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Throughout my academic and professional journeys, one thing has remained my constant ally: Google Docs. Not only is having all your documents available no matter where you are helpful, but the software itself is surprisingly versatile and intricate. I have used it for over 15 years to manage basically my entire life. I have never encountered anything I couldn’t do with Google Docs, from signing a contract to seamlessly working with huge groups of collaborators. There are other, smaller hacks for the word processor that you may not even know about, though, whether you're a student or not. Google Docs hacks for essays and notesSo much of schoolwork centers on writing, from essays to memos to notes, so here are the hacks that will serve you best when you’re in the zone on a paper or taking down information in class. Change capitalization formattingEasily change the capitalization formatting of anything in the doc by highlighting it and choosing Format, then Text. At the bottom of the menu, you’ll see Capitalization, and hovering over it gives you three options: lowercase, UPPERCASE, and Title Case. When you accidentally type in all-caps or need to make a title but don’t want to rewrite what you already have, this is a little-known quick fix that will save so much time. Paste without formattingIf I have one pet peeve with Google Docs, it's that pasting without formatting isn't standard. When I'm copying something into my document, the last thing I want is for it to be in another font or a giant size. If you've used Google Docs at all, you know it aggressively pushes keyboard shortcuts for some reason, so you can't always right click (or however you have your trackpad set up to "right click" or pull up a menu) and hit Paste without formatting. You just have to learn another shortcut: Cd + Shift + V on a Mac and Ctrl + Shift + V on a PC. It just means adding the shift key to the two buttons you're already pressing to paste, and it removes a ton of frustration. Use Voice Typing for note-takingMake note-taking in class easier by selecting Voice Typing from the Tools menu. Once you click the little microphone icon that appears, anything your computer mic pics up will be put into the doc. It won’t be perfect, but it will be editable, so let it jot down everything your professor says, then revise it later for notes that match up with your lecture. Revise your notes strategically, which you can do right in Docs, too. Here are my favorite note-taking formats. If you took notes by hand in class, don't forget to digitize those and add them into the master Google Doc, either. Use an integrated dictionary for papersYou can use Google Docs' built-in dictionary within your doc by going to Tools in the top menu, then hitting Dictionary. You can even highlight a word in the doc and hit Command + Shift + Y to look it up right away. The dictionary appears in the sidebar of the screen, so you don’t need to leave the doc to Google your word. Perhaps best of all, the bottom of the panel shows synonyms that you can swap into your doc to take your vocab up a notch, which is helpful for when you’re writing an essay. (Another dictionary tip: Add any technical terms to your “personal dictionary” so the spell-checker stops flagging them by right-clicking the word and adding it. This works great for those of us with weird last names, too.) Use Find and Replace to quickly edit essaysYou can find and replace text in Google Docs by hitting Command + F. The usual search bar will appear in the top-right of the window, but if you click the three-dot menu, you’ll see not only Find, but Replace. If you’ve been misspelling someone’s name over and over throughout an essay, or using a word too many times, you can replace it quickly. You even have the option to do a full “Replace All,” or jump from instance to instance to decide if you only want to replace a few of them. Make a table of contents with little effortInsert a table of contents from the Insert menu if you need to keep a long doc organized. This only works if you format the headings on your sections by highlighting them, selecting the Format button in the menu, hovering over Paragraph styles, then selecting a header option, but it creates a great table of contents that automatically updates. If information you had on page two ends up on page three after you insert a paragraph of text above it, the table of contents will update on its own, so you don’t have to do it manually. You can also click the headers within the table of contents to quickly navigate to that section of the doc. Google Docs hacks for group projectsVersion History will save lost drafts of papers and deleted notesYou can find older versions of your doc by hitting “Version history” in the “File” menu. I didn’t know about this for a long time, and thought that since Google Docs updates automatically, any revisions I made were permanent. Not so! I’m writing this in Google Docs right now, and the software has saved two different versions in the 45 minutes I’ve been at it. This comes in handy if someone deletes something important or makes a major structural change. Compare documents, tooA similar feature is called Compare Documents and it's best if you're trying to combine input from multiple people or you're working on different drafts. Click Tools and then select Compare documents. A pop-up window will prompt you to upload the document you want to compare (like an older draft or someone else's version of the work) and fill in your name so the changes it finds can be attributable to you. If you're uploading a partner's work to compare to yours, enter their name. Once you've uploaded your document, Google Docs will highlight all the differences and attribute changes to whoever made them. Enable line numbers for long documents or group projectsIf you are working with a bunch of people in a collaborative Google Doc, enable line numbers so you can all quickly reference portions of the work among yourself. The feature simply adds little numbers down the left side of the document. This is particularly helpful if you're editing something massive, like a thesis, because it helps you keep track of exactly where information appears within your document. It's so much easier to tell your project partner they need to address an issue on page two, line seven, than to try to describe which sentence needs attention. Toggle these numbers on by hitting Tools, then Line numbers. In the line numbers sidebar, select Show line numbers. Force collaborators to work on copies, not the actual Google DocI've run across this a few times when working on assignments from professors: I'll open a Google Docs link, usually containing instructions for a project, and find their doc is not editable. So, I have to "Make a copy" that generates the document a second time in my Docs. Teachers do this so they can easily distribute a worksheet and all the students can fill it in without affecting the original version everyone has access to. It works well in that scenario, but could also be helpful if you need group members to do some independent work and don't want everyone typing into the primary document at the same time. Click "Share" on the top right of the document, change the link settings to "Anyone with the link," and choose "Editor" from the dropdown next to it. Next, copy the link and paste it into whatever you're using to share it. Before hitting send, edit the end of the link by replacing the word "edit" and everything after it with "template/preview." Use Smart Chips and Building BlocksThere's a newer feature called Smart Chips available that lets you stick interactive elements like dates, tags, files, and calendar events right into your doc. You type "@," like you would if you wanted to tag someone on Instagram, and a list of taggable options comes up. You can use it to tag group members so they are directed to a particular part of the document, link out to source material, or add in deadlines everyone can see at a glance. A complementary feature, Building Blocks, lets you add in pre-made templates using Smart Chips. You can find meeting notes or project trackers, for instance. Try typing "@project roadmap" or "@meeting notes." Google Docs hacks for everything elseYou can (and definitely do) use Google Docs for more than just writing essays. Here are some of the most convenient things I’ve been able to do with Google Docs, which usually require multiple programs when using other software. Take advantage of Google KeepFinally, don't forget about Google Keep, the note-taking app that integrates perfectly with Google Docs. I use Google Keep for all kinds of things, like shopping lists and sudden brilliant ideas, but it's excellent for jotting down notes in class, too. Tap the yellow lightbulb icon on the top right while you're in a doc to reveal the Keep sidebar menu, which will allow you to drag and drop notes and ideas straight into your document. There are plenty of note-taking apps out there, but if you're a frequent Google Docs user, I'd highly recommend trying Keep for the Docs integration here. Make editable PDFs with Google Docs (for free)You can turn your PDFs into editable text documents by uploading them to your Google Drive, then hitting “Google Docs” in the “Open With…” menu. I didn’t know you could do this until a few months ago, when my Adobe subscription lapsed and I was refusing to pay for it again on principle, since I only needed to edit one document. There can be some formatting issues when doing this, but for the most part, I’ve found that Google Docs seamlessly turns the PDF into editable text, so it's easy to make changes before saving, again, as a PDF. Sign documents for free, tooSign your documents by adding a “scribble” in Google Docs. I find the extensions for Word too complicated and the online doc editors too expensive, so before I realized you could do this right in Google Docs for free, I was printing out all these documents, signing them with a pen, and uploading pictures of them wherever they needed to go. Humiliating. Famously, I once used the doodle tool in the Instagram Story editor to sign a contract. Beyond humiliating, if innovative. To sign within Google Docs, go to Insert, then Drawing, then New. A box will appear for you to draw in. Just go to the menu option that says Select Line and hit Scribble. Now, scribble your signature in the box, hit save, and you’ll be able to insert it right in the document. Create Google Docs tasks to keep yourself focused You can also add in-text “tasks” to stay on track. This is helpful if you’re working collaboratively with a group or just need to get a massive assignment done on a particular timeline. By typing @task into the doc, you’ll prompt a dialog box that allows you to name the task, delegate it to someone (even yourself), and set a date that it needs to be completed by, so you’ll get reminders. It’s helpful to put a blank page at the beginning or end of your full doc and add all the tasks there. Google Docs puts a little checkbox next to all the tasks, too, so you can tick them off as you go. View the full article

