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For years, digital marketing has seen constant debates about the “death” of SEO. But as long as people search for information, products, and services online, optimization will remain essential. Search platforms may evolve – whether Google, social media, ecommerce, or AI-driven search – but the core principle stays the same: content must be optimized for discoverability. This article examines: Why optimization remains crucial across search platforms – from Google to social media, ecommerce, and beyond. The enduring relevance of SEO. Its evolution in an AI-driven landscape. Understanding SEO beyond Google SEO is often associated solely with Google, but that is an overly narrow perspective. While Google dominates search, optimization principles apply to multiple platforms, including: Ecommerce platforms: Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and others require SEO for product listings to rank higher in searches. Social media platforms: YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok have search functionalities, and content must be optimized to reach the right audience. App stores: Both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store require app store optimization (ASO) to rank apps effectively. Voice search and AI assistants: Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant depend on optimized content to deliver accurate results. Enterprise and internal search engines: Large businesses and organizations optimize internal search engines to help employees find relevant documents and resources. Streaming and podcast platforms: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other audio platforms use optimization for show titles, descriptions, and metadata to improve discoverability. News and blog SEO: Publishers optimize articles for Google News and organic rankings to attract readers. As long as users continue to search for content on digital platforms, optimization will remain an essential practice, regardless of what we call it. Dig deeper: Search everywhere optimization – 7 platforms SEOs need to optimize for beyond Google Optimization is about user preferences, not just search algorithms The core of SEO is not just about appeasing search engine algorithms. It’s about understanding what users need. Optimization ensures content is structured, tagged, and presented to meet users’ expectations. Keyword optimization and intent matching Search engines aim to deliver results that match user intent. Whether someone searches for “best running shoes for beginners” or “how to start a business,” optimized content ensures they get the most relevant answers. Dig deeper: Rethinking your keyword strategy – Why optimizing for search intent matters Fast-loading and mobile-friendly experiences Page speed and mobile responsiveness play a crucial role in user experience. Websites that load slowly or display poorly on mobile devices lose engagement, which impacts rankings and visibility. Content structure and readability Search engines and users both prefer well-organized content. Headers, bullet points, meta descriptions, and schema markup help search engines understand content better, leading to improved rankings. Dig deeper: What is content readability and how to make your content easier to read Engagement signals Platforms use engagement metrics such as click-through rates and time on page to determine content quality. Well-optimized content keeps users engaged, signaling to algorithms that it is valuable. Personalized search Search engines personalize results based on user behavior, location, and preferences. Optimization helps you tailor content to meet specific audience needs. Dig deeper: How to boost your marketing revenue with personalization, connectivity and data Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. Business email address Sign me up! Processing... See terms. SEO shifts with the times: You need to stay ahead Search behavior is constantly evolving, and SEO must keep up. What worked five years ago may not work today, but that doesn’t mean optimization is irrelevant. Rather than disappearing, it is shifting to align with new search trends, technologies, and user expectations. AI and machine learning in search Some believe traditional SEO is becoming obsolete, but AI-powered search still relies on optimized content to deliver relevant results. Google’s RankBrain, BERT, and other AI-driven updates have shifted search from simple keyword matching to natural language processing and semantic search. This means SEO is no longer just about keywords but about understanding user intent and structuring content for AI discoverability. To stay ahead, SEOs must adapt by: Using structured data to help AI interpret content accurately. Focusing on entity-based optimization rather than just keywords. Optimizing for conversational search experiences. Rather than diminishing SEO, AI search reinforces the need for high-quality, well-structured content. SEOs who evolve with these changes will remain essential in the digital landscape. Dig deeper: AI optimization – How to optimize your content for AI search and agents Zero-click searches, AI Overviews, and featured snippets Google is increasingly showing direct answers in featured snippets, reducing the need for users to click on traditional links. AI Overviews take this further, synthesizing multiple sources. However, both still depend on authoritative, well-structured content. SEOs must focus on content clarity, schema markup, and authority signals to ensure their content is featured in these results. Voice search With smart speakers and voice assistants growing in popularity, people now use conversational queries like “Where’s the nearest Italian restaurant?” Optimizing for voice search requires a shift to long-tail keywords and local SEO. Video and image search optimization Platforms like YouTube and Google Lens rely on optimization strategies such as captions, alt text, and structured metadata to rank video and image content. SEO is alive and will keep evolving SEO is not going anywhere. As long as people search for information, the need for optimization will persist. The terminology may change – some may call it “digital discoverability,” “content optimization,” or “search experience management” – but the core principle remains the same: If you want your content to be found, you need optimization. As part of the search industry, SEOs must educate business owners about building a complete web presence. It’s not just about ranking on Google; it’s about ensuring visibility across all digital touchpoints, including: AI-driven search. Social media. Ecommerce. Emerging platforms. And more. The credibility of any search platform depends on the efficiency of its organic search results. History has shown that neglecting organic search – as seen in Yahoo’s decline – can lead to a loss of trust and relevance. The lesson is clear: optimization remains a cornerstone of digital success. Rather than fearing change, SEOs should focus on evolving strategies to stay ahead in a dynamic landscape. View the full article

Over the last month, Jamie Dimon has rapidly emerged as one of the most vocal proponents of the return-to-office movement. During a recent appearance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, the J.P. Morgan Chase CEO could not help but complain—again—about workers who were pushing back on RTO policies. When fielding a question about his recent colorful remarks on RTO, Dimon noted that it was only “people in the middle” who were unhappy about going into the office. “If you work in a restaurant, you’ve got to be in. You all may not know this, but 60% of Americans worked the whole time,” he said, seemingly in reference to the pandemic. “Where did you get your Amazon packages from? Your beef, your meat, your vodka? Where did you get the diapers from?” “You got UPS and FedEx and manufacturers and agriculture and hospitals and cities and schools and nurses and sanitation and firemen and military. They all worked,” he added. “It’s only these people in the middle who complain a lot about it.” Dimon has had a lot to say about workers who are reluctant to return to the office. This month, J.P. Morgan started requiring that employees come into the office five days a week, officially ending its hybrid work policy. The new mandate—which was announced at the start of the year and echoes a broader shift across corporate America—stirred up discontent among the company’s workforce and even prompted an online petition making a case for hybrid work, which has since drawn nearly 2,000 signatures. Dimon, however, was quick to dismiss employee concerns. “I don’t care how many people sign that fucking petition,” he said during an internal meeting, according to a recording obtained by Reuters. “Don’t give me the shit that ‘work from home Friday’ works.” Dimon added that the company would not allow managers to approve or make decisions about in-office requirements. “There is no chance that I will leave it up to managers,” he said. “Zero chance. The abuse that took place is extraordinary.” He also argued that employees did not pay attention during Zoom meetings and called for J.P. Morgan to increase efficiency by 10% through through cutting down on training sessions and the number of documents produced by the company—as well as meetings. (J.P. Morgan was not immediately available for comment.) Like plenty of other CEOs, Dimon has embraced a full return to the office under the pretext of promoting collaboration and productivity. But Dimon has been far more blunt and outspoken than some of his peers—not to mention more dismissive of dissent from employees. While he later apologized for the language he used in the internal meeting, noting that he should “never curse” and “get angry,” Dimon has continued to double down on his stance that employees should work from the office full-time. “I completely respect people that don’t want to go to the office all five days a week—that’s your right,” he told CNBC recently. “But they should respect that the company is going to decide what’s good for the clients [and] the company, not an individual. So they can get a job—and I’m not being mean—they can get a job elsewhere.” Dimon also referenced the petition again, though he struck a different tone than he did when speaking to his staff. “There’s a petition,” he said. “And they have the right to feel that way. But we’re not going to change. We’re going back to the office.” Of course, as J.P. Morgan employees have returned to the office this month, they have reportedly encountered many of the same issues facing workers at other companies, from limited workspace to noisy colleagues. And despite his open disdain for remote work, Dimon does seem to believe in its efficacy for certain workers—namely, the people staffing J.P. Morgan’s call centers. “We did it to see if they’d be effective,” he said at the Stanford event. “They’re highly effective. They work from home.” View the full article

