: she is very diligent and proactive but tends to act first and ask later, causing unnecessary friction and sometimes overstepping onto other people’s work. Since she changed teams, she has been “suggesting improvements” or inserting herself in tasks that are under my scope and outside of hers. She tends to bypass me and my team — she goes straight to the client to propose her solutions although I am the person who has to implement them, and I am either not interested or have already identified and documented the same solutions. I am getting more and more upset at this because I feel that, at the very least, she needs to communicate with my team before going to the client. I have explained this to her, her manager, and my manager. She just reacts to my messages with a thumbs-up, her manager promises to work with her to improve the miscommunication, and my manager sides with me. However, the situation is still the same and I am at my wits end. Is there anything else I can do to resolve this problem? It sounds like you’ve just been messaging her about it (“she reacts to my messages with a thumbs-up”). Since that hasn’t solved the problem, it’s time to move to an in-person meeting with her about it (or Zoom, if you’re remote), ideally with your manager and her manager there, where you can lay out the pattern, why it’s a problem, and what you need her to do differently. As part of that conversation, ask why this keeps happening when you’ve asked her multiple times to stop — is something getting lost in translation? Is she getting conflicting direction from someone else? Does she think every instance is different and she needs to extrapolate “don’t do X” to a broader variety of situations? Sometimes this kind of meeting will surface that there really was some sort of misunderstanding or miscommunication. Other times, it’ll just drive home to the person that they need to take it more seriously, it’s a big deal if they don’t, and they can’t continue being cavalier about it. If that doesn’t work, you need to escalate it to both your managers each time it happens. Be the squeaky wheel if necessary — but start with a real conversation with her, not just a message. 3. We have to choose between a building with no heat or a building without equipment Where I work, we have two buildings about one mile apart from each other. I have worked out of the original building (#1) most of my time with this company. In 2020, we all transitioned to WFH. Two years ago, we went to one day in the office as a group as mandated from above. However, this entire time we were all coming into the office more often; our group has always done better than most at closing profitable projects, mainly because of our constant contact. This past spring, my group was relocated to a new area in the new building (#2). Both buildings removed our large desks and replaced them with small desks. All these desks were to be used for hot-desking and were supposed to have dual monitors with keyboards and mice at each one. The original space in building #1 did not get set up for a long time, and there are many desks without anything on them because they ran out of monitors and keyboards and are not getting more in from, what we are told. We now have a mandate from above that we must be in the office three days a week and, according to rumors, it can be grounds for termination if not followed. However, the new office area in building #2 is without heat due to a problem with the heating system and it will be for several more weeks (months?). We are in the mid-Atlantic area and it gets below 0 at times. The coldest I saw it in the office was 60 degrees one day (it was below 0 outside). 60 doesn’t sound that cold but it is if all you are doing is sitting at a computer. Our manager has said he will not enforce the mandatory three days a week, but I am worried because our big boss demanded it. Should we continue to go to our new office and freeze, go to the old office and suffer low productivity due to not having a proper computer setup, or continue to work from home and only come in as needed and risk repercussions from upper management? That’s ridiculous. OSHA doesn’t require specific temperatures, but they do recommend temperatures of 68-76° F. Your manager needs to go to his management and explain that until either (a) the heat is fixed or (b) building #1 is given enough equipment, your team can’t come in three days a week — that you’ll be happy to as soon as one of those is remedied, but until then there’s no feasible way to meet the mandate. It’s absurd to expect you to work without heat in the middle of winter or without monitors and keyboards. But your manager needs to spell that out to someone above him (and you should ask him to do that if he hasn’t yet). 4. New employee is billing more time than he works I am a project manager and oversee a team of five. One of my direct reports, “Marty,” was hired in October and has proven to be a quick learner and generally a good employee. However, there’s a recurring issue with his timekeeping. Marty has been routinely not working a full eight hours but is still billing for all eight. He typically arrives around 8:15 am, leaves at 4:30 pm, and takes an hour for lunch, effectively billing about 45 extra minutes each day. While I was deciding how best to address this, another team member, “Hamilton,” who can be a bit nosy but means well, stopped by my office to point out the discrepancy with Marty’s timesheet. I spoke to Marty, explaining that while it’s okay to work outside the standard 8-5 hours, he needs to inform me beforehand. I also asked if this was a workload issue, which he assured me it was not. I thought the conversation went well and he seemed to understand. Cue post holidays and Marty has pinged me every day this week at 4:30 pm, notifying me he is signing off, even though he continues to arrive after 8 am. Given that the job requires billing clients in 15-minute increments, transparency about hours worked is crucial. I am also concerned about potential animosity among team members who might feel that Marty is receiving special treatment. How should I handle this situation to ensure fairness and maintain team morale? It sounds like when you talked to him, you just told him to let you know if he works non-standard hours — but that’s not what the real issue is. The real issue is that he’s billing more hours than he’s working, so you need to go back to him now and clarify that. Since the message somehow got muddled the first time, be very, very clear now: “You have been working less than eight hours a day but billing for eight. We need to make sure your billing matches your hours worked exactly, because ____.” There are some workplaces that tell exempt employees to just bill a straight eight hours per day, regardless of the exact hours they actually worked (typically when it’s for internal purposes and not client billing) and it’s possible he came from one of those. Or maybe he’s sloppy or deliberately deceptive, who knows. But the first step is to tell him clearly what he needs to do differently. If that doesn’t solve it, you’d need a more serious conversation — but so far it doesn’t sound like you’ve clearly told him what needs to change. 