In mid-September, many SEO professionals began noticing unusual drops in Google Search Console (GSC) data. Impressions were down, average positions shifted, and the number of reported queries changed overnight. This wasn’t the result of a ranking update but a reporting change – one that redefines how we interpret GSC visibility data going forward. What happened to GSC impressions The drop traces back to Google’s quiet decision to stop supporting the &num=100 parameter, which allowed tools and crawlers to retrieve up to 100 results per query. Once support ended, those extra data points disappeared – and with them, many of the impressions and positional averages SEOs had been tracking. While search results themselves didn’t change, GSC reporting did. Third-party platforms lost signal beyond Positions 1–20, and GSC data recalibrated to reflect real user activity rather than automated crawler noise. Why this change makes sense As I’ve spoken with SEOs and reviewed multiple sites, it’s clear we need to reset how we interpret impressions: treat the data you see now as the new normal. Discontinuing support for the &num=100 parameter makes sense. I saw the same principle in action at my community garage sale last weekend – fewer choices led to better results. It’s also easier for Google to show 10 or 20 results per search than to generate 100. While this shift disrupted tools built on the now-unsupported parameter, it didn’t affect real users. It did, however, catch the attention of SEOs who monitor every fluctuation in how Google reports data. We saw no visible changes in the SERP, but Search Console told a different story: A drop in impressions. Changes to average position. An increase in the number of queries ranking in Positions 1–20. Those shifts changed how we think about GSC data. The alligator effect Earlier in the year, we observed another pattern – the alligator effect. Starting around February, GSC charts showed rising impressions and steady clicks, creating a shape that resembled an open alligator’s mouth. Many assumed the growth was tied to AI Overviews and an increase in zero-click searches. When Google ended support for the &num=100 parameter on September 12, that alligator finally closed its mouth. Increasing impressions were referred to by some as the ‘Alligator Effect’ in Google Search Console reports. It held until around September 12 when Google stopped supporting the &100 parameter and impressions dropped back down to prior levels. Experts now believe automated crawlers inflated impression counts. The post-change drop reflects a more accurate baseline and changes how impressions should be interpreted going forward. Some impressions may even have reflected exposure in large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, that used third-party tools to scrape Google results. While unconfirmed, it suggests those inflated impressions were signals of visibility – just not on Google’s SERP. Dig deeper: SEO in the black box era: Why reports will look more like Mad Men than Search Console Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. What this means for reporting Despite the fluctuations, GSC remains the most reliable source for keyword ranking data – especially now that third-party tools no longer capture results beyond Positions 1–20. For most reporting contexts, annotate the measurement change in GSC and use the current impression and average position levels as your new baseline. Suggested annotation: “The data reported in Google Search Console (GSC) from 9/13/2025 onwards is the most accurate accounting of how your brand appears in Google organic search. GSC stopped supporting the &num=100 parameter around 9/12/2025 resulting in impressions generated by third-parties and automated crawlers being removed from reporting.” If impressions or average position are used in broader models or long-term trend analyses, adjustments between Feb. 1 and Sept. 12, 2025, may be appropriate. Option 1: Simple method Use prior-year impressions and average position up to the start of volatility in early February. When impressions began to rise sharply (Feb. 1–Sept. 12, 2025), revert to prior-year values, then use GSC data as reported from Sept. 13 onward. Option 2: Advanced method Rebuild historical impressions and average position using trend data and adjustment factors. Evaluate: Differences in fluctuation by query type or ranking position (branded, non-branded, long-tail). Metrics such as GSC clicks, which were less correlated with impressions during the affected period. Other factors unaffected by impression volatility. What to expect from GSC going forward Treat the post-change figures as the new baseline. The numbers you see now reflect how GSC will report visibility from here on. Impressions will stabilize at lower levels compared with earlier 2025 trends. Average position will level out, since it’s calculated relative to impressions. The number of unique queries reported in Positions 1–20 will hold steady. With less long-tail data, GSC will show more queries ranking in those positions. Clicks and traffic should remain consistent, confirming that user engagement with your listings hasn’t changed. Why impressions and average position still matter Even with the recalibration, impressions and average position are still key indicators of visibility and progress – just measured more accurately than before. Consistency: GSC metrics now reflect real search activity instead of automated crawler data, making them more reliable for SEO measurement. Visibility tracking: Still useful for identifying when optimizations begin to take effect. Stability: Data for keywords ranking in the top 20 positions show steadier trends than long-tail terms, since positions beyond 20 are no longer captured. A clearer baseline for visibility The impression and average position levels you see now in GSC represent a more accurate view of real user search activity. Treat these as your baseline for reporting. If impressions or average position are used in models or performance controls, normalization methods can adjust historical data. But in most cases, it’s best to move forward with current figures as-is. Google simply made fewer results available. Searchers still find what they’re looking for, and third-party tools will adapt. View the full article