Initially when Google Ads released the ability to add negative keywords to your Performance Max campaigns, Google limited it to 100 keywords. We asked why only 100 back then. Well, Google listened to the ad community and increased that from 100 to 10,000 negative keywords.View the full article

Google has updated its Google Ads review process policy documentation to clarify that it uses both AI and human evaluation for removing ads, assets, destinations, accounts and other content that goes against the Google Ads policies. View the full article

Google is testing a quick way to copy a link to a search results page and share it with a friend. There is this paperclip icon at the top right of the search results page that lets you copy link to the clipboard. That then generates a goo.gl URL shortener link to share.View the full article

Employees across industries are feeling increasingly insecure about their jobs. One in three American workers say they have “layoff anxiety” and one in four say they feel insecure in their job, according to a recent study. In recent weeks, tens of thousands of U.S. government workers have been fired, and federal agencies are expected to lay off thousands more. For now, it’s unclear whether federal job cuts will have a ripple effect on the private sector, particularly on firms that rely on government contracts. U.S. tariffs can also have an impact on the job market. Workers who are worried about losing their jobs may want to take steps to shore up their finances. Recent surveys find that many Americans don’t have much saved for a rainy day. Nearly half (43%) of Americans say they would need to borrow money to pay for an unexpected expense, such as $1,000 bill for an emergency room visit or car repair, according to Bankrate’s Emergency Savings Report. In addition, 13% of Americans have no savings, according to the Clarify Capital study. If you’re concerned about losing your job, make a list of every nonnegotiable monthly expense, suggests Bobbi Rebell, personal finance expert at BadCredit.org. For example, list how much you pay for housing, your phone bill, electricity, and food. Add those up and then compare that amount to what’s in your emergency fund and figure out how much runway you have to live on with only that money, she says. If you’re coming up short, here are five financial moves to make now to prepare for a layoff. While you’re still working, live as if you lost your job Commit to only spending money on essentials, even though you are still getting a paycheck, and put the extra money into your emergency fund. “There are a lot of things that we don’t consider discretionary that very much are discretionary,” Rebell says, listing expenses like buying new clothes, going out to dinner, or happy hour with friends. “Rather than treating yourself to a new dress, treat yourself to more money in your emergency fund,” Rebell says. Practice politely declining invitations, Rebell says. For instance, if you’re invited to a fancy birthday dinner and you don’t want to chip in for drinks, dinner, and a gift, just tell the host that you can’t make it, you don’t need to give an excuse, Rebell says. Cut back on retirement savings There is no question that saving for retirement is important, however financial experts caution that if you’re looking at potentially being unemployed for six months, nine months, or even a year, the funds you’re putting into your employer-sponsored retirement fund might be more useful in your bank account. “If you’re worried about losing your job, you might want to prioritize current cash flow over retirement plan savings and temporarily scale back on your 401k contributions so you have more available income,” says Tracey Spivey, partner and private enterprise lead at KPMG, a global professional services firm that specializes in audit, tax, and advisory services. Rebell agrees that if you’re facing a potential layoff, you might not want to have all your savings in a retirement fund. However, she says, make sure you are still putting enough money into your 401(k) to get the employer match. Keep in mind if you’re 55 or older and you are fired or laid off, the IRS does allow you to access your 401(k) without paying the 10% penalty. However, Rebell says, you will need to pay taxes on any 401(k) money you access, and any funds used now obviously won’t be available when you retire. Audit subscription services One of the easiest ways to find extra money is by auditing subscription services, says Said Israilov, a financial planner and wealth manager at Israilov Financial in San Francisco. “We frequently uncover $80–$100 in monthly subscription costs that provide no to minimal value,” he says. Categories to look at include: Trial subscriptions that have been converted to paid plans. This can include mobile games and streaming services. Redundant music and video streaming services. Typically, it’s more expensive for family members to have individual accounts rather than subscribing to one account and paying for multiple users. Annual subscriptions that auto-renew. This could include mediation or diet apps as well as software subscriptions. Expensive gym and fitness memberships. Consider replacing the cost of high-end gym membership with a low-cost membership to a community recreation center. Consider replacing all your entertainment subscription services with a free library card, at least temporarily, says Erika Kullberg, an attorney and personal finance expert and host of the podcast Erika Taught Me. Most libraries offer newsletters, magazines, audiobooks, and even games and movies. “Remember, these cuts are temporary, so see what you can do to save money now, so you have some extra cushion in the event a job loss does transpire,” she says. Negotiate a better rate Lower your bills by calling your insurance, internet, and utility providers and asking whether you can save money by changing the plan you’re currently on. Insurance bills often present opportunities for savings, Israilov says. Ask about bundling discounts and usage-based insurance programs for low-mileage drivers, if you drive less than 625 miles a month, he says. If you do lose your job and you owe money on a mortgage, car loan, or credit card, call the financial institution that holds that debt and ask about forbearance, says Derik Farrar, head of personal deposits at U.S. Bank. Your lender may offer a reduction or pause in payment during a temporary hardship like being laid off, he said. In addition, ask about ways to lower your interest rate, he says. Consider selling high-value items We all have items we no longer use. Take inventory of your possessions to determine if you still use them and whether others might value them. Rebell recommends selling gold jewelry that doesn’t have sentimental value, designer handbags, and designer clothes you no longer use. However, if you plan to sell these items through ThredUp or The RealReal be aware that some websites take a percentage of the sale, which could eat into your profits. Consider selling your items at a local consignment shop to avoid fees, she says. Some of these lifestyle changes will hurt more than others. While you can go back to your normal spending and saving habits when you are employed again, some degree of frugality is usually a good idea. View the full article

A president who can’t run again is freer from public opinion than business seems to realiseView the full article

Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company’s work-life advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: I think my manager is burned out. What can I do? A: It’s tough out there for managers, especially middle mangers who are often caught in the—well—middle and may find themselves enforcing unpopular policies that they didn’t create. It’s not explicitly your job to fix your boss’s problems (and you don’t have the power or authority to do so if you aren’t in a leadership role). But, a manager sets the tone for their team and if they are burned out, their entire team will likely follow suit. It may feel unfair, but giving a bit of thought to this question will make your (and your coworkers’) lives much better. This is a super-charged opportunity to practice your “managing up” (aka managing your manager) skills. Fast Company contributor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic outlined several signs that your manager might be experiencing burnout and how to address them. Here are a few. They don’t seem to care how everyone else is doing Chamorro-Premuzic says that a burned-out boss might start to be less open to feedback, be suddenly uninterested in team morale, or no longer receptive to concerns. If your boss is acting like this, you can normalize small breaks and occasional team check-ins, where there’s more opportunity for casual interactions. Chamorro-Premuzic also says you can be supportive in subtle ways, like offering to help with tasks or expressing appreciation for their work. Being a manager can feel thankless. If your manager feels like no one cares about them or notices their work, they’re less likely to offer you and your coworkers the same appreciation. If you show them you care about them, hopefully that care will trickle down. Their energy is all over the place Scientific studies on burnout show that energy and motivation can wax and wane when someone is facing chronic stress. What this might look like in your manager is that you are being micromanaged on some days when they are overly worried about how your work reflects on them, and then completely ignored on other days, as they feel overwhelmed by their own workload. If your boss is acting like this, Chamorro-Premuzic advises that you can help them by providing structure and consistency in your work so they know what to expect. Institute routines like regular project updates or weekly recaps, and suggest ways they can delegate so their workload is more distributed. (Bonus: Taking on work above your level might set you up for a future promotion.) Longer hours and blurred boundaries If your manager is emailing late at night, working weekends, not taking time off, those are all pretty clear signs that they are habitually overextending themselves, and on the fast track to burn out. If your boss is acting like this, it probably feels tricky to push back but it’s another place that you can lead by example by setting clear boundaries. You can also gently remind them that you and your colleagues can take on their tasks when they aren’t there. (In other words: The world won’t fall apart if they take a vacation and it might help them reset.) Yes, your manager’s job satisfaction isn’t explicitly your job, but if we truly want to work in a more humane workplace it means we should care about everyone’s well-being, no matter where they are on the org chart. Want more advice on helping burned out managers? Here you go: Managers are not okay. Why we’re headed to a ‘manager crash’ in 2025 It’s time to check on your middle managers 5 red flags of your boss’s behavior you should not ignore View the full article

Google has released version 2.9 of the Google Ads Editor. This new update brings a number of new features including support for manager account (MCC) owned labels, shopping ads on excluded brands, age exclusions in PMax campaigns, enhanced CPC deprecation, multi-tab export/import to Google Sheets, ad previews for RSA and asset groups and more.View the full article

Google Ads may now be pushing you to create an experiment ad when you dismiss the recommendations Google Ads is suggesting. So when you dismiss a recommendation, Google Ads can get feisty and push you to at least create an experiment based on that recommendation.View the full article

