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Google Finance adds Deep Search for complex research, prediction markets data from Kalshi and Polymarket, and enhanced earnings tracking. The post Google Finance Gets AI Deep Search & Prediction Market Data appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Google adds Waze ads to Performance Max for store goals in the U.S. and rolls out channel performance reporting, with search partner reporting coming soon. The post Google Performance Max Adds Waze Ads And Channel Reporting appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “I’m a small firm. How can I possibly be perceived as ‘superior’ to the much larger firms that my prospective client is meeting?” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

Today's Bissett Bullet: “I’m a small firm. How can I possibly be perceived as ‘superior’ to the much larger firms that my prospective client is meeting?” By Martin Bissett See more Bissett Bullets here Go PRO for members-only access to more Martin Bissett. View the full article

If you're out of cell service in an emergency, the ability to contact 911 can be lifesaving. Now many users with older phones are getting access to emergency texting to 911 via T-Mobile's Starlink-powered T-Satellite network for free. On Wednesday, T-Mobile announced that it would open up its Text to 911 feature—which allows users to text emergency services through their phone's native messaging app when outside of coverage areas—to everyone, including AT&T and Verizon customers, at no cost. It's worth noting that many iPhone and Pixel users already have access to emergency SOS via satellite regardless of carrier, as these features are built into newer devices. Apple's Emergency SOS is available on iPhone 14 and later, while Google's Satellite SOS is available on Pixel 9 and later (excluding 9A). These devices will default to native capabilities. Verizon also supports Satellite SOS for compatible Samsung Galaxy phones. As such, T-Mobile's free service is useful mostly to those on older iPhones and Pixels as well as Motorola devices and Samsung users who have AT&T. And if you're not a T-Mobile customer, your device must be unlocked and have an available eSIM to activate Text to 911. When connected to the network, you can text 911 for emergency services as well as the 988 Lifeline and 838255, the Veterans Crisis Line. T-Mobile customers can also reach customer care via 611. How to sign up for Text to 911If you're a T-Mobile customer, you can add Text to 911 service by logging into your account and selecting the option under Manage Data & Add Ons. Otherwise, you'll need to enroll on T-Mobile's website, after which your phone will automatically connect to the emergency network ("T-Mobile TXT911") when no other coverage is available. You must enroll in advance. To use the service, compose a message in your device's native texting app, enter 911 in the phone number field, and hit send. Your location is automatically shared with first responders. View the full article

Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Company’s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, I’m focusing on a new court filing that sheds more light on the reasons for Sam Altman’s ouster from OpenAI two years ago. I also look at Amazon’s kerfuffle with Perplexity over AI shopping agents, and at another court ruling that using copyrighted data for AI training is fair use. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on X (formerly Twitter) @thesullivan. Two years after OpenAI boardroom drama, a lot is riding on Altman’s trustworthiness OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has done more than anyone else to whip up faith and trust that the next industrial revolution—AI—is imminent and inevitable. That faith and trust have already loosed hundreds of billions of investment in infrastructure needed to support the transition. Some say the infusion of cash is single-handedly propping up the U.S. stock market, and, by extension, the economy. The faith and trust have moved Washington to all but abandon its oversight role in favor of acting as enabler and cheerleader. But questions of Altman’s trustworthiness won’t go away. Some troublesome details about Altman’s famous 2023 firing by his board (and subsequent rehiring and board reshuffle) came to light with the recent (unsealed) court filing of part of a deposition of OpenAI cofounder and ex-chief scientist Ilya Sutskever in a case brought against the company by Elon Musk. At the time of Altman’s ouster, the board said that he had kept key facts about the business from them. The board had also considered reports that Altman undermined his executives and pitted them against each other. Sutskever confirmed to attorneys during the seven-hour deposition that he believes Altman lied habitually. He testified that Altman had been pitting Mira Murati, the CTO at the time, against Daniela Amodei, who eventually left with her brother Dario Amodei and others to form Anthropic. We learn that Altman’s alleged behavior wasn’t short-term or a reaction to a crisis, but part of a pattern. Sutskever said he and fellow board member Murati had been documenting Altman’s indiscretions and preparing to oust him for more than a year before proposing it to the board. (They delayed the firing until Altman loyalists on the board were too few to stop it, Sutskever said.) One board member, Helen Toner, said a year after departing that OpenAI executives (likely Sutskever and Murati) began talking to the board about the Altman problems in the month before the November 2023 dustup. “The two of them suddenly started telling us . . .how they couldn’t trust him, about the toxic atmosphere he was creating,” Toner said during a TED AI podcast. “They used the phrase ‘psychological abuse,’ telling us they didn’t think he was the right person to lead the company to AGI, telling us they had no belief that he could or would change.” Sutskever, in fact, wrote a 52-page-long memo describing Altman’s indiscretions (at the request of fellow board member Adam D’Angelo, and possibly board members Helen Toner and Tasha McCauley). He wrote another memo about then-president and board chair Greg Brockman, who resigned after Altman was fired. Toner has offered other examples of Altman’s lies of omission, including a failure to tell the board about plans to launch ChatGPT, or that he personally owned the OpenAI startup fund “even though he constantly was claiming to be an independent board member with no financial interest in the company,” Toner said. Toner added that Altman gave the board inaccurate information about the “small number of formal safety processes” OpenAI had in place, so the board had no way of knowing how well those safety processes were working. (Toner is an AI safety expert.) People say that political infighting happens within every company. That’s probably true. People say that CEOs are like politicians; they have to balance competing priorities and personalities within the company, so a certain amount of “finessing” of the truth is expected. I’ll buy that too. And the context is important. OpenAI’s history, and the recent history of generative AI, had a lot to do with setting up the conflict. OpenAI started out as an idealistic little AI lab, but a few years later it made a breakthrough discovery that AI models got predictably smarter as they were supersized and given massive amounts of computing power. Developing frontier AI models became a very expensive undertaking, requiring massive capital. OpenAI had to spend massively to maintain its lead in the frontier model arms race that ensued, and needed consumer and enterprise revenue streams to help pay for it. (CFO Sarah Friar said Wednesday that OpenAI may look to the government to guarantee its infrastructure loans.) It’s not easy to run a business like a nonprofit in that situation. Yet Altman was answering to a nonprofit board of directors. Toner said as much on the TED AI podcast. “The board is a nonprofit board that was set up explicitly for the purpose of making sure that the company’s public good mission was primary, was coming first—over profits, investor interests, and other things,” Toner said on the podcast. Maybe something had to give. But . . . But if the CEO was (or is) hiding truths from the board, something is wrong. Given the potential risks of AI, it’s disturbing that one of Altman’s lies of omission, according to Toner, concerned safety measures. Superhuman AI doesn’t care about the corporate structure of its creators. If not responsibly aligned and governed, its potential for doing harm is the same. Amazon to Perplexity: ‘Keep your agents out of our market’ Amazon is apparently not ready for the AI agent revolution. Amazon accused Perplexity of computer fraud after the AI company’s Comet browser allowed users to search for and purchase items on Amazon’s platform. Amazon believes Perplexity needs permission from the e-commerce giant to let users do that. Its attorneys sent Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas a cease-and-desist, saying, in effect, that the Comet shopping agents are no longer welcome on Amazon. We’re in the early innings of AI agents. Some of the first consumer agents, Perplexity included, can navigate e-commerce websites and even make purchases. In the future agents may routinely do our business by interacting with other agents using a secure agent-to-agent interface—no need for a traditional web interface at all. Perplexity says Amazon sent an “aggressive legal threat” via a cease-and-desist letter dated October 31, demanding the company stop enabling purchases through its Comet Assistant. Amazon’s lawyers say that Perplexity lacks authorization to access Amazon user accounts or account details using what they described as “disguised or obscured” AI agents. Amazon has already taken steps in recent months to block external AI agents from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and others from crawling product information at its website. Perplexity accused Amazon of “bullying,” and argued that a tool that makes shopping easier for the consumer can only benefit the e-commerce giant. Perplexity suggested that Amazon is more focused on manipulating shopper decisions by showing ads, injecting upsells and confusing offers, and pushing sponsored products in search results. Amazon says Perplexity’s agents hurt shoppers by skipping over personalized product recommendations, and potentially not displaying the fastest available delivery speeds for customers. Amazon and Perplexity did not respond to a request for comment. In theory, Amazon could change its terms of service to more explicitly ban third-party shopping agents from its site. But what if such agents create real value (time savings) for consumers? Can Amazon easily ban some agents but not others? U.K. court says AI companies can use copyrighted material to train models The AI industry has notched another legal win for its practice of scraping copyrighted digital content from the web and using it to train AI models. Getty Images filed suit in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, claiming that Stability AI violated copyright when it downloaded millions of Getty photos without permission for the purpose of training its Stable Diffusion image generator. Judge Joanna Smith ruled this week that since the Stable Diffusion model didn’t store or reproduce the Getty images it can’t be said to have “copied” the images under U.K. copyright law. The court also declared that Getty would have to drop the copyright claim in the U.K. court because the training didn’t physically happen within its jurisdiction. Getty also filed its complaint in the U.S., in the Southern District of New York, but that trial is still ongoing. Neil Chilson, former chief technologist for the FTC and currently head of AI Policy with the Abundance Institute, called the decision “consistent with the nature of the technology and a successful result for continued AI innovation.” More AI coverage from Fast Company: AI is going to be a game changer for Black Friday AI hardware is reinventing the humble dictaphone Here are the best mobile AI apps Stability AI largely wins U.K. court battle against Getty Images Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium. View the full article