Google held the Search Central Live event in Dubai just a couple of days ago. It seems like the vast majority of what was presented at the event was presented at prior events. But I wanted to share that Google again said that links or site moves or technical SEO won't fix your rankings if you have overall quality issues with your site.View the full article

Google has updated AI Mode for fantasy sports including adding in integration with FantasyPros. And OpenAI has improved the GPT-5 Instant model for signed-out users.View the full article

Metropolitan Police reports ‘increasing number’ of people recruited by foreign intelligence servicesView the full article

Bad SEO practices can harm a website‘s rankings or credibility. Or go against Google‘s guidelines. View the full article

Google Business Profile performance reports seem to be missing a chunk of call data from last week. The call data is missing from October 14 through October 16, 2025.View the full article

To rank in ChatGPT, ensure your site is crawlable, pages are well-structured, and content is up to date. View the full article

The Google Search Console performance reports seem to be stuck and not updating since October 19/20th for all profiles and websites. The weird thing is that the 24 hour view does seem to have data but when you view it over the 7 day filter, it doesn't show anything from October 19th and onwards (some see October 20th).View the full article

Comments by president Jonathan Gray come as private capital group reports better than expected resultsView the full article

Google Ads is celebrating its 25th birthday/anniversary today. Yes, Google launched AdWords 25 years ago today in 2000. In 2018, Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads and the ad labels and technology have drastically changed over the years.View the full article

The King should lean in to this moment as a chance for reform — and a wise prime minister would be advising him to do soView the full article

Learn what zero‑click search means, why clicks are down, and what to focus on instead. View the full article

In a company’s early days, culture is forged through proximity—shared desks, late nights, and the push-and-pull of turning ideas into reality. Decisions happen on the fly, and everyone knows each other by name. But as you scale—especially as a remote-first organization—that sense of connection can quietly fade. Suddenly, you realize you can’t attend every onboarding, celebrate every milestone, or even recognize every face on a Zoom call. That moment should give you pause. In fact, if it doesn’t, you’re missing a red flag. At Appfire, we’ve gone from a small crew to nearly 800 people across multiple continents. Our remote-first approach lets people “work where they wake up,” but it also brings a new set of leadership challenges. In a world defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), the old playbook of hallway conversations and impromptu lunches doesn’t cut it. Staying connected—and relevant—requires intentional, adaptable systems for communication, empathy, and trust. Here’s what I’ve learned (often the hard way): what works for 50 people absolutely breaks at 800. Here are four principles I rely on to keep our culture intact as we grow—no matter how turbulent or complex the environment. Communicate Consistently to Anchor Culture When you can’t rely on physical presence, communication from leadership becomes your presence. Within my first month at Appfire, I started recording biweekly Loom videos—short, informal updates on everything from board meeting takeaways to customer feedback, industry trends, and what’s keeping me up at night. They’re deliberately unpolished. The point is authenticity, not production value. But it’s not just about me talking at people. Company-wide meetings—virtual or otherwise—are vital for transparency and alignment. Switch up the format: one month, an unscripted Q&A; the next, a focused all-hands on product milestones or wins. Routine is good, but predictability can breed apathy. Variety keeps people engaged and shows that leadership is present, listening, and invested—even across time zones. In VUCA environments, these touchpoints become cultural anchors—steadying the ship when the waters get rough. Lead with Empathy—Especially Through Change Growth brings change: new processes, shifting priorities, new faces. This can breed friction, especially when people feel overlooked or misunderstood. Empathy isn’t just a “soft skill”—it’s table stakes for leadership, particularly in uncertain or ambiguous circumstances. You don’t need every answer, but you do need to listen—really listen. Ask questions. Make it clear you’re aware of the daily realities people face, whether they’re your tenth hire or your 900th. Empathy creates psychological safety, unlocking collaboration and innovation—even as the ground shifts beneath us. And in a globally distributed, remote-first workforce, empathy means honoring differences: work styles, time zones, communication preferences. Flexibility and inclusion aren’t perks—they’re strategic imperatives in a complex world. Assume Positive Intent—and Seek to Understand First As companies scale, silos form. Communication happens over Slack, Zoom, or email—easy recipes for misinterpretation. My default? Assume positive intent. When something doesn’t make sense, I encourage teams to seek understanding first, not just to be understood. This mindset is a buffer against the ambiguity that naturally creeps in as organizations grow and evolve. It’s especially critical during moments of change—new tools, shifting strategies, re-orgs. Curiosity over judgment fosters better collaboration, healthier conflict, and ultimately, stronger relationships. As a leader, you have to model this. It sets the tone for everyone else, especially when things get messy. Focus on What You Can Control Let’s be honest: the world isn’t getting any simpler. Markets swing, technologies disrupt, geopolitics intrude. In a volatile, complex landscape, the temptation is to hunker down or get distracted by what you can’t control. Resist it. We can’t manage macroeconomics or global events. But we can control the quality of our products, the strength of our partnerships, the depth of our customer relationships, and the authenticity of our culture. We can prioritize creating real value over chasing hype. We can show up for each other. Grounding teams in what’s controllable fosters resilience, clarity, and focus—even amid chaos. Intention Over Scale Scaling isn’t about headcount. It’s about evolving how you lead when the old rules no longer apply. CEOs of remote-first, high-growth companies can’t lean on proximity or familiarity. We have to be intentional—about communication, empathy, trust, and clarity. These aren’t “nice-to-haves.” In a VUCA world, they’re the infrastructure of sustainable growth. At Appfire, I may never know every employee personally—but I want every employee to feel like they know me. Not through perfect videos, but through a cadence of authentic, consistent leadership. Staying connected isn’t about scale. It’s about deliberate intention in the face of complexity and uncertainty. That’s how you build a culture that scales—and survives—in a remote, unpredictable world. View the full article