Have you ever wished you could just skip the Instagram algorithm altogether and guarantee your content gets seen by your target audience? Or, rather than asking folks to click over to your bio to find your products, content, or website, just include a link right in the post? Well, meet Instagram ads. They are paid posts on the platform that you can use to promote your business, product, or services and reach new people. Ads appear in the same format as organic posts across Instagram Stories, Reels, Explore, and in-feed posts. But unlike organic Instagram posts, Instagram ads have a link to redirect users to a website to shop for your products or check out your services. They also have the “sponsored” label. With ads, you’re also not completely reliant on the Instagram algorithm to reach your target audience: You can control (to some extent) the demographics of the audience you want to reach. If you have the budget, Instagram ads can be an excellent addition to your Instagram marketing strategy. But navigating the ad manager is like untangling a spiderweb. In this guide, I’ll take you from the A to Z of Instagram advertising. By the end of this piece, you’ll be equipped to run Instagram ads successfully (and with confidence!). 💡Note: You need to have an Instagram business account to run ads on the platform. Learn more about how you can switch to a professional account to run ads in our guide to the various types of Instagram accounts.How much do Instagram ads cost?Cost is one of the primary factors in deciding whether you’ll add Instagram advertising to your marketing strategy. The good news? Instagram ads are quite flexible! You can spend as much or as little as you like. Your ad objectives, placements, formats, competition, niche, seasonality, all affect how much your Instagram ads will cost. The bad news? This is what often makes Instagram ads complicated. It’s difficult to pull out the “right” number out of a hat and decide how much you should invest to get a positive return on investment (ROI). Bïrch shares up-to-date Facebook advertising costs data from hundreds of millions of spend per month in the U.S. As of February 2025: Metric Cost Average Instagram cost per impression (CPM) $13.66 Average Instagram cost per click (CPC) $1.36 Average Instagram cost per engagement (CPE) $0.063 Average Instagram cost per lead (CPL) $9.23 Average Instagram cost per install (CPI) $1.99 Play around in Bïrch to get an accurate sense of how much you should expect to spend (and get) from running Instagram ads. You can also dissect the data to dig deeper. For instance, you can filter for average CPM by campaign objectives. The above numbers will help you set the right expectations, but how much you should invest in Instagram advertising depends on your budget and risk appetite. Ideally, choose a number large enough for you to care about and improve but small enough not to be damaging. 📚Related reading: How I Turned $75 Per Day in Ad Spend Into 1 Million Views on My Instagram Reel With Only 1,000 FollowersHow to run Instagram adsThere are two ways to run ads on Instagram: 1. Boosting a post 2. Using the Meta Ads Manager Boosting a post is the easier choice, but it doesn’t have the granular control the ad manager has. Let’s understand how both methods work (and where they differ). 💡Note: If you manage and run ads on a Facebook Page, you can link your Instagram business account to it and run the same ads on both channels. But I wouldn’t advise doing this if you aren’t familiar with Instagram at all. Learn the basics of Instagram before running the same ad on Instagram and Facebook.1. Boosting an Instagram postTo boost an Instagram post, all you have to do is click on the “Boost post” option on your Instagram posts. Once you click on “Boost post,” you can: 1. Choose what you want users to do when they see this post as an ad — visit your profile, visit a website, or message you. 2. Choose your target audience — Instagram has a “Suggested audience” option to reach people who are similar to your followers. You can also manually enter your desired audience demographics — including location, age, gender, and interests. 3. Decide your daily ad budget (minimum $1 every day) and get an estimate of the daily reach you’ll get using this ad. 4. Decide your ad duration — you can keep running the ad until you manually pause it or set a fixed timeline. 💡Note: You can follow the same process and run ads via your app, too. But if you download Instagram from the iOS app store, you’ll be charged an additional 30% service fee via Apple. To forego that, I’d recommend using the web to boost posts or add funds in advance to your Instagram ad account.Pros of running ads via boosting: The process is quick and easyYou don’t have to create an account on Meta Ads ManagerBoosting posts is cost-effective, especially if you’re on a tight budgetYou don’t have to link your Instagram account to any Facebook PageYou can double down on your best-performing organic posts by boosting them (it already has the social proof of likes, comments, and shares)Cons of running ads via boosting: You don’t get refined targeting optionsYou cannot run a campaign with an objective and various postsYou can’t run an ad that’s not already been posted organicallyYou can’t boost Instagram Reels that have copyrighted music, GIFs, interactive stickers, or camera filters from a third-party appYou can’t boost Instagram Stories if they have effects added outside of Instagram or if they have interactive elements or stickersBoosting a post is an excellent option if you’re a beginner to social media advertising and need to learn the ropes before you dive into the ads manager. You can amplify your content quickly and with more affordability. But it’s best to move to the Meta Ads Manager as soon as you need advanced targeting options. 2. Using the Meta Ads ManagerIf you’ve already used the Meta Ads Manager to run Facebook ads, you’re in luck: The process and the best practices are the same for running Instagram ads. Pros of running ads via Meta Ads Manager: You can create customized reports for stakeholdersYou get granular control over your ads and target audienceYou can integrate your website’s data to understand your audience better and improve targetingYou can choose from your existing organic content or upload new ad content from scratchCons of running ads via Meta Ads Manager: You cannot manage campaigns from within the Instagram appYou have to spend time learning how to use the Meta Ads ManagerYou have to create a Facebook Page to run ads via Meta Ads ManagerMeta Ads Manager can be less cost-effective and more risky than boosting successful postsIf you’re new to the Meta Ads Manager, the landscape can be overwhelming. But don’t worry — the ad manager is quite intuitive to use. Here’s how to find your way around: 💡Note: You need to have a Facebook Page to run ads using the Meta Ads manager. You can then link your Page and Instagram account to run ads on Instagram. You can only link one Instagram account to one Facebook Page.Step 1: Create an ad account and add your teamGo to the Meta Business Suite to access the ad manager. First, create an account with Meta Business Suite if you don’t have one already. Then, follow the below steps: 1. Go to “Business Settings” after you’ve logged in to your Meta Business Suite. 2. Click on “Ad Account” under the “Accounts” header. 3. You can claim an existing ad account using the ad account’s ID or create a new ad account by giving it a name and entering your region’s currency. If you’re working with a team, go to “Ad account settings” in your ad manager and find “Ad account roles.” You can offer your members three kinds of access: Admins have the same permission as the ad account’s owner. They can create ads, edit payment methods, and modify the access levels of other team members.Advertisers can create ads, edit campaigns, and access performance reports. But they can’t modify existing permission settings or your payment methods.Analysts can only view ads and access performance reports.Step 2: Design an Instagram campaignThere are three levels to every campaign on Meta. The campaign level is the bigger picture of what kind of campaign you’re going to runThe ad sets level is about your target audience and the frequency you’ll advertise to themThe ad level is what your prospective buyers see on their mobile appImage source We’ll cover the campaign level in this step. To get started, click on “Create” in the Meta Ads Manager. Once you click “Create,” Meta will ask you to select a campaign objective. This is the desired action you want your target audience to take after seeing your ad. For example, if your business goal is to increase brand awareness, your ad objective is “awareness.” But if you want to redirect users to a sale on your website, “traffic” is the right objective. In total, there are six objectives to choose from: Awareness: Choose this option when your goal is to increase brand awareness about your product or service.Traffic: Choose this option when you aim to boost traffic on your website.Engagement: Choose this option when you want to build a community using Instagram.Leads: Choose this option when you want to collect leads for your business using Instagram.App promotion: Choose this option when you want to promote your company’s app and boost app installs.Sales: Choose this option when you want to use ads for conversions.💡Note: The above ad objectives options are for the “auction” buying type — which is the most common choice in Meta Ads Manager. There’s a fixed price on the CPM if you choose Reservations. But you need to have a minimum spend commitment to reach that CPM and there’s overall less flexibility in changing your budget and targeting once you place the ads. Here’s Meta’s advice on choosing the right buying type.Step 3: Create ad set(s) for your campaignThe specifics of the options you see in your ad sets depends on your objective in step two, but you can expect the following: Conversion location In ad objectives like sales and traffic, you have to choose where you’d like to redirect the viewers watching your ads — your website, your DMs, etc. Performance goal This is how you measure the success of your ads. You can choose from various metrics depending on your objectives. For example, in the awareness ad objective, your performance goal can be maximizing ad reach, the number of impressions, or the ad recall. Similarly, in the traffic ad objective, your performance goal can be to maximize the number of clicks. Budget and schedule You have to decide how much you’ll spend daily or in the lifetime of your campaign and set the schedule of your start and end date. If your business experiences seasonal demands, you can also choose to increase your budget during specific days or times. Audience controls Select your target audience’s demographics — location, age, gender, and languages. Ad placements Placements are exactly where you want to place ads on your Instagram account. Apart from Instagram’s various content formats (Stories, Reels, in-feed posts, Explore), you also get the option to run the same ads on your Facebook Page, Messenger, and Search results. You can also customize your settings for specific mobile devices and WiFi connections. ⚡Remember: You can have multiple ad sets within the same campaign. For example, let’s say you’re running a sale on a product category. One of your ad sets can redirect people to product A, and another can lead them to product B. Both ad sets are part of the same Instagram ad campaign (the sale), but they carry different products.Step 4: Craft your Instagram ad(s)At the last level, you upload the ad content you want to run on Instagram. This is the ad your audience will see in their mobile app. There are four primary sections at the ad level: Ad setup You can upload a new ad from scratch, use an existing post to run as an ad, or use any mockups you have in Meta’s Creative Hub. You also have to choose an ad format — a single image or a single video, a carousel, or a collection (group of items that opens into a fullscreen mobile experience). Destination Choose where you’d like to send people when they click on your ad. You can add a specific URL, an event on your Facebook Page, or call you directly. If you’re redirecting ad viewers to a website, it’s imperative you set up Meta Pixel in your ad account to track performance accurately. Meta Pixel is just a piece of code you need to add to your company’s website to measure precise ad results and optimize targeted audiences. Here’s an article from Meta explaining more. Ad creative This is where you upload your image or video. You can also source the ad content from a URL. In the creative setup, you have granular control over the thumbnail, ad copy, display label, call to action, and more. Tracking Here, you can set up various ways to track your ad performance (like the Meta Pixels we talked about earlier). You also have simpler alternatives like UTM parameters. Buffer has a free UTM builder that can come in handy here. 😉 Once you hit “Publish” your ad(s) will be live! Voila 🥳 That might seem like a lot, but it’s easy to pick up the pace and keep going once you start. Meta Ad Manager is easy to use and has directions at every step of the way. 5 best practices for successful Instagram adsRunning ads isn’t just about the logistics — there’s a ton of strategy work going behind improving the ROI from each ad. Here are five beginner-friendly pro tips. 1. Use Meta Advantage to your advantageMeta has various Advantage+ options placed everywhere — from your ad set to your ad creative. Meta Advantage is using the best of AI within Meta to improve the ROI of your Instagram ads. Whenever you see Advantage+ while running your Instagram campaigns, use them — especially if you’re a beginner. This will allow Meta to do its magic and give you the most bang for your buck. I’d advise even pros to experiment with A/B testing Meta’s advantage recommendations versus their manual placements to check which performs better. Meta’s machine learning system is strong and reliable — use it to not only enhance your performance but also reduce your efforts. 2. Rely on Meta’s campaign score to improve your Instagram adsMeta provides a campaign score between 0–100 to show you how well you’ve optimized your ads based on Meta’s recommendations. While this number doesn’t dictate future performance, think of it as a predictive score to analyze where you can improve your ad performance. Try to get the green light (unless you have a solid reason to go against Meta’s recommendations). Similar to campaign score is the audience definition: This is how wide or broad of an audience you’re reaching with your ad campaigns. You don’t want your audience to be too specific (unless you’re selling in a niche, local market) — otherwise, you miss people who might’ve been interested in your products or services. 3. Keep your ad visuals and copy clear, concise, and crispClear > clever, every time. Especially when it comes to Instagram ads. Don’t have cluttered visuals or an ad copy that’s clever, but hard to read. Remember people are scrolling on the platform when they’re busy or idle — you want to grab attention fast. Here are some actionable tips: Answer “what’s in it for me?” right away for potential customers and use copywriting formulas to your advantageDon’t bury the offer (like a discount code) in an ad’s caption. Highlight it in the pictures and videos clearlyEnsure your ad preview looks eye-catching in all ad placements if you’re using the same creativeShow real people using your product in ads to help people resonate with your brand4. Track your ad performance to improveMeta’s reporting features are excellent to help you understand what’s working well in your ads and what needs improvement. In the Overview tab, you can customize the duration for which you want to see ad insights and also filter data using various parameters. For example: You only want to monitor ad performance you landed on the Instagram Explore page. You can filter for this using search.You only want to see your ad's engagement metrics (post likes, comments, shares). You can customize this using columns.You only want to track ads you published in the U.S. market. You can refine your ad manager dashboard using breakdown.You can find similar numbers for Boosted posts, but they’re not as in-depth as the Meta Ads Manager. Monitoring the numbers you care about regularly is useful for ensuring you’re meeting your social media goals. Set time aside in the middle of and at the end of every campaign to analyze your ad performance and understand how you can improve. 5. Start with boosting your best-performing postsIf you’re overwhelmed, strapped for time, or on a shoestring budget, experiment with Instagram ads using “Boost posts” instead of setting up a whole campaign in the ad manager. Boosting posts is like the trial version of Instagram ads — it can help you learn the ropes, get some confidence, and spend your money cautiously before you dive deep. For best results, boost your best-performing Instagram posts. They already have the credibility of likes, comments, and shares. And what’s performed well organically will likely do well in ads, too. Instagram ads aren’t in a siloInstagram advertising is a great addition to your Instagram strategy. But ads alone aren’t the only way to grow on Instagram. While ads may boost your Instagram reach in the short term, advertising without organic efforts is not a well-rounded social media strategy. As you dabble with the Meta ads manager, don’t forget to also continue your organic marketing efforts side-by-side. Wondering where to begin? Here are some ideas on what to post on Instagram. And to make your Instagram marketing journey even easier, sign up for Buffer (for free!) and start scheduling Instagram posts, storing content ideas, using AI to make your life easier, and a lot more. View the full article