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Today, institutional landlords—those owning more than 1,000 homes—remain a relatively small part of the national single-family housing market. They own less than 1.0% of the total U.S. single-family housing stock and have accounted for only about 0.3% of transactions over the past three years. Yet, two decades ago, they didn’t even really exist. When Blackstone began buying single-family rentals in 2011, there wasn’t a single firm that owned at least 1,000 U.S. single-family homes. By late 2016, Blackstone’s fund, Invitation Homes—which the firm later took public in 2017 and fully exited by 2019—had grown its portfolio to nearly 50,000 single-family rentals. As of the end of Q3 2025, Invitation Homes wholly owned 86,139 single-family rentals. Institutional funds buying at the bottom of the housing crash, from 2011 to 2013, marked the birth of the modern institutional single-family rental asset class. Sean Dobson, CEO and chairman of the Amherst Group—which, according to Parcl Labs, owns at least 42,973 single-family rentals—saw that shift firsthand. After the federal government tightened lending, the housing bubble burst, and single-family homes began selling below replacement cost, the government was practically begging institutional capital to step into the market around 2010, believing they could serve as a “shock absorber.” Dobson illustrates the point by noting, “When we [Amherst] first started this [single-family rental] business, we had a handshake to buy 50,000 houses from Fannie Mae in one trade.” While that trade didn’t occur, it illustrates the backdrop at the time. On Friday, Dobson will be among the speakers at ResiDay 2025—a one-day conference hosted by ResiClub in New York City. I did a pre-interview with Dobson (the full video is posted on YouTube). Below are some of his key takeaways. National home prices: Grinding sideways, with affordability as the constraint Dobson emphasized that the housing market is unlikely to see dramatic national home price swings in the near term. Neither another national boom, nor crash. He admits there’s some downward pressure on home prices, given the affordability environment we’re in, however, there’s not enough resale supply hitting the market to actually manifest a national level crash like 2007-2011. According to Dobson: “Home prices we think would be lower if there are more sellers, obviously. But there’s good reason there aren’t more sellers, right? So many people got such low interest rate mortgages that at a time when the demand would naturally fall from rising interest rates, rising interest rates also caused the [new listings] supply to fall.” “I think the overall message is that we’re on the lookout for something that changes the velocity of this whole thing and [we] can’t find it. We spent a lot of time on the Airbnb guys. I thought those guys might be the weak hands, because it’s like, who has to sell? And we have a pretty good model on how supply affects home prices. But even when you just radically change supply, it moves home prices [down] in single digits… we think you’re looking at a decade of difficulties for people to get into buying a home.” “That’s why we think we’re talking about really a next decade of a lot of demand for rental, because it’s the choice of, ‘how do I get the size, how do I get the features that come with that home, like the school location’? And that’s how long we think it’s going to take for what we would see as sort of long-term depth of some of the standards for affordability to be recaptured, because we think it has to come from income growth. And that’s staring in the face of all this business and AI, which [some] people are arguing might be driving [real incomes] down [in the future].” Fixing affordability starts with housing credit reform The further the Pandemic Housing Boom fades into the rearview mirror—and as national income growth continues to outpace national home price growth—Dobson believes national housing affordability will gradually improve. That could be sped up, he says, if some of lending tightening done during and following the Great Financial Crisis were un-done. His argument isn’t to recreate the reckless lending of the mid-2000s, but to reintroduce responsible credit risk-taking and allow back in some of the lower credit homebuyers that were in the market in, say, the 1980s and 1990s. In Dobson’s view, if lending were loosened to allow some of those lower credit score homebuyers back into the market, it wouldn’t magically improve affordability overnight; however, it would create a steady stream of housing demand for builders who could produce more lower-end single-family homes—or even manufactured homes—that weren’t built in the years following the Great Financial Crisis. He believes that would improve affordability over time. Says Dobson: “We get consulted by governors, by senior people in the federal government. Everyone kind of wants the playbook: ‘Tell me what to do and I’ll fix it.’ And we tell them [to] make more subprime mortgages. And they tend to fold up their notebooks and head on… People are frustrated, right? People are super frustrated because you have this expectation that: ‘I did all these things, and now I should be able to buy a house, and I can’t.’ You want to blame somebody, right? And if you see me [Amherst] buying it, well, you’re like, well, it must be his fault, so I get it—I think it [that thinking] is dangerous.” “They [homebuilders] don’t have demand [from that lower credit score homebuyers like they used to], and they don’t have demand because their customers don’t have financing. And they [some sidelined buyers] don’t have financing because the mortgage market doesn’t take credit risk like [it used to]… So what we [Amherst] provide is a solution today.” Tightened credit boxed out homebuyers and helped draw institutional capital into the housing market Dobson says the typical Amherst tenant has a credit score too low to qualify for a mortgage in today’s market. Without single-family rental options, many of those households wouldn’t be able to live in the same neighborhoods or school districts they do now, he argues. That challenge reflects a broader shift in the mortgage market. In Q1 1999, borrowers in the bottom 10th percentile of mortgage credit scores had scores of 597. By Q3 2025, that threshold had risen to 660, reflecting that many lower-credit households had been locked out of homeownership following the bust, Dobson says. In Dobson’s view, those tighter lending standards—implemented after the housing bust that began in 2006—helped pave the way for institutional investors like Amherst to step in and fill the gap through single-family rentals. Says Dobson: “I sat with Chairman Bernanke, I sat with Yellen, and I begged them to try to get in the way of Dodd-Frank, because I knew what was going to happen, and we lost that. I said, ‘Okay, well, we’re going to get these families in these houses some way, and we have a lease and we have financing, we can operate the real estate. So let’s get the people in the homes and get their kids in the schools, and then let all the wizards figure out, like, what’s the better solution?’ Because today, there isn’t one until someone with a 625 FICO can go borrow money at about the same rate that you and I can borrow at, there isn’t a better solution. And so that’s, you know, if you want to blame somebody, it’s the knee jerk, explainable, but too long in place reaction to the subprime mortgage crisis.” Greater homebuilding activity is helping improve affordability more quickly in Florida and Texas During our conversation, I asked him for his thoughts on the current regional housing market variation—specifically, why pockets of Florida and Texas have weakened more than markets in the Midwest and Northeast. According to Dobson: “The common theme amongst the markets that are retracing? So Austin, you mentioned Jacksonville, which is not quite as bad Western Florida—the Tampa Bay area, Cape Coral has been really, been really tough. I would say the common theme is those are places [where] it’s pretty easy to build, and as home prices moved above, kind of their construction costs, they naturally kind of tend back down. And so those places, the market did what the market is supposed to do, right? Prices were rising and rising quickly, and homebuilders came in and they built a lot of supply, even in a place like Dallas. So we [Amherst] tend to spend [time looking at local data]—because we’re like you [ResiClub], we’re in the housing market [data] all day, every day. So we don’t really do that much work on like the ‘U.S. housing market’. We do work on much smaller micro footprints. But if you take a place like Dallas—Dallas overall [in aggregate], seems like it’s okay, healthy, not great, [but] not weak. But if you bifurcate the homes by vintage year, and look at their price movements, then Dallas looks a lot like Cape Coral [in certain areas]. The new home construction market [areas] in Dallas looks a lot like Cape Coral. So builders came out—they did, you know, getting land permitted, getting lots of them platted, getting horizontals in all takes time. So there’s always a lag between when the housing market really wants to buy the homes and when builders can deliver them. And that oftentimes [it] creates too much supply [at once] trying to squeeze through a channel that [also has] waning demand.” Institutional single-family homebuying has slowed—could it accelerate again? At the height of the Pandemic Housing Boom, institutional homeowners—those owning at least 1,000 single-family homes—made up an all-time high of 2.4% of home purchases in Q2 2022, according to John Burns Research and Consulting. That period, at the tail end of the boom, was when yields were particularly attractive as borrowing costs were ultra-low, home prices were soaring, and rents were climbing rapidly. However, since mortgage rates spiked and capital markets shifted, their share has fallen to around 0.3% of transactions over the past three years. The math isn’t as favorable now. What, if anything, could pull more institutional capital back into the single-family housing market? According to Dobson: “We really think the answer to that question comes in this investor adoption question, right? Will state pension funds allocate and scale to single-family rental?” “The time that we’ve had to operate the [single-family] real estate has also made that core investor group aware that you can collect rents [from single-family rentals], you can provide good service, you can operate this as a piece of real estate. That track record is helpful, but the next wave of investing won’t come from the same sources of capital [private equity]. It’ll come from those core investors [like pension funds] finally saying, ‘You know what, a 5% or 6% cash on cash return that outpaces inflation by 50 plus percent every year has a spot in my portfolio and scale.’” View the full article