5. I’m worried clients think I’m a nepo baby, but I’m not! I have a fairly common last name, and I recently started working at a small company where my boss has the same name as my dad. We are not related at all. I would be less worried if it was a bigger company, but since it’s so small (and if anyone were to look at socials, they would see my dad has the same name), it feels like people might assume a familial connection instead of a coincidence. It’s been fine so far, but I’m starting to shift to a more client-facing role, so I’ve been thinking about how I’m being perceived and how to build my reputation in our field. Is there a chance of my reputation being harmed if people think I got my job through nepotism, or is this something where it’s weirder to address it? Since it’s a common last name, I wouldn’t worry — people will know it’s a common last name, and they’re unlikely to know what your dad’s first name is. That said, if you want to be extra sure, you can always introduce yourself by saying, “Tangerina Murphy (no relation to Percival on our team).” View the full article

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Bluevine has announced a new partnership with Xero, a global small business accounting platform, aimed at providing small business owners and accountants in the U.S. with improved financial management tools. The collaboration allows Bluevine customers to sync their banking data with Xero, enhancing efficiency, financial tracking, and overall business growth. Through this partnership, small businesses and their accountants will be able to integrate banking data from Bluevine directly into Xero. This enables streamlined collaboration, easier financial management, and improved tracking of expenses and cash flow. In Bluevine’s accountant dashboard, accountants can securely access their clients’ Bluevine accounts, simplifying the process of managing business finances. The partnership includes special promotional offers for customers: Bluevine Plus and Premier customers receive a six-month free trial of Xero’s accounting software. US-based Xero customers can access a three-month free trial of Bluevine’s Plus or Premier banking plans. Bluevine Standard customers receive a three-month free trial of Xero’s accounting software. Xero customers opening a Bluevine account may qualify for a $300 sign-up bonus, subject to eligibility requirements. Bluevine Premier customers gain additional benefits, including a 3.7% annual percentage yield, low-cost payment fees, ACH positive pay, and priority customer support. “We’re proud to partner with Xero to simplify financial management for small business owners and their accountants, and unlock value for both groups,” said Kyle Cooper, VP and GM of Checking and Payments at Bluevine. Vikram Grover, Executive General Manager, Global Partnerships at Xero, added, “Small businesses thrive when they have access to accurate, real-time financial data at their fingertips. Our integration with Bluevine will sync financial data into Xero, giving businesses a clear view of their cash flow so they can make informed decisions that fuel growth. We’re providing a holistic view of business finances, empowering small businesses and their advisors with the knowledge they need to succeed.” The Bluevine-Xero integration is now available to customers. For further details on plans, pricing, and eligibility for promotional offers, visit the Plans and Pricing page or the Xero promotion page. This article, "Bluevine Partners with Xero to Enhance Small Business Banking and Accounting" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Bluevine has announced a new partnership with Xero, a global small business accounting platform, aimed at providing small business owners and accountants in the U.S. with improved financial management tools. The collaboration allows Bluevine customers to sync their banking data with Xero, enhancing efficiency, financial tracking, and overall business growth. Through this partnership, small businesses and their accountants will be able to integrate banking data from Bluevine directly into Xero. This enables streamlined collaboration, easier financial management, and improved tracking of expenses and cash flow. In Bluevine’s accountant dashboard, accountants can securely access their clients’ Bluevine accounts, simplifying the process of managing business finances. The partnership includes special promotional offers for customers: Bluevine Plus and Premier customers receive a six-month free trial of Xero’s accounting software. US-based Xero customers can access a three-month free trial of Bluevine’s Plus or Premier banking plans. Bluevine Standard customers receive a three-month free trial of Xero’s accounting software. Xero customers opening a Bluevine account may qualify for a $300 sign-up bonus, subject to eligibility requirements. Bluevine Premier customers gain additional benefits, including a 3.7% annual percentage yield, low-cost payment fees, ACH positive pay, and priority customer support. “We’re proud to partner with Xero to simplify financial management for small business owners and their accountants, and unlock value for both groups,” said Kyle Cooper, VP and GM of Checking and Payments at Bluevine. Vikram Grover, Executive General Manager, Global Partnerships at Xero, added, “Small businesses thrive when they have access to accurate, real-time financial data at their fingertips. Our integration with Bluevine will sync financial data into Xero, giving businesses a clear view of their cash flow so they can make informed decisions that fuel growth. We’re providing a holistic view of business finances, empowering small businesses and their advisors with the knowledge they need to succeed.” The Bluevine-Xero integration is now available to customers. For further details on plans, pricing, and eligibility for promotional offers, visit the Plans and Pricing page or the Xero promotion page. This article, "Bluevine Partners with Xero to Enhance Small Business Banking and Accounting" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article