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Mortgage giant Rocket Companies—the parent company of Rocket Mortgage, formerly known as Quicken Loans—announced on Monday it has entered into an agreement to buy Redfin in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.75 billion equity, or $12.50 per share. If completed, the move would integrate Redfin’s real estate search platform, which attracts nearly 50 million monthly visitors, with Rocket’s mortgage services. “Redfin is known for its beautiful product but is also [a] data powerhouse in an AI-driven world—100 million properties, 50 million engaged monthly users, thousands of the amazing real estate agents and 4 petabytes of data,” Rocket Companies CEO Varun Krishna wrote on LinkedIn on Monday. “Rocket has developed a platform that spans 40 years of mortgage expertise and a digital nationwide lending platform, across 3,000 counties and parishes. Redfin and Rocket are an amazing match for each other.” According to the press release, there are four benefits Rocket Companies sees from the Redfin acquisition: First, it will introduce more consumers to the Rocket ecosystem. “Rocket Companies will benefit from Redfin’s nearly 50 million monthly visitors, 1 million active purchase and rental listings and staff of 2,200+ real estate agents across 42 states,” the company writes. Secondly, it expects that will drive growth in the purchase of its mortgages. Third, the companies 14 petabytes of combined data will help drive its AI and personalization technology. “This data will strengthen Rocket’s AI models enabling easier and more personalized and automated consumer experiences,” Rocket writes. Lastly, the company expects to achieve “more than $200 million in run-rate synergies by 2027, including approximately $140 million in cost synergies from rationalization of duplicative operations and other costs.” And it expects “more than $60 million in revenue synergies from pairing the company’s financing clients with Redfin real estate agents, and from driving clients working with Redfin agents to Rocket’s mortgage, title, and servicing offerings.” In other words, Rocket Companies appears to be making a strategic move to expand its market share by integrating Redfin’s customer funnel with its mortgage business and build a powerhouse in residential real estate, creating a one-stop shop for homebuyers. “While Rocket Mortgage increased its purchase loan market share by 8% from 2023 to 2024, it still pales in comparison to crosstown rival UWM [United Wholesale Mortgage],” Colin Robertson, the founder of The Truth About Mortgage, tells ResiClub. “Their tie-up with Redfin gives them the potential to capture 1 in 6 purchase loans going forward, which could see their market share quadruple from 4% to 16%+.” The Rocket Companies’ proposed acquisition of Redfin comes during a prolonged housing transaction downturn—marked by a sharp drop in existing home sales and refinancing—triggered by the 2022 mortgage rate shock and strained affordability. The slump has led to industry upheaval, business failures, and a wave of mergers. While both of these firms have been affected by the slump, Redfin, in particular, has taken it on the chin. At its peak during the Pandemic Housing Boom, Rocket Companies had a $55.6 billion market capitalization—compared to its $26.6 billion market capitalization at business close today. While at its peak during the Pandemic Housing Boom, Redfin had a $10 billion market capitalization—well above its $1.2 billion market capitalization today. Since mortgage rates spiked in 2022, Redfin has faced a continuous wave of layoffs, with 1,362 layoffs in 2022, 201 in 2023, 82 in 2024, and nearly 500 already announced in 2025. Back in October 2022, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman told me that shuttering their iBuyer unit amid a then correcting market out West was causing Redfin to sell at big losses. Kelman explained it like this: “We’re sitting on $350 million worth of homes for sale that we bought with our own money, or worse bought with borrowed money. And what we always told investors is that we would protect our balance sheet by acting quickly. We don’t have hope as a strategy. We immediately started marking down things… When the shiitake mushrooms hit the fan, [investors] want to get out first. The way to do that is to figure out where the lowest sale is, and be 2% below that. And if it doesn’t sell in the first weekend, move it down [again].” In November 2023, Kelman told me that things were still slumped for the business, adding that existing home sales were “mostly dead as a doornail, so it couldn’t be worse.” In August 2024, Kelman put Redfin’s situation bluntly, telling analysts that the Plan B if mortgage rates didn’t come down was to “drink our own urine or our competitors’ blood, stay in the foxhole.” Click here to view an interactive version of the chart below. “When I took a look something like 50% of Homes.com’s traffic is paid,” Amanda Orson, CEO and founder of Galleon, tells ResiClub. “And that paid demo does not count their extraordinary ad spend on TV ads. It’s just not a sticky site. Redfin on the other hand spends very little and generates an absolute truckload of organic traffic. For now. That advantage is not permanent, of course. I can’t think of another company for whom the acquisition of Redfin would get a better yield for its highest and best use than Rocket.” Big picture: If the benefits of the Redfin acquisition come to fruition, it could not only cement Rocket Companies as the top player in the mortgage space (currently No. 2 by total dollar loan volume) but also further lay the groundwork for the company to pursue its broader real estate ambitions—and perhaps even challenge Zillow, which is working to build a housing “Super App.” View the full article