Five action items to take. By Jackie Meyer Go PRO for members-only access to more Jackie Meyer. View the full article

Five action items to take. By Jackie Meyer Go PRO for members-only access to more Jackie Meyer. View the full article

The company posted its best quarter for funded loan volume and shared other green shoots including greater margins on less reverse mortgage business. View the full article

Four actions to take. By Anthony Zecca Leading From the Edge Go PRO for members-only access to more Anthony Zecca. View the full article

Four actions to take. By Anthony Zecca Leading From the Edge Go PRO for members-only access to more Anthony Zecca. View the full article

Drilling for minerals deep in the ocean could have immense consequences for the tiny animals at the core of the vast marine food web — and ultimately affect fisheries and the food we find on our plates, according to a new study. Deep-sea mining means drilling the seafloor for “polymetallic nodules” loaded with critical minerals including copper, iron, zinc and more. While not yet commercialized, nations are pursuing deep-sea operations amid rising demand for these minerals in electric vehicles and other parts of the energy transition, as well as for technology and military use. The researchers examined water and waste gathered from a deep-sea mining trial in 2022. What the study discovered University of Hawaii researchers studied an area of the Pacific Ocean called the “twilight zone,” about 650-5,000 feet (200-1,500 meters) below sea level. Their peer-reviewed findings, published Thursday in the Nature Communications scientific journal, say mining waste could affect anything from tiny shrimp smaller than .08 inches (2 millimeters) long to fish 2 inches (5 centimeters) long. That’s because, after mining companies bring the mineral-rich nodules up to the surface, they have to release excess sea water, ocean floor dirt and sediment back into the ocean. That creates a murky plume of particles about the same size as the naturally occurring food particles normally eaten by the zooplankton that swim at that depth. That’s a little more than half of the zooplankton in the ocean. If those organisms eat the waste particles — what senior study author Brian Popp called “junk food” — then that affects 60% of micronekton that eat the zooplankton. And that undernourishment is a problem because these tiny organisms are the food source up the chain — ultimately affecting commercially important fish such as mahi mahi or tuna. “Surface fish can dive down deep into the water, they feed on organisms down at depth,” said Michael Dowd, study lead author and oceanography graduate student. “If these organisms down at depth are no longer present because their food web has collapsed, then that can impact higher food webs and more commercial interests.” Impact on the water and alternative sources While other research has highlighted the negative environmental impacts from deep-sea mining of nodules, the focus is often the seafloor. This study looks at mid-water. The researchers said more work needs to be done to assess the appropriate quality and depth at which dirty water and sediment from sea mining could be returned to the ocean. But they said returning the excess directly to the ocean floor or at other depths could be just as environmentally disruptive as in the “twilight zone,” only in different ways. Popp said digging up the deep sea might not be necessary, and instead noted alternative sources of metals, including recycling batteries and electronics, or sifting through mining waste and tailings. “If only a single company is mining in one single spot, it’s not going to affect a huge fishery. It’s not going to affect a huge amount of water. But if many companies are mining for many years and outputting a lot of material, this is going to spread across the region,” Dowd said. “And the more mining occurs, the more a problem it could be.” Where deep-sea mining stands It might not be viable to simply halt ocean mining. The International Seabed Authority that governs mineral activity beyond national jurisdiction has already granted several contracts for exploration. In the U.S., President Donald The President has expressed interest in deep-sea mining operations amid tense trade negotiations with China that have limited U.S. access to China’s wide swath of critical minerals. In April, The President signed an executive order directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to expedite the permitting process for companies to mine the ocean floor, and in May, the administration said it would consider selling leases to extract minerals off the South Pacific island of American Samoa. Last month, NOAA sent a draft rule to the White House to streamline operations. Environmental groups have advocated against deep-sea mining, citing not only the direct harm to wildlife and parts of the sea, but also the disturbance of planet-warming carbon dioxide that is currently sequestered in the ocean and on its floor. “It was well laid out in the study that the impacts wouldn’t necessarily be just the depth that the plume is released,” said Sheryl Murdock, a deep-sea postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University who was not involved in the study. “The question being: Is it worth a few minerals to potentially destroy the way that the oceans function?” Diva Amon, a marine biologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, praised the research for examining potential consequences. “All of this could lead to species illness, species movement, species death. And depending on the scale of this, that could have graver repercussions, like species extinctions,” said Amon, who wasn’t involved in the study but has previously worked with some of the researchers. “There’s a lot more research that needs to be done to be able to make an informed decision about how to manage this industry, if it does start, in a way that will prevent, essentially, serious harm to the ocean and ocean ecosystem.” Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org. Read more of AP’s climate coverage. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. —Alexa St. John, Associated Press View the full article