Research shows that an employee’s perception of what makes an authentic leader is the most significant predictor of job satisfaction and happiness at work. And I experienced this firsthand when my boss said three simple words that changed everything. You see, as a journalist, I was always accustomed to someone checking, editing, and approving every piece before publication. So when I asked my new boss yet another question about a piece of content I was working on, his response shocked me. He turned around and said, “I trust you.” I was blown away because it was a huge shift. For the first time, Someone is encouraging me to trust my own judgement instead of seeking approval. It was the complete opposite of everything perfectionism had reinforced in me. And while that was a breakthrough moment for me, I’d realized just how much perfectionism had shaped me leading up to that moment. Thriving from failure Back in 2011, I was living my dream. I was on stage at the New York Comedy Club, about to deliver my first five-minute stand-up set in America. I’d memorized and rehearsed and memorized every word. After I delivered my first joke, my mind went completely blank. Nothing. For 30 excruciating seconds, I stood frozen like a deer in headlights. When I looked down at my palm for my SOS backup notes, all I saw was a giant smudge mark. My nervous, sweaty hands totally smeared the ink. I looked around the room, locked eyes with a friend, and took a desperate breath. Eventually, my jokes came flooding back. But I replayed that freeze for years on loop in my mind. That experience taught me that perfectionism isn’t protection at all. Far from it. It’s actually a trap. We think we’re safe when we’ve mapped everything out, but it’s actually the opposite. If we forget one tiny point, everything unravels quickly. Research distinguishes between excellence-seeking perfectionism (driven by high standards) and failure-avoiding perfectionism (driven by fear and concerns). So many of us are trapped in the latter, with this fear disconnecting us from our authentic voice. This kind of perfectionism is sneaky because it disguises itself as high standards. And it’s also very, very convincing. Trying to meet an impossible standard I see this pattern constantly. One leader at a recent presentation skills workshop was convinced she needed to get everything right. But when I asked, “According to who?” she couldn’t answer. We laughed, her shoulders dropped, and she smiled. Her entire presence shifted. Authentic leadership requires presence, vulnerability, honesty, and trust. But it’s rigidity that causes fear-driven perfectionism. When you’re trapped in perfectionism, you’re chasing an impossible standard, instead of leading from a true place. And teams can feel that disconnect. After I froze on stage in New York, I made a decision. I would never memorize another performance. Instead, I learned to be present, trust myself, and adapt. And the result was always better performances and much deeper connections because I was finally in the room with my audience instead of being trapped in my head. The antidote to perfectionism isn’t lowering our standards. It’s raising authenticity. Preventing perfectionism from getting in the way I’ve learned that below are the key steps to follow if you want to prevent perfectionism from getting in the way of your success: Own your mistakes openly. When you admit your mistakes, you give others permission to stop hiding theirs and start learning from them instead. Share what didn’t work. I tell leaders about bombed pitches and lost rooms. Failure can build connections very quickly. Say “I don’t know.” When someone asks you something you haven’t considered or you don’t have the answer to, admit it. This creates the space for honest connections. Get comfortable with version #1. My comedy coach Judy Carter said, “Get your ideas out there because you can always make them better.” At the end of the day, done is way better than perfect. When my boss said those three words to me, he gave me something powerful. And that’s permission to trust myself. Sure, perfectionism might make you look good, but authentic leadership is what actually transforms people and is what allows you to build true connections and relationships that will last for years to come. View the full article