In our current political and media environment the loudest voices are the ones that are farthest from the center. Tech hasn’t been spared, with some Silicon Valley leaders drifting right—not only out of ideology, but also pragmatism. Box CEO Aaron Levie sits somewhere in the middle: not a MAGA-touting accelerationist like Marc Andreessen, nor a traditional progressive like Reid Hoffman. But he is clear-eyed about one thing: Donald Trump will likely preside over some of the most pivotal years in AI and innovation. And Levie sees reason for optimism. Fast Company spoke to him about AI policy, AI and crypto “czar” David Sacks, Elon Musk’s DOGE, and AI safety concerns. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. I know you came out in support of Harris before the election, but now I’d like to find out what your assessment of Trump is so far, where technology is concerned. During the Harris campaign, I felt like there was an opportunity, and there really needed to be a very strong kind of pro-technology, progress-type of push in the Democratic party. So I was trying to ensure that they saw key policy issues around AI and deregulation and how to drive more growth. And so that was my interest in the topic during the campaign cycle. But I just want America to succeed, and I want our tech position to be as strong as possible. And I think there’s a number of topics that kind of relate to that. There’s high-skill immigration, there’s AI policy, there are regulatory issues and topics that face the tech industry, especially more of the harder tech, more manufacturing-leaning parts of tech. And I think we have an opportunity as a country to ensure that we are building for not just the next couple of years, but the next couple of decades, and there’s a lot of key things that are going to happen right now around AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, advanced manufacturing, new forms of energy; all of these things will intersect with either federal or state and local policy, and it’s critical to make sure that we’re heading in the right direction on those topics. As it relates to Trump, I think there have been a number of things that have been signaled that I think are actually extremely positive to those topics. I think we’re really early in seeing how they will manifest. Some of them were on the campaign trail, some of them are kind of being in office, that have been signaled, and to some extent, a little bit in a wait-and-see mode on how they all manifest and evolve. And you know, my views on them are extremely clear, and I’m hoping we lean in the right direction on a large number of those topics. Let’s talk about AI first. I think you saw JD Vance give his Paris speech, and he did talk a bit about striking a balance between regulation and innovation, but he also seemed to scold Europe for what it has done with the AI Act. He accuses them of going too far. Do you agree with him on that? My rhetoric would probably be different, but I am worried that when it comes to policy conversations, in the U.S. and even globally, we have tilted more toward the precautionary views of AI as opposed to the productive and pro-progress-oriented views of AI. I thought that it was compelling that the vice president talked about how AI is going to actually create—I’m going to now probably change some of the words—but create more of an abundance environment where we can actually use it to help jobs and create jobs, and we can use it to improve healthcare, and we can use it to drive manufacturing. And if you just take a word content in the speech and compare it to maybe a speech that would have come from a U.S. politician a year or two ago, it leaned 80% more positive than negative, with the appropriate levels of calling out that there are things that we do need to pay attention to. Do you have thoughts about David Sacks and his appointment to “AI and Crypto Tsar”? I am much closer to the AI side and the AI Tsar. I don’t think about crypto that much. David’s a strong choice for that. David knows his way around Silicon Valley. He knows all the people doing all the important work at the leadership levels of AI labs and big tech. And so to have a conduit that can help marry what’s happening in Silicon Valley with the policy decisions happening in the government, I think he’s in a great position. I’m also very happy about Michael Katzios on OSTP (Trump nominated Kratsios as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy). I think he’s a very strong pick for that job. And so I think the administration has brought in sophisticated, thoughtful technologists or business leaders into the administration to help drive policy in the right direction. You were also upbeat about Elon Musk and what he’s doing with DOGE, at least around the time of the election. Do you have any thoughts about that now? At a philosophical level, I think that the thing I get more excited about in the DOGE remit is how do we modernize the approach that many of these agencies are taking to regulation? How do we ensure that we’re driving more efficiency so we can have just better productivity in the government? I think that’s a very good thing. I think there’s an ability to modernize a lot of the technology as well in the government to get more efficiency and be able to drive just overall better results. When you have better data feeds coming in, when you have better ways of collaborating, when you get better insights, we can make better policy decisions, we can run the government better. As a big-name tech CEO, do you feel an obligation to express your views and let people know where you stand on these things? For me, it’s a natural thing. But I do think we’re in an era right now where there’s almost no industry, and especially in tech, there’s no subindustry in tech that will not be impacted by policy decisions from the federal government. And so I do think we’re in an environment where you have to lean in to some extent on the policy conversation if you want any chance that it ends up going in a productive direction. I have some things that to me personally, from a business perspective, rise to higher or lower levels—like one of my biggest areas is high-skill immigration. And so that’s an area that I unequivocally and emphatically view as mission-critical to get right because it will lead to the next generation of companies for us to go build in the future—the next Apple, the next Google, the next OpenAI. You want the odds to be that that’s going to get created in America, and high-skill immigration is one of your ways of increasing those odds. AI policy raises very high because getting AI policy right or wrong could mean that either the U.S. is the home of AI or China is the home of AI. And as a U.S. company, I think it would be a disaster if we miss the window where we could have complete AI leadership. On the high-skilled labor part of this, are there specific changes to that that you are in favor of or that you think might have a chance of happening in the next four years? We do need a faster way for people to get into the country that is more of a merit-oriented approach. On the campaign trail, Trump very clearly stated that he wants to stamp a green card to every diploma for individuals that are coming from outside the country to study here. And so I think there’s been some acknowledgment that we have an inefficient system. It’s a little bit too random at times, and it’s probably not serving us in the best way possible of getting just clearly getting the best talent in the world to always come here, and that’s what we need. I will keep fighting and shouting from the rooftops that that’s a critical policy, whether it’s in the Trump administration or whatever administration comes next. I know that your business depends on AI, and you’re probably looking down the road and thinking about how Box’s product can evolve as AI progresses. Do you have concerns about the safety risks of future AI models? The labs need to operate responsibly. They need to test these models and ensure the safety and protection of how these models operate and ensure that we are in a situation where AI can’t go rogue and complete actions on their own without the right kind of guardrails being built into these systems. So, I’m in favor of everything that the market is currently doing. The part that I’m less in favor of is a situation where there would be just an incredibly extreme liability for the model providers to be able to release new AI model updates without major government involvement. Because what that will do is dramatically slow down the pace of the industry, and the pace of the industry will move at the rate at which the government can evaluate and understand how AI works. And we see in any industry where that is happening, we see less competition, we see higher prices, we see less innovation. Maybe there’s a time and a place for that to happen in AI, but we’re not there yet. AI right now is really early. And so, what we need is an environment where the AI innovation is accelerating, where the models are getting better, where they’re getting cheaper, where they’re getting more capable. And what we need is a shared industry-oriented way of establishing that we do need safe AI. These teams should be testing their models. We should have more best practices, more research, more red teaming of these technologies. But to me, I have not been compelled yet that we need the government to overwhelm the system with those reviews and those procedures. And I may get to that point where I do believe that, and I’m actually glad that there are lots of people that say we need that. I think it should be a really healthy debate and dialogue. View the full article

Getting our SEO plugin up and running should be quick and stress-free. That is why we are introducing a simpler installation flow that takes just a few clicks. If you have ever felt confused about installing plugins, this new option is here to help you. Get started with the Yoast SEO Free installation: Go to our new Yoast SEO Free page Click the install button and follow the on-screen prompts Complete the setup, and you are all set Because everything is more user-friendly, you will save time and avoid the usual guesswork. This improved flow is perfect for new users and anyone who does not feel comfortable around zip files or manual uploads. Installation should be the easiest part of your SEO journey. Try it today by heading to the Yoast SEO Free page and trying the plugin. You will be optimizing your site in no time. Get Yoast SEO today and join the 13+million websites using Yoast. The post A smoother way to get started with Yoast SEO Free appeared first on Yoast. View the full article