Yesterday, Nintendo launched a new Nintendo Store app for iOS and Android, finally catching up with Sony and Xbox. On the surface, it does about what you'd expect, making it easy to browse games and Nintendo news, and even purchase games outright (albeit through an in-app browser window, presumably to avoid funneling Apple hefty commission fees). But hidden in the tiniest, most out-of-the-way button in the app is a detailed tracker for your play activity—finally fixing a feature that Nintendo consoles have dropped the ball on since the original Switch launched way back in 2017. The Switch has its own activity tracker, but it doesn't tell you much Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt On their own, neither the Nintendo Switch nor Nintendo Switch 2 tell you much about your play history. It's easy to see, at least—you just need to select your profile picture in the top-left corner of the home screen to see your list of recently played games. But scroll down to check out your "Play Activity," and you'll quickly be disappointed. Most of my games don't show an exact playtime number, instead either simply saying I've "Played for a little while" or "Played for X hours or more." That's not very useful—and if try to you select a game to get more info, the system will just launch it instead. It's much less handy than, say, the daily playtime reports the Wii used to show you right on the system, which told you what day you played on and for how long. Thankfully, the new Nintendo Store app brings that detailed info back, and then some. How to view your playtime on the Nintendo Store appTechnically, there was already a way to get detailed Nintendo Switch play activity through your smartphone, but it required setting up parental controls for yourself, a lengthy process that doesn't serve much of a purpose if you're an adult. Now, though, the Nintendo Store app makes it easy, and it's glorious. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt Just download and log into the Nintendo Store app with your existing Nintendo Account—the same one you used when you set up your system—and tap on your profile picture in the bottom-right corner. Scroll down to "Play Activity," and you're all set: You'll see a customizable list of your games, and tapping on any one will show you not just your total playtime, but which days you played on and for how long. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt My only complaint is that you won't have any idea of your playtime until you tap into a game, although you can sort the games list by total time played if you'd like; that will put games under categories for over 100 hours of play, over 50 hours, over 10 hours, and so on. The app even tracks playtime for the 3DS and Wii UThe new app's coolest feature? It's not limited to Switch and Switch 2. This data goes way back, and if I scroll far enough (or sort by game system), I can also see my playtime for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games. There is a catch—I don't seem to be able to see playtime by day for systems older than the original Switch, but I can see my total playtime, as well as how many separate days I played the game for. Again, to see your stats from these older consoles, you'll need to log in with the same Nintendo Account you used when you were playing on them—I've been using mine since the Wii U days. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt I'm a sucker for these kind of metrics, even if they're not fully representative of my play (I tend to bounce between my profile and my husband's profile a lot, as well as between systems). As embarrassing as it can be to see that I've spent more than 100 hours in Breath of the Wild, playtime data makes it easy for me to remember what I've played without having to keep a Letterboxd style game diary. It also encourages me to spend more time with games I might have just glanced at before or, if I'm feeling guilty after seeing a particularly big playtime number, to put down the system and spend some time outside. View the full article

Weak private sector jobs data adds to nerves over elevated valuations for AI-linked companiesView the full article

Swiss bank grapples with $500mn of exposure to First Brands across its investment armsView the full article

Turing Prize winner urges governments to require tech groups to cover catastrophic outcomes and fund safety researchView the full article