Headlines alternate between massive AI investments and reports of failed deployments. The pattern is consistent across industries: seemingly promising AI projects that work well in testing environments struggle or fail when deployed in real-world conditions. It’s not insufficient computing power, inadequate talent, or immature algorithms. I’ve worked with over 250 enterprises deploying visual AI—from Fortune 10 manufacturers to emerging unicorns—and the pattern is unmistakable: the companies that succeed train their models on what actually breaks them, while the ones that fail optimize for what works in controlled environments. The Hidden Economics of AI Failure When Amazon quietly rolled back its “Just Walk Out” technology from most U.S. grocery stores in 2024, the media focused on the obvious: customers were confused, technology wasn’t ready, labor costs weren’t eliminated as promised. But the real lesson was subtler and more valuable. Amazon’s visual AI could accurately identify a shopper picking up a Coke in ideal conditions—well-lit aisles, single shoppers, products in their designated spots. The system failed on the edge cases that define real-world retail: crowded aisles, group shopping, items returned to wrong shelves, inventory that constantly shifts. The core issue wasn’t technological sophistication—it was data strategy. Amazon had trained their models on millions of hours of video, but the wrong millions of hours. They optimized for the common scenarios while underweighting the chaos that drives real-world retail. Amazon continues to refine the technology—a strategy that highlights the core challenge with visual AI deployment. The issue wasn’t insufficient computing power or algorithmic sophistication. The models needed more comprehensive training data that captured the full spectrum of customer behaviors, not just the most common scenarios. This is the billion dollar blind spot: Most enterprises are solving the wrong data problem. Focusing on the right data, not just more data Enterprises often assume that simply scaling data—collecting millions more images or video hours—will close the performance gap. But visual AI doesn’t fail because of too little data; it fails because of the wrong data. The companies that consistently succeed have learned to curate their datasets with the same rigor they apply to their models. They deliberately seek out and label the hard cases: the scratches that barely register on a part, the rare disease presentation in a medical image, the one-in-a-thousand lighting condition on a production line, or the pedestrian darting out from between parked cars at dusk. These are the cases that break models in deployment—and the cases that separate an adequate system from a production-ready one. This is why data quality is quickly becoming the real competitive advantage in visual AI. Smart companies aren’t chasing sheer volume; they’re investing in tools to measure, curate, and continuously improve their datasets. First-hand experience As the CEO of a visual AI startup—Voxel51—these challenges are something I’ve lived first-hand. My co-founder and I started the company after seeing how bad data derails AI projects. In 2017, while working with the city of Baltimore to deploy vision systems on its CitiWatch camera network to aid first responders, we experienced the pain of creating datasets, training models, and diagnosing failures without the right tools. That work inspired us to build our own platform, which became FiftyOne—now the most widely adopted open source toolkit for visual AI with more than three million installs. Today, more than 250 enterprises, including Berkshire Grey, Google, Bosch, and Porsche, use it to put data quality at the center of their AI strategy. Here are just a few outcomes: Allstate improved data quality in vehicle damage inspection by automating the pipeline—segmenting parts, detecting damages, and matching repair costs—reducing hours of manual effort while ensuring consistent results. Raytheon Technologies Research Center organized and filtered large research datasets to surface meaningful patterns in complex image attributes, turning noisy data into usable insights. A Fortune 500 agriculture tech company curated training data from harvesters to improve grain segmentation, capturing edge cases like unhusked and sprouting kernels for more robust models. A Fortune 500 company curated visual data to detect defective screens before shipment, preventing costly recalls and customer returns. SafelyYou shows the impact of this approach. The company’s system helps care delivery in senior care facilities with models that help reduce fall-related ER visits by 80%. The key wasn’t just massive scale—60 million minutes of video—but the ability to curate variations in how seniors actually fall: different lighting, speeds, body types, and obstacles. By automating checks for annotation mistakes and model blind spots, they cut manual review by 77%, boosted precision scores by 10%, and saved up to 80 developer hours each month. The Path Forward For executives evaluating visual AI investments, the lesson is clear: success is driven not by bigger models or more compute, but by treating data as the foundation. Organizations that prioritize data quality consistently outperform those that focus primarily on technology infrastructure or talent acquisition. Investments in data collection, curation, and management systems are the levers that truly move the needle. By embedding scenario analysis into data strategy—modeling how different data quality, diversity, or labeling scenarios impact performance—companies can anticipate risks, optimize resource allocation, and make more informed AI investments. Ultimately, the most successful visual AI initiatives are those that integrate rigorous data practices with forward-looking scenario planning, ensuring that models deliver reliable performance across a range of real-world conditions. View the full article

Early in my (Chantal’s) career, my manager, Scott, shared something in my annual review that I’ll never forget. My sarcastic sense of humor made some people uncomfortable. He recommended that I “tone it down a bit.” I felt embarrassed and defensive. Since I was young, I’d always leveraged humor to connect and signal mental acuity. The feedback made me question what I thought I knew. Was my presumed superpower actually a liability? The conversation rattled me, and I didn’t know what to do with the feedback. So often, early-career professionals enter the workforce and receive technical feedback from managers: fix code this way, prepare for a check-in using this template, sequence slides like this for a presentation. This type of feedback is helpful. Too often though, managers are nervous to share behavioral feedback (like what Scott gave to me). They worry that it’ll come across as too subjective and therefore not valid or offensive to the receiver. These are reasonable concerns, but unfortunately, perception can impact how your career progresses. It might be jarring (and unfair) to receive this kind of feedback, but you can actually use it to your advantage. If you’re lucky enough to have a manager who gives behavioral feedback, here’s how to move from unproductively rattled to productively responsive. This way, you can leverage the feedback to grow professionally. Be open (not defensive) As humans, we are wired to self-protect ourselves from danger. Research shows that feedback activates the brain’s threat response. As a result, it can be difficult to accept feedback. To resist a fight, flee or freeze reaction, start by giving yourself grace. As humans, we all have blind spots. That doesn’t mean we’re not good enough the way we are. Then remind yourself that every piece of feedback is one person’s perspective, not a fact. We’re allowed to hold it at arm’s length, examine it, and decide if accepting it would support our professional development. When we are “at choice,” we can treat feedback with curiosity, which encourages growth. Practice gratitude Saying thank you releases dopamine and contributes to overall well-being. This is a great antidote to the “fear of not being good enough,” which we often experience when confronted with difficult feedback. Take a moment to appreciate the thoughtfulness of the person who is trying to help you develop and explicitly thank them. This might sound like, “I imagine sharing that feedback was difficult, and I’m really grateful you did. It’s important I understand how I’m experienced by others. Thank you.” Ask open-ended questions Resist asking the feedback deliverer for numerous examples to back their point. Remember, it’s not a litigation. This approach will ensure that you don’t receive useful feedback from them in the future. Instead, get curious about their experience of you with follow-up questions like, How did that affect you? What else feels important for me to know? What advice, if any, do you have for me? Resist doing the opposite When we receive difficult feedback, it can be tempting to respond by doing the opposite of what we’ve been doing. But, critical behavioral feedback we receive is often an overdone strength, not a behavior to abandon entirely. For example, one client, Izzy, exuded optimism. She always saw the best in colleagues or opportunities and could frequently be heard saying, “Don’t worry, it’ll all work out!” and “Sure, it’s possible, no problem.” Unfortunately, over time, her relentless positivity started eroding her reputation. Some people perceived her to be naive and thought that she lacked critical thinking skills. Upon hearing this feedback, Izzy felt self-conscious and began to shift her behavior in a dramatic way. She wanted to prove that she could operate with a skeptical eye, “It sounds like I should always be the devil’s advocate in the room,” she said. But this reaction would have created a host of other issues. Other colleagues suddenly saw her as overly negative or even inauthentic. Instead, to support Izzy’s growth, we worked together to invite a little more critical judgment into her leadership to complement her gift of seeing what’s possible. When you get tough feedback, instead of over-dialing, figure out specific behaviors that you might be exaggerating. And then, rather than trying to adjust the dial by 180 degrees, try to change it by just 20 degrees. Make small adjustments How do you adjust just 20 degrees? Experiment with new behaviors. Make the experiments small, easy, and playful so they feel appealing versus daunting. For example, my client, Drew, received feedback that he “talked too much and came off as a know-it-all in meetings.” So he decided to conduct an experiment. For a week, he committed to practicing affirming someone else’s idea and asking a curious question when someone contributed in meetings before saying what he thought. This sounded like, “Lisa, I see how that could help progress things. Who else do you think we could involve to make it happen?’“ At the end of the week, he reflected on how it went, what he learned, and what he wanted to do more or less of the next week. This type of experimentation enabled incremental growth that led to meaningful shifts in how others saw him. The importance of feedback All of us need to receive feedback to hone and continue to grow our skills. For me (Chantal), I started paying closer attention to the way my humor landed with colleagues. I started noticing when my sarcasm enhanced connection and the times when too much levity diminished psychological safety or signaled less professional behavior. Scott’s feedback equipped me to use my superpower more skillfully and navigate the nuanced professional realm with greater effectiveness. Ultimately, we must all know if our humor isn’t landing, our communication is too blunt, or our empathy is overbearing. When we have the courage to hear about how others see us at work and are willing to adjust our behavior, we’re able to have a bigger impact in our careers and in life. View the full article