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For the first time since 1984, the airline Korean Air is updating its charmingly retro look to new branding that’s better suited for the modern era. The rebrand, designed by the global creative consultancy Lippincott, includes a new wordmark, refreshed logo, and pared-down color scheme. It’s set to debut across Korean Air’s operations and on the livery of its aircraft in the coming weeks. The rebrand comes just a few months after Korean Air officially completed merger negotiations with Asiana Airlines, South Korea’s second-largest airline. The two companies will become one mega-airline. [Image: Korean Air]As Korean Air begins to integrate Asiana Airlines’ operations with its own, Asiana Airlines’s brand identity will be slowly phased out. And, as part of the merger, Korean Air is likely to add new destinations to its offerings, expanding its international profile. Korean Air’s new look is meant to differentiate this upcoming phase of it’s 55-year history as it becomes an increasingly global brand. [Image: Korean Air]Reimagining an ‘iconic’ brandKorean Air’s former branding had a distinctly ’80s aesthetic, including a stylized, chunky wordmark and vibrant color palette of sky blue, cerulean, and red. The company’s planes have reflected this branding for decades through a distinct blue livery. Dan Vasconcelos, a partner at Lippincott, says that the ’80s branding is “iconic,” adding that “it’s not every day that you get to evolve brand assets that have been untouched for over 40 years.” [Image: Korean Air]As the first step of this major undertaking, his team decided to tackle the brand’s logo. Since its 1984 refresh, Korean Air’s logo has been a red, white, and blue interpretation of the Taeguk, the symbol at the center of the South Korean flag which represents balance in nature. Vasconcelos says the team tested hundreds of potential new versions of the Taeguk symbol. Ultimately, they landed on a fluid, ribbon-like iteration, rendered in one seamless blue stroke. The design is inspired by Sangmo Nori, a traditional Korean performance art. “[Sangmo Nori] involves performers wearing sangmo, a hat with a long ribbon attached to it, which they spin and twirl in intricate patterns while dancing energetically,” Vasconcelos says. “It represents abundance, prosperity, and joy. We felt that the ribbon in the tradition carried great symbolism: it’s universally recognized for its elegance while being resonant in Korea.” [Image: Korean Air]The Taeguk’s tapered edges also reference traditional calligraphy, a reference the Lippincott team brought into the rebrand’s custom typeface as well. Type studios Dalton Maag and Sandoll designed the bespoke font, which is a modern, all-caps sans serif featuring small calligraphic flourishes. It’s designed for optimal legibility in both English and Hangul (the Korean alphabet). The font is also the basis of Korean Air’s new wordmark and all other copy across its branding. [Image: Korean Air]A simplified color palette that reads ‘premium’To give Korean Air a more luxury feel, Lippincott has simplified the brand’s color palette to a core range of blues, cutting out the former red accents. “Doubling down on the blue allowed us to be more single-minded and confident, a trait of premium brands,” Vasconcelos says. “Think of Hermes, Louis Vuitton, or Tiffany—they are bold in their use of color but do it with simplicity and flair.” [Image: Korean Air]In keeping with the brand’s tradition, Vasconcelos’s team decided to buck the white livery trend used by most national trends and stick with Korean Air’s blue fuselage. During the research process, he says, the blue livery was a particularly memorable brand asset for customers. [Image: Korean Air]Other elements of the livery have been tweaked to align with the company’s plans to expand: The word Air has been removed from the livery to project Korean Air’s standing as South Korea’s largest airline, and the brand’s Hangul name has also been removed with global audiences in mind. [Image: Korean Air]“My client Kenny Chang [SVP and CMO of Korean Air] sums it up well by saying that the vision for Korean Air is to be a global airline which happens to be based in Korea,” Vasconcelos says. “This helped inform key design decisions such as removing the airline’s Hangul name from the livery as well as designing a symbol that, while infused by national iconography, isn’t too similar to the national flag.” Korean Air’s streamlined rebrand is both elegant and logical, given the company’s growing ambitions. Still, time will tell if the brand will have the staying power of its former visual identity, which resonated strongly with the airline’s audience for more than 40 years. View the full article

As protests against the Trump administration and in favor of Palestine continue to grow across the country, the U.S. State Department is reportedly planning to use tech to try and tamp down on dissent. This month, Axios reported that Marco Rubio’s “Catch and Revoke” plan to strip foreign nationals of the visas that allow them to remain in the country could be powered by AI analysis of their social media accounts. The mooted use of AI comes as former Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Khalil has become the face of the Trump administration’s tougher line on protest, with Khalil currently detained and threatened with the revocation of his green card for his participation on on-campus protests. Using AI to try and analyze the contents of people’s social media posts for actions that the Trump administration—if notably not the law and rights set out under the country’s constitutional amendments—deems unacceptable is a risky move that runs the risk of creating huge false positives. And it worries privacy and AI experts in equal measure. “For so many years, we have heard this very bad argument that we don’t need to worry because we have democracy,” says Carissa Véliz, an AI ethicist at the University of Oxford. “Precisely the point of privacy is to keep democracy. When you don’t have privacy, the abuse of power is too tempting, and it’s just a matter of time for it to be abused.” The risk Véliz and others worry about is that digital privacy is being eroded in favor of a witch hunt driven by a technology that people often have more faith in its accuracy than is truly deserved. That’s a concern too for Joanna Bryson, professor of ethics and technology at Hertie School in Berlin, Germany. “Disappearing political enemies, or indeed just random citizens, has been a means of repression for a long time, especially in the new world,” she says. “I don’t need to point out the irony of Trump choosing a mechanism so similar to the South and Central American dictators in the countries he denigrates.” Bryson also points out that there parallels with how Israel used AI to identify tens of thousands of Hamas targets, many of whom were then targeted for physical bombing attacks in Gaza by the Israeli military. The controversial program, nicknamed Lavender, has been questioned as a military use of AI that could throw up false positives and is unvetted. “Unless the AI systems are transparent and audited, we have no way of knowing whether there’s any justification for which 35,000 people were targeted,” says Bryson. “Without appropriate regulation and enforcement of AI and digital systems—including military ones, which incidentally even the EU is not presently doing—we can’t tell whether there was any justification for the targets, or if they just chose enough people that any particular building they wanted to get rid of they’d have some justification for blowing it up.” The use of AI is also something of a smokescreen, designed to deflect responsibility for serious decisions that those having to make them can claim are guided by supposedly “impartial” algorithms. “This is the kind of thing Musk is trying to do now with DOGE, and already did with Twitter,” says Bryson. “Eliminating humans and reducing accountability. Well, obscuring accountability.” And the problem is that when looking at AI classifications of social media content, accountability is important because it’s a case of when, not if, the technology misfires. The risks of hallucination and bias are big problems within AI systems. Hallucinations occur when AI systems make up answers to questions, or invents what could be seen as damning posts for users if their social media content is being parsed through artificial intelligence. Inherent bias in systems because of the way they’re designed, and by whom they’re created, is also a big factor in many errors in AI systems. In 2018, Amazon was forced to withdraw plans to perform a first pass at job applicants’ résumés because the system was found to be automatically rejecting all female candidates because of ways in which the AI had been set up and trained. It’s bad enough for those errors to impact on whether or not someone gets invited to a job interview. But when it comes to potentially being detained and deported from the United States—and risking not being allowed back into the country in the future—it’s a much more high-stakes situation. View the full article