A project plan template for Google Sheets makes it easier to organize, schedule and manage tasks in one place. By using this customizable spreadsheet, teams can track progress, assign responsibilities and ensure projects stay on time and within budget. It’s an accessible option for businesses that want a simple, cloud-based tool for managing projects without complex software. This project plan template for Google Sheets helps standardize project planning, allowing users to visualize milestones, dependencies and deliverables. With shared access and real-time updates, teams can collaborate effectively and make informed decisions throughout the project lifecycle. Why Use a Project Plan Template for Google Sheets? A project plan template for Google Sheets is an easy way to bring structure and visibility to your work. It allows you to create a detailed plan, organize tasks and schedule milestones without complex software. Because Google Sheets is cloud-based, teams can work together in real time, share updates instantly and ensure that everyone is aligned on project goals and timelines. Another benefit of using a Google Sheets project plan template is flexibility. You can customize columns for task owners, due dates, priorities and status. Color-coded cells make it easy to see progress at a glance and formulas can automatically calculate totals or completion percentages. It’s a cost-effective solution for smaller teams or those just getting started with project planning. While Google Sheets is useful, project management software is better suited for building and maintaining complex project plans. It automates scheduling, improves visibility across projects and ensures teams don’t lose time updating spreadsheets manually. Software tools also integrate with communication and file-sharing platforms, providing a unified workspace for project management. ProjectManager is the best option for professional project planning and more. It includes powerful Gantt charts for scheduling that link dependencies, filters for the critical path and can set a baseline to track progress in real time. There are also list views and kanban boards for task management and real-time dashboards for tracking progress. Features like workload charts, AI-powered reports and timesheet tracking give managers full control and visibility across every stage of a project. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. /wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Gantt-CTA-2025.jpgLearn more Free Project Plan Template for Google Sheets Still, there are reasons to use a free project plan template for Google Sheets. It helps teams organize every aspect of their projects in one place. It provides a ready-to-use framework where you can set goals, assign tasks and establish deadlines without starting from scratch. Because it’s hosted in Google Sheets, you can access it anywhere, collaborate in real time and easily share updates with team members or stakeholders. Download this free project plan template for Google Sheets to simplify planning by offering built-in sections for task names, due dates, progress updates and responsible team members. Conditional formatting can highlight overdue tasks, while formulas can track completion rates. This makes it simple to see what’s on schedule and where action is needed. It’s an ideal tool for small teams or startups managing projects on a tight budget. /wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Project-plan-template-for-Google-Sheets-600x235.png Once you download the free template, you can customize it to fit your workflow. Add columns for priority, estimated hours, or task dependencies to make it more robust. Since Google Sheets updates automatically, everyone always works from the latest version. It’s a simple and efficient way to manage projects from planning through execution without extra costs or complicated software setups. Project Plan Template for Google Sheets: Pros and Cons Before choosing a project plan template for Google Sheets, it’s important to understand both its advantages and limitations. While the tool is accessible and flexible, it also comes with challenges when managing complex projects. Below, we explore the main pros and cons to help determine whether Google Sheets is the right choice for your project planning needs. Pros of Using a Project Plan Template for Google Sheets One of the biggest advantages of using a project plan template for Google Sheets is accessibility. It’s cloud-based, meaning multiple team members can view and edit the plan in real time. That makes collaboration easy for remote teams that need to stay aligned on schedules, budgets and progress. All changes are automatically saved, reducing the risk of lost data. Another benefit is customization. A Google Sheets project plan template can be tailored to fit any workflow or industry. You can insert formulas to calculate project costs, apply filters to manage priorities and use color coding to track task status. This flexibility lets teams manage projects their own way without rigid software structures. Finally, Google Sheets integrates seamlessly with other Google Workspace tools like Drive and Calendar. You can link supporting documents, track deadlines and share updates instantly. For teams already using Google products, this creates an efficient ecosystem for managing work from one platform. It’s a low-cost, easy-to-use solution for simple projects or smaller teams. Related: 18 Free Project Planning Templates for Excel and Word Cons of Using a Project Plan Template for Google Sheets Despite its strengths, a project plan template for Google Sheets has limits. It lacks automation for key project management functions like task dependencies, workload balancing and automatic progress tracking. These must be manually updated, which increases the risk of human error and takes more time as the project grows in complexity. Another disadvantage is limited visibility for larger projects. While Google Sheets handles smaller data sets well, it can become slow and cluttered with many tasks, milestones and team members. Tracking performance across multiple projects is difficult without dashboards or advanced reporting features, which are essential for maintaining control over timelines and budgets. Lastly, Google Sheets lacks built-in tools for resource management, time tracking and collaboration beyond basic commenting. As a result, managers may spend extra effort consolidating data from different sources. For growing teams or multi-department projects, a more advanced project management solution becomes necessary to maintain organization and productivity. /wp-content/uploads/2025/02/PM-101-eBook-banner-ad.jpg ProjectManager Is Better Than a Project Plan Template for Google Sheets While a project plan template for Google Sheets can work for basic scheduling, it doesn’t match the power and flexibility of ProjectManager. With multiple project views including Gantt charts, kanban boards, task lists and calendars, teams can visualize work in the format that best fits their process. These views sync automatically, ensuring everyone stays aligned on priorities, progress and deadlines without needing to update spreadsheets manually. Optimize Resource Management ProjectManager makes managing resources easier than ever. Its workload chart shows real-time team availability so managers can balance assignments and avoid burnout. The team page shows a daily or weekly overview that can be filtered for progress or priority and tasks can be updated without leaving the page. You can allocate resources by task, monitor utilization and adjust schedules instantly to keep projects on track. This eliminates the guesswork of spreadsheet-based planning and ensures everyone is working efficiently toward shared goals. /wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Team-Light-2554x1372-1.png Track Progress and Performance With ProjectManager, teams can track performance through live dashboards, automated reports and AI Project Insights that instantly summarize and recommend next steps. Timesheets capture labor costs as work happens, while reports show cost and schedule variance across tasks and teams. The platform’s real-time data helps identify potential issues early, so managers can act before small problems become delays. Tracking is seamless, accurate and always up to date. /wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AI-Insights-Light-Mode-Dashboard-GPT5.png How to Use This Free Project Plan Template for Google Sheets This free project plan template for Google Sheets is designed to guide teams through structured project planning from start to finish. It helps organize goals, define scope, allocate resources and track progress in a single, easy-to-use spreadsheet. Each section of the template corresponds to a critical step in project management, making it simple to stay organized, maintain accountability and ensure project success. The following steps correspond to the template’s sections, providing a clear framework for planning your project efficiently. Each H3 highlights a specific activity that should be completed using the template to streamline work, reduce errors and improve communication among team members. 1. Define the Project Goals and Objectives Start by clearly outlining what the project intends to achieve. Use the template to capture specific, measurable goals and objectives that provide direction for your team. This ensures everyone understands the desired outcomes and can align efforts toward the same targets. 2. Establish a Project Success Criteria Document what success looks like for the project. The template allows you to define measurable indicators, such as deliverables, quality standards, timelines, or budget limits, ensuring all team members and stakeholders have a shared understanding of expected results. 3. Assemble a Project Management Team List team members and their roles within the template. Clearly assigning responsibilities promotes accountability, avoids confusion and ensures the right people are responsible for completing tasks and achieving milestones. 4. Identify Project Stakeholders Use the template to identify all stakeholders who influence or are affected by the project. This includes internal and external participants. Knowing your stakeholders helps with communication planning, expectation management and decision-making throughout the project. 5. Define the Project Scope Capture the project boundaries, deliverables and limitations in the template. Defining scope early prevents scope creep, clarifies what is included or excluded, and provides a reference point for changes during the project lifecycle. 6. Make a Project Timeline Create a timeline in the template to map tasks, milestones and deadlines. This visual plan helps identify task dependencies, ensures work is sequenced efficiently and allows teams to track progress against deadlines. /wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Gantt-Light-Mode-Timeline-Focus-600x322.jpgLearn more 7. Identify Resource Requirements Document necessary resources such as personnel, equipment and materials in the template. This helps ensure the project has what it needs to succeed and supports accurate planning of workloads and availability. 8. Estimate Project Costs and Make a Project Budget Use the template to estimate costs for labor, materials and other expenses. This section provides a clear budget framework, helping monitor spending and maintain financial control throughout the project. 9. Identify Potential Project Risks Record potential risks in the template along with mitigation strategies. Anticipating risks allows teams to proactively manage issues before they escalate, improving the likelihood of project success. /wp-content/uploads/2024/01/risk-image-lightmode-600x331.pngLearn more More Project Management Templates for Google Sheets In addition to the project plan template for Google Sheets, several other templates can help streamline project management tasks. These templates provide structured formats for managing budgets, timelines and work breakdowns, making it easier to plan, track and execute projects efficiently. Each template is designed to integrate seamlessly with Google Sheets, allowing teams to collaborate in real time while maintaining consistency and accuracy in project data. Project Budget Template for Google Sheets This template helps project managers estimate costs, track expenditures and maintain financial control throughout a project. It allows you to categorize expenses, compare budgeted versus actual costs and identify variances quickly. Using this template ensures the project stays within budget while providing transparency for stakeholders and team members. Gantt Chart Template for Google Sheets The Gantt chart template provides a visual timeline of project tasks, milestones and deadlines. It helps identify task dependencies, allocate resources efficiently and track progress over time. By using a Gantt chart in Google Sheets, teams can stay organized, prioritize work and make adjustments as needed to keep the project on schedule. Work Breakdown Structure for Google Sheets This template breaks the project into smaller, manageable tasks or work packages. It helps organize the scope, define deliverables and assign responsibilities clearly. Using a work breakdown structure ensures no critical tasks are overlooked and provides a framework for accurate planning, scheduling and resource allocation. Related Google Sheets Content The project plan template for Google Sheets is only one of many free Google Sheets templates you can download for project management. If you’re not ready to upgrade to project management software, then check out the links below and download more free templates. 