Twenty-five years ago, Google unveiled Adwords, which pledged to enable advertisers “to quickly design a flexible program that best fits [their] online marketing goals and budget,” Google cofounder Larry Page said at the time. The principle was simple. AdWords allowed advertisers to purchase individualized, affordable keyword-based advertising that appears alongside search results used by hundreds of millions of people every day. That decision was a game changer for Google. Advertising now accounts for around three in every four dollars of revenue the company has made so far this year, growing 10% in the last year alone. The product, since renamed Google Ads, has powered the company to prosperity, cementing its position at the top of the search space. But a quarter of a century on, artificial intelligence could force an overhaul of Google Ads. “The shift from traditional search to AI answer engines represents the greatest challenge to Google’s $200 billion monetization engine we’ve ever seen,” says Aengus Boyle, vice president of media at VaynerMedia, a strategy and creative agency set up by entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. That’s not because competitors are siphoning away users from Google: The company’s global daily active users are up 13% year on year, with nearly 2 billion people logging on to Google services every day, according to Bank of America estimates. But because Google is starting to layer in AI-tailored answers into the front page of its search results—often above the advertisements and blue links to sources that helped make its name over the last 25 years—its ability to bring in ad revenue could take a serious hit. “If AI answers start replacing traditional Google searches, that’s a real threat to the whole cash engine,” says Fergal O’Connor, CEO of Buymedia, an ad platform company. “Google makes most of its money from ads tied to clicks. The more queries, the more ad space, the more revenue.” The problem is that AI summaries of search results make it less necessary to click through to websites. So far, that’s been to the consternation of website owners, who rely on visits to their websites in order to sustain their business models. In time, it could harm Google itself. “If people stop clicking through to sites because they get what they need from an AI summary, that entire model takes a hit,” O’Connor says. Of course, Google will “obviously try to wedge ads into the AI answers,” notes O’Connor—and indeed, the company is already doing so—but he says it’s not a like-for-like comparison. “One generative answer replaces a full results page of ad inventory, so it’s fewer impressions, fewer clicks, and less data flowing through the system,” he explains. However, if anyone is best placed to capitalize on those changes, it’s Google, Boyle predicts. “Their clearest advantage lies within Google Ads—which has allowed them to integrate ads into new AI discovery surfaces, like AI Overviews and AI Mode, faster than any of their competitors in the space,” he says. O’Connor believes that Google will adapt to the new norm, with AI being altering—but not terminal—to the future of advertising. “If people genuinely stop ‘Googling’ and start ‘asking,’ the whole search economy has to reinvent itself,” O’Connor says. “But if you’ve been around the digital ad space for a few decades, you’ll know that we’ve survived a few events that were billed as being apocalyptic to the industry.” Google has had 25 years to understand how best to target and present ads to its users and to squeeze out everything it can from the ad industry. It’s best placed to secure another 25 years of dominance, even if it requires some changes. View the full article