32 Must-Have Project Management Templates for Google Sheets 5 Google Sheets Dashboard Templates for Business and Project Management Free Gantt Chart Templates for Excel, Google Sheets & More ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams, whether they’re in the office or out in the field. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. The post Project Plan Template for Google Sheets appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Pennywise is back, baby, and pop culture's favorite freaky clown is going back in time to kill the kids of Derry, Maine, in 1962, with future seasons (should they materialize) visiting other time periods. If my hometown saw mass slaughterings of children every generation or so, I might be tempted to pick up stakes and head on out—but the Stephen King IP train must keep rolling, and so here we are. So far, the show isn't hitting the heights of previous It adaptations, but it's shown an admirable willingness to shock—the opening scene includes an impressively graphic and rather unconventional birthing sequence, and the show has quickly made clear that no characters are safe from the dark deeds of Pennywise. While you're waiting for new episodes to drop, you might enjoy these other horror series (including other King adaptations) that hit some of the same notes. Castle Rock (2018 – 2019) Castle Rock, canceled after two (rather excellent) seasons, was a victim of failed marketing. The show was promoted as a dive into some kind of Stephen King connected universe, promising Easter eggs without suggesting much by way of storytelling. And yet! There are actual stories here, with real dramatic heft—the first season’s “The Queen,” told from the unstable perspective of a character (played by Sissy Spacek) with worsening dementia, was one of the best, and most existentially horrifying, things on television that year. The second season introduces young Annie Wilkes, (Lizzy Caplan), the Kathy Bates character we know from Misery. The cast across the two seasons is stellar, and includes Bill Skarsgård, a creepy character not named Pennywise. There’s plenty of stuff for King fans to sink their teeth into as we dive into the backstory of a different Stephen King town, but it all works rather well on its own, as well. Stream Castle Rock on Hulu. Castle Rock at Hulu Learn More Learn More at Hulu Talamasca: The Secret Order (2025 – ) The third series in what AMC is calling its Immortal Universe of shows based on the works of Anne Rice, this one stars Nicholas Denton as Guy Anatole, a new recruit to the title organization of supernatural spies and watchers, William Fichtner as a vampire making a play for control of the organization, all while Downton Abbey's Elizabeth McGovern brings us yet another delightfully confusing accent playing the leader of the Talamasca's New York motherhouse. The show is impressively spry and lively—a bit of a surprise, given the heavy emo vibes of Interview with the Vampire and The Mayfair Witches. We're only a couple of episodes in, but the show kicks off with a rather brutal dismembering in the style of It. Stream Talamasca on AMC+. Talamasca: The Secret Order (2025 – ) at AMC+ Learn More Learn More at AMC+ Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023 – ) This is more of an action thriller than a gloopy It-style horror show, but the shows still have a couple of things in common. First, they both provide previously uncharted backstories for popular film properties; second, they're both full of monsters. Monarch does a surprisingly effective job of telling its own story within the universe of all the American Godzilla movies of the past decade or so, bringing the bigger stories back down to Earth while building out an entire decades-long monster-verse mythology in the process. Anna Sawai stars as a young teacher searching for her father, missing since Godzilla's attack on San Francisco (depicted in the 2014 film), and who finds herself drawn into the past and present of a secret government agency. Wyatt and Kurt Russell play the past and present incarnations of the Army colonel who helped set the whole thing in motion way back in 1959. Stream Monarch on Apple TV+. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters at Apple TV+ Learn More Learn More at Apple TV+ Dark (2017 – 2020) Dark began as a mystery involving a missing child and evolved, over its three seasons, into a wildly complex narrative: a time travel-driven story that explores dark family secrets over the course of several generations. If it's not quite as bloody as Welcome to Derry, it shares with that show a willingness to put kids and teens through the wringer. Youth may be a sort of protection in some horror stories, but not here—not even a little tiny bit. The German import has a striking look and incredibly atmospheric feel, with an ensemble cast of teens and adults whose narratives are deftly intertwined across decades in a story that starts when a child goes missing (one of the least bad things that happens to the people of fictional Winden, Germany). Stream Dark on Netflix. Dark (2017 – 2020) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix The Outsider (2020) The premise here is brutal, and, to the everyone in the narrative, impossible: A kid is horrifically murdered (even Pennywise might be shocked), and the evidence decisively points to Little League coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman). It’s an open-and-shut case—except that he was out of town at a conference while the murder was occurring, and even appeared on the news in another town. The tragedies pile up, and the threat isn’t entirely natural. Without giving too much away, it’s among the most disturbing of King adaptations (it’s also incredibly engaging). There are great performances here from Bateman, as well as from Ben Mendelsohn and Cynthia Erivo as Holly Gibney, one of King’s recurring characters. HBO declined to renew the show, but it adapts the entire book and ends fairly decisively. Stream The Outsider on HBO Max. The Outsider (2020) at HBO Max Learn More Learn More at HBO Max Channel Zero (2016 – 2018) A mind-bending and occasionally gruesome expansion of various online creepypastas, Nick Antosca's series takes the form of four season-long storylines. While the tone is far from juvenile, the vibe here is childhood-nightmares-come-to-life: The show's first season anticipates I Saw the TV Glow with a story about a half-remembered TV series linked to the disappearances of several children; the second sees a group of friends trapped in a tourist-attraction haunted house that exits into a disturbing alternate reality. It's all smart and genuinely freaky, existential dread blending with memorable visuals such as a child made entirely of human teeth. Stream Channel Zero on Shudder. Channel Zero (2016 – 2018) at Shudder Learn More Learn More at Shudder Lovecraft Country (2020) A Black family sets off on a road trip across Jim Crow America. Matt Ruff’s novel, on which the show is based, is one of a handful of impressive books written over the past decade or so that attempt to reconcile the unabashedly racist outlook of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft with the power and appeal of his creations, and so the series unearths some of the darkest terrors of 20th century America, and places them alongside, and inside, a Lovecraftian universe of elder gods and dark dimensions. Much of '50s period horror, like It, relies on a twisted white suburbia as a setting, while Lovecraft Country turns that on its head—none of these characters is surprised to learn that there's darkness at the heart of the mid-century American dream. The great Michael K. Williams appears here in one of his final performances. Stream Lovecraft Country on HBO Max. Lovecraft Country (2020) at HBO Max Learn More Learn More at HBO Max The Mist (2017) While its extended runtime robs this TV version of The Mist of some of the punch and immediacy of the film version, it nevertheless nails a "hell is other people" vibe with which I can't argue. The setup is basically the same, though the setting now encompasses an entire town: A mysterious mist surrounds the town of Bridgeville, Maine, and the near-impenetrable fog contains various gloopy and vicious Lovecraftian horrors. Some people respond with courage, but most are focused on saving themselves, while others approach the danger with extremely unhelpful religious mania of the kind that does more harm than even the monsters. Afew hours with these people and I'd take my chances outside. The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector leads the cast. Purchase The Mist on Apple TV+ and Prime Video. The Mist (2017) at Apple TV+ Learn More Learn More at Apple TV+ Them (2021 – 2024) Starting off in the 1950s, Them takes a stab at The Second Great Migration, when millions of Black people left the South for northern cities and suburbs; seeking opportunity and escaping overt racism in favor of slightly more veiled racism. The Emory family (led by Deborah Ayorinde and Ashley Thomas) move from North Carolina to an all-white neighborhood in East Compton, each family member eventually haunted by a different ghost. The smiling white faces concealing vicious intent are far more frightening than any specters. The second, and final, season moves forward to LA of 1991, much as Welcome to Derry promises time jumps in future seasons, should they materialize. Stream Them on Prime Video. Them (2021 – 2024) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Midnight Club (2022) The Midnight Club, based on a few different YA Christopher Pike novels, involves a group of eight terminally ill young patients at a bucolic hospice home run by a secretive and mysterious doctor (A Nightmare on Elm Street's Heather Langenkamp). Each night the kids meet secretly to share scary stories, with each also promising to return from beyond the grave when their time comes. It's spooky and often moving without ever being schmaltzy or precious—and, while the tone is a bit more ruminative than in Welcome to Derry, it shares with the more recent series a willingness to put these kids through it. The show was planned as more than a miniseries, so the cancellation leaves several questions unanswered—but that works OK in terms of the show's overall tone, which had to do with unanswerable mysteries about life and death. Stream Midnight Mass on Netflix. The Midnight Club (2022) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix From (2022 – ) For residents of The Town (we never get a name), the feeling of being trapped in your small hometown is literal: Once you set foot there, you can never leave. Oh, and did I mention that creatures come from the woods and kill anyone found outside after dark? Doesn't sound quite as bad as the town where I grew up, but nevertheless: concerning. In the first couple of episodes, the Matthews family learn all about this firsthand when they roll into town in their RV and find themselves trapped alongside the local sheriff (Harold Perrineau)—and it's getting dark. The show's monsters aren't just mindlessly hungry, they're cunning and sadistic, and more than capable of killing residents in impressively gory ways. Stream From on MGM+. From (2022 – ) at MGM+ Learn More Learn More at MGM+ Haven (2010 – 2015) Another Stephen King adaptation that takes the source material and runs away with it, this one comes from the short mystery novel The Colorado Kid. Emily Rose stars as Audrey Parker, an FBI Special Agent sent to the titular small town of Haven, Maine on a routine case, and who gets drawn into “The Troubles," a series of harmful and often violent supernatural events that have recurred throughout the town’s history. A supernatural-case-of-the-week format gives way to a bigger mystery when Audrey comes to learn that this isn’t her first time in Haven, nor the first time she’s encountered the Troubles, even if she doesn't have much memory of her time there. While mostly set in the present, the show masters the "small towns are weird" vibe at which King excels. Stream Haven on Tubi, Peacock, and Prime Video. Haven (2010 – 2015) at Peacock Learn More Learn More at Peacock Feria: The Darkest Light (2022) Dark deeds and supernatural forces from the past haunt multiple generations—this time, in 1995 Andalusia. This import finds teenage sisters Sofia and Eva caught in a nightmare when their parents go missing while being implicated in a cult ritual that's left 23 people dead, including a woman who'd been missing for years. Tying back to 1975 and, implicitly, the fall of Francisco Franco, Feria shatters this small town's sense of community and security while calling into question the value of the organizations—including government and church—that everyone holds dear. Kids getting caught up in generational cycles of violence and shame is an extremely recognizable vibe. Stream Feria on Netflix. Feria: The Darkest Light (2022) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix View the full article

As we approach to the season of office potlucks, catered parties, and other holiday meals with coworkers, let’s discuss the many ways in which they can go wrong — from alarming cuisine to cheap-ass rolls to riots over the chili cook-off to tantrums over insufficiently abundant shrimp. Please share your stories of potlucks, cooking competitions, catered parties, and other office meals gone awry! The post when office potlucks and catered parties go wrong appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

Central bank signals possible cut as soon as next monthView the full article

Over the last two years, the value of content has collapsed. Thanks to the LLM revolution, the internet is drowning in an avalanche of indistinguishable output: an endless parade of fast-food writing, recycled reports, and SEO-bait fluff optimized for algorithms instead of people. That’s why the only competitive moat left is the human story. For business leaders, this creates an urgent mandate: Storytelling is no longer a marketing tactic. It’s a strategic business imperative—the only reliable engine for changing minds and shifting behaviors. If your brand’s narrative isn’t uniquely human and demonstrably ownable, it will vanish in the churn. Here’s how to find the stories only your company can tell, and why they’re your last true moat. RECOGNIZE THE NEW DISCOVERY REALITY It’s tempting to see generative AI as a shortcut to content volume. But when every competitor can churn out a thousand posts, the value of each piece approaches zero. Audiences know this, and they’re tuning out. Trust in the media is near-historic lows. Our Brand Expectations Index shows that 81% of the general public and 84% of knowledge workers trust direct communication from companies, whether in podcasts, videos, or in-depth articles, nearly as much as they trust local news. Even the best SEO playbooks or algorithm hacks are no longer enough. The only thing that cuts through is a story that sparks a gut-level connection. Your mandate: Stop publishing for the algorithm. Start crafting narratives so bold, so human, that your audience chooses to pay attention. EMBRACE THE WHITE SPACE MANDATE This isn’t creativity for creativity’s sake. It’s about strategic differentiation. The first step is proving your story has true, ownable value. That’s the white space mandate: Use data and rigorous analysis to find the strategic gaps your competitors haven’t filled. Technology for insight, not content. Audit the media and competitor landscape. Map where they’re over-indexing and identify the questions audiences are still asking but not getting answered. That’s the white space—the open territory where a new conversation can take root. The power of the pivot. This process often forces a shift. The narrative your CEO thinks is critical may be saturated. White space analysis reveals the sharper angle, the uncomfortable, or the unexpected perspective that’s necessary to stand out. I’ve seen companies discover that the message they were clinging to was indistinguishable from five rivals, while the story that truly set them apart was hiding in plain sight. FIND THE UN-GENERATABLE NARRATIVE Once you’ve identified white space, the real work begins: filling it with something AI cannot generate. That’s the un-generatable narrative—a story born of lived experience, not scraped data. You uncover it through what I call story-mining, deliberate conversations with leaders, employees, and stakeholders to unearth personal conviction, anecdotes, and hidden ambition. The anecdote as anchor. AI can summarize your mission statement; it cannot recreate the founder’s pivotal failure or the late-night insight that led to a breakthrough. These details are specific, emotional, and unforgettable. They create a narrative that is impossible for a machine to fabricate. Conviction is contagious. When a story is proven to be unique through data and delivered with authentic conviction, it stops being mere communication. It becomes a persuasive argument capable of moving markets and shifting behaviors. THE ONLY FOUNDATION FOR TRUST In an era of content saturation, brands can no longer compete in volume. They must compete with meaning. The stories that will power your business forward aren’t the ones easily generated. They’re the ones painstakingly discovered, strategically proven, and deeply human. Because in a world of infinite content, meaning is your only engine for trust. Tyler Perry is the co CEO of Mission North. View the full article

Tech is shifting faster than the models we built our impact on. And that means even thriving nonprofits face a choice: Keep optimizing what works—or rebuild for what’s coming. Back in June, our leadership team made a decision that felt both risky and obvious: Change a strategy that was still working to accommodate an AI future. We’d been writing and speaking for years about the need for the social sector to stop talking and start doing—and we realized it was time to take our own advice. For the last five years, our organization has helped nonprofits worldwide build tech solutions in partnership with leading tech companies. It worked. It made a difference. But by 2025, it became clear: What brought us to this point won’t take us to where we want to go. We could keep matching tech needs with builders. Or we could bet on something bigger—teach nonprofits how to prepare for an AI-native future, so they can be capable of building and scaling impact themselves. We chose the latter. A BET ON THE FUTURE In recent weeks, four major reports were released: The Philanthropic Reset, AI for Humanity, Accelerate What’s Possible, and AI With Purpose. Four different sources, same message: Nonprofits are ready for AI—but the systems around them are not. The data is clear: 84% of AI-powered nonprofits lack funding to further develop and scale AI solutions. 87% of funders admit they don’t understand their grantees’ tech capacity. 90% of nonprofits don’t fund AI literacy or infrastructure. And yet, the organizations seeing the biggest results are those that fine-tune AI with their own data, test quickly, and integrate community feedback. The takeaway is simple but uncomfortable: The real bottleneck isn’t technology—it’s capacity. That realization pushed us to rebuild not just our programs, but our mental model of what “tech for good” means in an AI-native world. FROM ONE-OFFS TO ECOSYSTEM For years, the social sector has measured success by the number of pilots launched. But in the AI era, pilots don’t scale. Systems do. So, we’ve started building what we call an AI enablement ecosystem—a space where nonprofits can build, learn, and scale responsibly, together. That includes initiatives that help organizations prototype their first AI tools and build internal capacity, support proven social solutions so they can scale through responsible AI use, and a venture-style lab that develops shared infrastructure for nonprofits. But this isn’t about our model. It’s about a broader shift—from delivering solutions to building systems that deliver. WHAT “AI-NATIVE” REALLY MEANS Being AI-native doesn’t mean asking ChatGPT to write your next grant report. It means processes, interventions or even full organizations that make the most out of the promise and benefits of AI. Imagine a three-person nonprofit running a program that today would require a staff of 30. AI handles logistics, data analysis, and reporting, while humans focus on relationships, trust and connection. That’s not that far away. It’s already happening. And it forces us—leaders, funders, and builders—to rethink what kind of infrastructure we’re really financing. Are we funding innovation, or the capacity that makes innovation possible? Our bet is simple: In the next two to three years, it will be exponentially easier for nonprofits to build and scale with AI. But for that to be safe and responsible, we’ll need a shared layer of infrastructure—capacity, governance, and collaboration that helps changemakers build with confidence. We’ve spent years telling the sector to stop talking and start doing. This is why we’re doing it ourselves. Because in the end, doing the right thing isn’t about keeping what works. It’s about having the courage to rebuild while things still work. And that’s exactly what the moment demands and the technology enables. Jacek Siadkowski is the founder and CEO of Tech to the Rescue. View the full article