In what is somehow a real-life event and not an overwrought metaphor for the state of American democracy, earlier this week, work crews began tearing down the East Wing of the White House in order to make room for President Donald The President’s planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom addition. Previously, The President had said that the project would not “interfere” with the existing building, which now appears to be accurate only in the sense that by sometime this weekend, the East Wing will no longer exist. The ballroom, which has an estimated cost of $250 million and a conspicuously uncertain completion date, will allow a president who feels most comfortable holding court at his chintzy Florida social club to enjoy a reasonable facsimile in D.C., complete with gold and crystal chandeliers, a gold-accented ceiling, and gold floor lamps. For months, The President has boasted that he wouldn’t pay for the ballroom’s construction using public resources, which is perhaps the plan’s only saving grace. But as the government shutdown enters its fourth week and millions of federal workers continue to go unpaid, the president has opted for a financing model that is grotesque and insulting in a different way: passing the tab along to a menagerie of wealthy opportunists eager to curry favor with a president who values personal fealty above all else. The President has fantasized for years, even before he entered politics, about being the man who expanded the White House, and reportedly reached out to the Obama administration in 2010 to offer to build a ballroom himself. He also claims to have approached the Biden White House with the same offer, which, given their history, is a conversation I assume would not include much by way of small talk. Now that The President is president for a second time, he’s been champing at the bit to follow through. Shortly after taking office, he mused about building his “beautiful, beautiful ballroom,” and in August, he told reporters who spotted him walking on the White House roof that he was looking for “more ways to spend my money for the country.” The President has also said that managing the business of real estate is “relaxing” for him, an interesting insight into his priorities that is, in my view, bad news for anyone who hopes he’s working diligently to reopen the government he runs. Last Wednesday, The President hosted a dinner at the White House to court deep-pocketed prospective donors to underwrite the ballroom project, which he variously described to them as “phenomenal” and “totally appropriate.” The guest list, according to The New York Times, included representatives from many of the Big Tech brands that distanced themselves from The President during his first White House tenure, and are now doing their best to make him forget about it: among others, Amazon, Apple, Google, HP, Meta, and Microsoft. Also well-represented at dinner was the crypto industry, whose luminaries are by now used to opening their checkbooks whenever The President asks. Representatives from Coinbase, Ripple, Tether were in attendance; so were the Winklevoss twins, who now run the crypto exchange Gemini, and Charles and Marissa Cascarilla, whose company, Paxos, is the blockchain partner for PayPal. Also listening to The President’s pitch were a handful of big-name companies with lucrative government contracts, whose executives even more of an incentive to contribute to the president’s latest vanity project. Lockheed Martin, for example, holds multiyear defense contracts worth billions of dollars; the consulting firm of Booz Allen Hamilton does business almost exclusively with the federal government; Peter Thiel’s Palantir, which has been an integral part of the U.S. defense and intelligence infrastructure for years, recently inked a $10 billion contract to provide software support services to the Army for the next decade. Under this administration, it appears that an implicit condition of continuing to do business with the government is doing little favors for The President upon request. Even bit players in the MAGA universe who have good reason to believe they are already in The President’s inner circle still felt compelled to show up: Kelly Loeffler, the former Georgia senator whom The President appointed to lead the Small Business Administration; Benjamin Leon, Jr., whom The President has nominated to serve as ambassador to Spain, and the Lutnick family, whose patriarch, Howard, is currently the Secretary of Commerce. On the one hand, it feels remarkable to me that a sitting Cabinet member would perceive no optics problems with allowing his boss to solicit his family for cash on an ongoing basis. On the other hand, given this president’s history of firing Cabinet members who do not conduct themselves at all times as vassals privileged to be in his presence, obediently attending is probably the prudent choice. A final list of donors has yet to be released, but The President says the project is fully funded. Per CBS News, Google, Booz Allen, and Palantir (among others) have all agreed to donate, as has Lockheed Martin, which has given somewhere north of $10 million. And in his remarks at the dinner last week, which was advertised on gold-lettered invitations exhorting recipients to help “establish the magnificent White House Ballroom,” The President praised unnamed attendees for being “really, really generous,” and insinuated that some in the audience had given as much as $25 million. A pledge form obtained by CBS News allows donors to “The Donald J. The President Ballroom at the White House” to pay in a lump sum or on a three-part installment plan, and teases that they will be eligible for some sort of “recognition,” which could entail etched signage on the ballroom’s exterior. There is probably no better illustration of the The President administration’s approach to governance than gut-renovating “the People’s House” by adding a co-branded, corporate-sponsored wing to it. One of the larger confirmed donations so far reveals just how high the stakes can be for those whom The President asks to give. About $22 million—roughly 10% of the total price tag—comes from the money YouTube agreed to pay The President last month to settle a lawsuit he brought over the company’s decision to suspend his account in the aftermath of January 6. If you are keeping track at home, this means that a Silicon Valley giant that was kicking him off its platform four years ago is now waving the white flag in the form of an eight-figure check. At the dinner, The President could not resist obliquely celebrating his reversal of fortune one last time: “It’s amazing the way a victory can change the minds of some people,” he said, according to The New York Times. Officially, YouTube wrote its check to the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit involved in funding the ballroom’s construction. But the takeaway from this episode is pretty clear: The people and companies The President solicits can either surrender what amounts to a rounding error on their balance sheets, thus earning The President’s praise and enjoying a significant tax write-off. Or they can pass, and run the risk that The President turns around and uses the legal system to shake them down for even more. Wealthy people buying access to power is not new; for that matter, neither is wealthy people spending their money on decor that was already garish four decades ago. But the president’s preoccupation with rebuilding the White House in his image—and his supporters’ willingness to chip in—lays bare the extent to which decisions in this administration are getting made by people who have no idea what life is like in this country for those who are not billionaires. The President’s government might not be open, but it is as for sale as it ever was, for anyone who can afford to pay the price. View the full article

Home loan players are diverting technology budgets to cover back-office operations, after big spending in a downcycle, counter to historical patterns. View the full article