New York City has elected a democratic socialist as its next mayor. Across the internet, progressive internet users are hopescrolling for the first time in years and proudly declaring: “woke is back.” With his victory, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will become the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian heritage, the first born in Africa, and the youngest in more than a century. During his victory speech, Mamdani reaffirmed his support for workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, and the rights of all vulnerable New Yorkers, including LGBTQ people. “BREAKING: WOKE IS BACK!,” one X user posted. “THERE ARE 25 GENDERS. WE’RE GOING TO TRANS THE ECONOMY. DEI FOR EVERY CHILD. AND WE’RE RELEASING THE EPSTEIN FILES!!!” “Zohran win got me feeling so woke i might detransition just to transition again,” another joked. “TRANSGENDER FOR EVERYBODY WINS AGAIN,” wrote another. BREAKING: WOKE IS BACK! THERE ARE 25 GENDERS. WE'RE GOING TO TRANS THE ECONOMY. DEI FOR EVERY CHILD. AND WE'RE RELEASING THE EPSTEIN FILES!!! — Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) November 5, 2025 “If i was zohran i would choose this precise moment to come out as a proud bisexual,” another quipped. For the online left, long disillusioned with American politics and a Demoractic party they feel no longer speaks for them, on Tuesday night, something shifted. if i was zohran i would choose this precise moment to come out as a proud bisexual — meredith 🍉 (@dietz_meredith) November 5, 2025 Mamdani won over the vast majority of voters ages 18 to 29 (78%) and 30 to 44 (66%), according to exit polls from NBC. He also received 82% of LGBTQ+ vote, compared to just 15% for Cuomo. People are feeling so hopeful, they are proudly libbing out on main. For the uninitiated, to “lib out” has been part of the political lexicon for a few years, and means to abandon cynicism, even just for a night, and indulge instead in hope and optimism. LIBBING TF OUT — Democrats (@TheDemocrats) November 5, 2025 “Forgive me father for I am libbing the fuck out,” one wrote. “Sorry to lib out but for so many of us this is the very first time we cast a vote that wasn’t framed to us as ‘the lesser of two evils,’” another posted. “We actually believed in someone, canvassed for him, and saw him…win??? like??? Something…worked???” One simply put: “New York City you have shocked the world by voting for a normal guy instead of a deranged pervert.” Even the official X account of the Democratic Party tried, too late for some, to get in on the act. “LIBBING TF OUT,” read its post. Mamdani, speaking to supporters in Brooklyn after his victory, said: “today we have spoken in a clear voice: hope is alive.” After Kamala Harris’s loss to The President in the 2024 presidential election, many were quick to blame wokeness for his return. “Woke is broke,” wrote Maureen Dowd for The New York Times. Former White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, writing for the Washington Post, suggested “debates over pronouns, bathroom access and renaming schools” lost Democrats the vote. He added “campaigns of joy in an era of rage don’t win elections.” Tell that to the smiling democratic socialist, Muslim, south asian mayor of New York City. View the full article

Oracle has taken a significant step to enhance how businesses of all sizes can leverage the power of cloud technology with the introduction of its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Dedicated Region. Designed to meet the growing demand for flexibility and sovereignty in cloud solutions, the OCI Dedicated Region allows organizations to quickly deploy a complete cloud environment without the extensive space and infrastructure typically required. Scott Twaddle, Senior Vice President of Product and Industries at Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, emphasized the increasing need for businesses to manage AI and cloud services in ways that best suit their unique requirements. “Organizations want the freedom to run AI and cloud services where they deliver the most value, a need that’s only growing as sovereign AI considerations drive stricter requirements around data location and control,” he said. This announcement comes as both public and private organizations seek agile solutions that can accelerate innovation and adapt to emerging business models. The OCI Dedicated Region offers full-stack cloud capabilities, enabling companies to start small—with just three racks—and easily scale their operations. This capability is especially beneficial for small businesses that may be constrained by space or resources but still wish to harness the power of a dedicated cloud environment. A compact yet powerful solution, the OCI Dedicated Region boasts modular infrastructure and streamlined service design, providing over 200 AI and cloud services in a secure fashion. The ability to operate a cloud service from their own data center allows companies that previously faced challenges in adopting a dedicated cloud region to innovate rapidly. Kazushi Koga, Corporate Executive Officer at Fujitsu Limited, highlighted the importance of flexibility in today’s cloud strategies. “With OCI Dedicated Region delivering the full range of OCI services via a small physical footprint inside our own data centers, we will be able to deploy apps and services quickly and easily to our customers while benefiting from the flexibility to expand our deployment without downtime or re-architecting,” he noted. The OCI Dedicated Region is particularly suitable for businesses looking for advanced scalability without compromising security or performance. Key features include: Modular Scalability: Businesses can start small and expand without major overhauls, making it easier to grow into hyperscale solutions. Space Efficiency: Advanced designs reduce the data center space and energy footprint needed, which is vital for small businesses facing operational constraints. Integrated Security: With multi-layered security measures in place, businesses can trust that their data is well protected while meeting compliance standards. Full Public Cloud Parity: Small businesses can enjoy the same capabilities as larger organizations, giving them access to an extensive suite of AI and cloud services without sacrificing control over their data. Oracle-operated Management: By outsourcing infrastructure management to Oracle, small business owners can focus more on innovation and less on IT complexities. However, small business owners must also be mindful of the potential challenges associated with adopting a new cloud infrastructure. The shift to a dedicated cloud service may require changes in operations and processes, which can involve upfront time and investment. Small businesses must also ensure their staff is prepared to manage and capitalize on this new technology effectively, which may involve training or hiring skilled personnel. As organizations continue to navigate the complexities of modern technology, Oracle’s OCI Dedicated Region offers a compelling solution for those looking to enhance their cloud capabilities with agility, security, and simplicity. This development underscores a broader trend of cloud innovation that directly addresses the evolving needs of businesses of all sizes. For more information, businesses can check out the original announcement from Oracle here. This article, "Oracle Launches New Dedicated Cloud Region to Boost Agility and Innovation" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article