Google's new BlockRank AI ranking method could make advanced semantic search accessible to everyone. The post Google’s New BlockRank Democratizes Advanced Semantic Search appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Insincerity is the mother of deceit. Whenever we say something we don’t mean, we tell a lie. It may be a small misrepresentation, but it’s still a lie as we are being dishonest to hide what we truly think and feel. Repeated insincerity breaks down trust, communication, and understanding. So why do organizations, often without even knowing it, encourage insincerity in their employees? The answer lies a little with social media and a lot in narcissism. NARCISSISTS, NARCISSISTS, EVERYWHERE Since the early 1980s, psychologists have been tracking a steady rise in narcissism: a growing self-consciousness and preoccupation with our image and what other people say about us. The exact cause remains unclear. Changes in parenting styles, increasing individualism, and a cultural obsession with self-esteem have all been blamed. Social media has accelerated the trend, but the rise started well before the likes of Facebook arrived, with one large study of college students finding a 30% increase in levels of narcissism in the 25 years leading up to Facebook’s launch. Whatever the cause, the effect has been widespread. People have grown more sensitive to how others view them. You can see it in how people curate a personal brand on Instagram and a professional one on LinkedIn. Cancel culture and political leaders appearing to prize loyalty over competence have hammered home the message: Be careful what you say and do or risk the consequences. Even if it isn’t top of mind, the pressure sits in our culture and shapes our behavior. ORGANIZATIONS, TOO And it’s not just individuals that are becoming more narcissistic, but organizations, too. Because around the same time as psychologists started tracking rises in individual narcissism, they also identified what has come to be called organizational narcissism. Firms increasingly seek visible loyalty from their employees, and emphasize the importance of everyone being “aligned” and “on the same page.” As with individuals, organizations have always focused on image to some degree, but evidence suggests they are doing so more than ever before. Broad social forces play a role. Leaders, like individuals, now obsess over reputation. Social media and cancel culture have forced firms to guard their online image. With any message able to spread globally in seconds, firms understandably try to control what employees say about them. Some positive factors, such as organizations investing more in motivating and communicating with employees feed into this. But less positive factors matter to. If today’s CEOs are more narcissistic or image-conscious than they were 30 years ago, then they may create a culture in which perceived disloyalty is less tolerated. All this drives organizations to demand affirmation and alignment from employees. What started as a growing awareness of brand image and employee motivation has often morphed into a preoccupation with positivity and controlling what gets said. Even when firms don’t demand this, because individuals have become more image-conscious, employees may nonetheless perceive organizations as requiring these things. An environment in which everyone is positive about a firm can be a good thing. But it is too easy for it to tip to become toxic for individuals and dangerous for the organization. SIGNS AND SOLUTIONS The warning signs of organizational narcissism resemble the symptoms found in individual narcissism. A preoccupation with image and what people say, punishing perceived disloyalty or noncompliance, and reacting negatively to questioning. What matters most is not whether firms behave this way, but whether employees believe they do. The consequences are always damaging. Just as with individuals, organisational narcissism erodes trust, communication, and understanding. Studies show that trying too hard to create a culture of positivity can undermine information flow and decision-making, making them blind to their weaknesses. Some argue that organizational narcissism is an inevitable consequence of a capitalist-driven need to succeed against all competition. They may be correct to some degree. But not entirely. Firms can avoid a slide into overdone loyalty and positivity. The writer Somerset Maugham once said, “What we call insincerity is often just a method by which we can avoid an unpleasantness.” By “unpleasantness” he meant a disagreement. And that disagreement is exactly what breaks insincerity. Leaders and organizations, must actively seeking out, encourage, and reward debate and questioning. They must step back from a preoccupation with whether internal communications make leaders look authentic and inspiring. Instead, they should focus on whether they enable employees to be authentic and inspiring themselves. Because there’s only one thing worse than a negative and disgruntled employee, and that’s an insincere one. View the full article

Party cadres met this week in Beijing to lay groundwork for next five-year planView the full article

The Washington, D.C., architectural firm that President Donald The President tapped to design his White House ballroom is known for its ornamental, classical architecture, but the firm’s work is not generally known, even by design aficionados. Crews are now demolishing the entirety of the East Wing for an expansive, $250 million new space designed by McCrery Architects, which compared to the detailed, hi-fi portfolios of today’s most prominent architectural firms, has a strikingly light online footprint. The firm’s site shows only contact information for new commission inquiries and a slideshow of work that includes artist renderings of the planned ballroom. There’s no longer a list of its projects, but an archived list reveals a CV that leans ecclesiastical. Its Instagram account is bare. “Committed to Tradition and Excellence,” its bio reads, but there are no posts. The firm’s portfolio is heavy on churches, and it’s now fast building up public-sector work, driven by a love of classical American architecture. “The very best American architecture is classical architecture once made American,” James McCrery, the firm’s founder and principal, said last year during a talk at the conservative Hillsdale College. “Americans love classical architecture because it is our nation’s formative architecture and we love our nation’s formation.” Here are some of the firm’s most notable projects, as its work on one of the most iconic buildings in the U.S. gets underway. Wiki Commons Ecclesiastical architecture Catholic churches are the most common building type in the firm’s portfolio. McCrery Architects has designed several houses of worship, including the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Knoxville, Tennessee; Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Our Lady of the Mountains in Highlands, North Carolina. Wiki Commons The firm’s design for St. Mary Help of Christians in Aiken, South Carolina, won the John Russell Pope Award in 2017 for the traditional architecture contest’s Ecclesiastical Design over 3,000 square feet category. In a 2015 reflection about the building, McCrery said the church was “designed to encourage and strengthen all in the Faith . . . [and] intentionally made to be beautiful,” which typifies his and his firm’s approach to design. This year, McCrery Architects was awarded for the baptismal font at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Gloversville, New York. Wiki Commons McCrery’s work in academia McCrery Architects designed the University Saint Mary of the Lake Feehan Memorial Library in Mundelein, Illinois, and the Saint Thomas Aquinas Chapel at the University of Nebraska’s Saint John Newman Center in Lincoln. Public-sector work The firm’s government work has grown from designing a statue pedestal and gift shop to making one of the biggest changes to the most famous federal government building in the U.S. Here are the details. McCrery designed the pedestal for California’s statue of Ronald Reagan for the National Statuary Hall Collection in 2009. Each state can send two statues to the collection at the U.S. Capitol, and McCrery made the Tennessee Rose marble pedestal for artist Chas Fagan’s statue of the late president and former California governor and actor. The pedestal includes concrete pieces from the Berlin Wall. McCrery’s firm also designed the U.S. Supreme Court’s book and gift shop, and, according to the Catholic University of America, the North Carolina state legislature commissioned the firm to create a master plan for its historic State Capitol Grounds. The White House ballroom The firm’s White House project is now its most visible work—and it’s most controversial. The sudden demolition to make room for a privately funded addition shocked at least one former White House resident, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation asked the The President administration and National Park Service to pause until plans can go through the legally required public review processes that it says include consultations, reviews, and public comment. The President’s White House makeover parallels his attempts at expanding presidential and state power, and represents an outward, physical manifestation of a wider The President project to remake the presidency and leave a mark in his second term. Like using emergency economic powers to impose tariffs or sending National Guard troops into U.S. cities, The President’s power plays today feel anything but precedented or traditional. Traditional, though, is exactly what the architect who designed his grand ballroom is trained in. View the full article

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