When the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena in January, Patricia Lopez-Gutierrez and her children had to flee from the house they’d been renting for a decade. Lopez-Gutierrez also lost work: She’s a housecleaner, and her clients lost their own homes in the fire. “I’ve been here for 18 years, and I really don’t want to leave this area,” she said through a translator. “My children and their schools are here. I’m trying to get more work so I don’t have to leave.” As she struggles to pay her bills—including at her rental house, which ended up surviving the fire but was so heavily damaged by smoke that she’s desperate to find a new place to live—she turned to St. Vincent de Paul, one of several local organizations providing direct assistance to fire victims. The nonprofit paid a utility bill for her in January, and then a car payment and dental bill this month. It was enough, for now, to make it possible for her to keep paying rent. The fire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena, one of the more affordable corners of L.A. County. St. Vincent de Paul, working with a team of 18 volunteers, has helped around 150 families so far, prioritizing families with children and renters who lost their homes. In many cases—particularly for Hispanic residents who worked as housecleaners or gardeners—residents also lost their jobs. Others have minimum-wage jobs that make it difficult to afford to rent a new house or apartment. While St. Vincent de Paul covers bills directly (paying rent to a landlord, for example, or paying a doctor’s office), many other organizations are simply giving residents cash directly. Pasadena Community Foundation, a local foundation, has given grants through a wildfire fund to help support dozens of organizations doing that work. The Dena Care Collective, a new organization launched by End Poverty in California (EPIC) and FORWARD, has raised more than $1 million to help support families and businesses in the immediate aftermath of the fire with direct cash payments. “There is significant empirical data that highlights the efficacy of direct cash payments to families,” says Aja Brown, the former mayor of the city of Compton, who grew up in Altadena and is helping lead the Dena Care Collective along with former Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs. “There’s also a wealth of data that substantiates [the fact that] bureaucracy and governmental systems are slow to react. And quite frankly, they aren’t designed for emergency relief. Getting cash in the hands of families is the most impactful and the most efficient way to help families; they innately understand what’s best for [their] aid and the relief based on their current conditions.” Cash is a critical tool for people living in poverty in ordinary times; in Stockton, a study of a program that gave a series of no-strings-attached checks to low-income residents found that people who got the payments were more likely to go from unemployment to full-time employment and take other steps for their future, like moving to a better apartment or fixing their car. In a disaster, quick access to cash is even more important to help people stay afloat. “In a disaster like this, of course people need cash, because water bottles aren’t wealth,” says Tubbs. “Clothing isn’t cash. People need money to be able to rebuild, to be able to move, to be able to persist.” GiveDirectly, an organization founded on the premise that sending money to the world’s poorest households can help them begin to overcome poverty, has raised more than $2 million for low-income households impacted by the L.A.-area fires. While getting some money from FEMA can sometimes take a month or two, the nonprofit is able to act more quickly. (FEMA gave eligible residents $770 to help cover immediate needs after the disaster, but getting any additional support took longer—and $770 doesn’t go far in a city like L.A. Immigrants who don’t have legal status also can’t get help from FEMA.) Two weeks after the fires, the organization sent notifications to residents via a food stamp app inviting them to enroll for the cash payments, a process that takes roughly a minute. On average, the payments arrived three days later. The organization is giving transfers of $3,500, enough to cover two weeks at a lower-end Airbnb in the L.A. area, a month of food for a family of four, and a month of healthcare and transportation. Of course, the support is only a small and temporary part of the solution. As rents have steeply risen in and around L.A.—something that was happening earlier and then exacerbated by the disaster—people who were displaced are struggling to find places to live. Some renters are now doubled or tripled up with friends in tiny apartments. Homeowners who bought homes decades ago in Altadena—or inherited mortgage-free homes from parents or grandparents who paid little for them—are often now finding that their insurance won’t cover the cost of rebuilding. Others lost coverage as insurers have dropped policies in areas at risk of fires. Even those who still have housing, like Lopez-Gutierrez, are dealing with new challenges. In her case, her landlord wants to raise her rent, even though he hasn’t repaired damage from the fire (and despite the fact that price gouging is illegal). She’s trying to find a new rental, but her low credit score is making that difficult. Even if bills are covered for a month or two, many families still don’t know what will come next—especially since the rebuilding process will be slow. Before the fires, when St. Vincent de Paul helped pay unexpected bills for residents, the situation was different. “It’s the housecleaner whose son or daughter had to go to the emergency room and there was a $1,000 bill and they can’t afford rent,” says Dave de Csepel, an investor who helps lead the volunteer work at St. Vincent de Paul. “So we come in, pay that rent, and life goes on—we bridge them to get to the next month.” Now, he says, “This is a tidal wave that has hit this community. This is the beginning. It’s hard to see how all these families come out of this. We love the diversity of our community and we want to have folks stay in the area. But it’s hard to keep everyone together, and I’m afraid that there are a lot of hard times ahead for these families.” View the full article

Loan officers have said the majority of outreach from recruiters looks like impersonal "telemarketing." View the full article

Built on efficiency, acronyms are abbreviations that some may find to simplify life, and others may find to make life much more difficult. Do you love them or hate them? Whether navigating the hustle and bustle of a traditional office, the quiet focus of a remote setup, or the flexible blend of a hybrid model, understanding these shorthand expressions may play a huge part in seamless communication. View the full article

As part of the Trump administration’s continued efforts to attack renewable energy and bolster the fossil fuel industry, officials are considering using emergency powers to bring retired coal plants back online and prevent others from shutting down. But doing so would raise electricity prices for Americans, come with disastrous environmental impacts for the world, and only benefit coal companies. While at CERAWeek, an energy conference by S&P Global, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgim told Bloomberg Television about the potential coal resurgence. “Under the national energy emergency, which President Trump has declared, we’ve got to keep every coal plant open,” he said. “And if there had been units at a coal plant that have been shut down, we need to bring those back.” Coal’s dominance has been declining in the U.S. for years. It currently supplies just 16% of the country’s power, down from just over 51% in 2000. And since 2000, about 780 U.S. coal-fired units across the country have come offline; more than 120 coal plants are expected to shutter here within the next five years. Bringing those coal plants back is “an incredibly dumb idea,” says Peter Gleick, a climate scientist with a background in energy systems and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. “It’s dangerous. It’s expensive. It’s impractical.” The logistics alone of bringing retired coal plants online would be difficult. “It’s not like turning on and off a lightbulb,” he says. Many plants have been entirely decommissioned, and some have even been repurposed into renewable energy and storage projects. Bringing back the equipment to allow them to burn coal—or updating outdated infrastructure—would be expensive and time consuming. In the last five years, most of the U.S. coal plants that closed were, on average, 50 years old; globally, coal plants have retired at an average age of 37 years, says Christine Shearer, an analyst at Global Energy Monitor. Those coal plants were also retired for economic reasons; it’s more expensive, Gleick says, for a utility company to run a coal plant than to build renewables or operate natural gas plants. A 2019 analysis found that about three-quarters of U.S. coal plants would save money by switching to wind or solar. A 2023 analysis upped that figure to 99% of coal plants. That means utilities likely wouldn’t want retired coal plants to come back online. “Any attempt to do this will raise electricity prices for everyone,” he adds. Coal producers themselves would profit from more coal, of course, and some utility companies have actually delayed coal plant retirements because of concerns around grid stability—but the cost of keeping those “zombie” coal plants open ends up falling on consumers. One Maryland coal plant set to close in 2025 will now be kept open until 2029, a move that could cost residents up to $250 million per year through higher energy bills. Then there’s the environmental and health impacts. Burning coal is linked to air pollution that contains toxins and heavy metals, and can cause asthma, brain damage, heart problems, cancer, and even premature death. Bringing back retired coal plants would have a direct environmental and health impact on the local communities around such plants. When four Kentucky coal plants were either retired or retrofitted with emissions controls, one study found, local asthma-related hospitalizations plummeted. Coal plants have also primarily been located in low-income communities, as well as communities of color. But bringing back coal would do more than just damage people in the U.S. The environmental costs would be borne by the entire globe. “Coal is by far the worst offender at releasing damaging, polluting greenhouse gasses,” Gleick says. Environmental experts say the world needs to completely phase out coal power by 2040 in order to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals. Some places have already completely retired their coal power plants. In September 2024, the United Kingdom—the first country to build a coal power plant—became the first major economy to completely stop using coal to make electricity when its last coal power plant shut down. Even India and China, which both still burn immense amounts of coal, are trying to transition away from that energy source, because of both the economic and environmental costs. “For us to go in the other direction is just lunacy,” Gleick says. It’s not coal specifically that Americans want, he notes; it’s energy broadly, and there are far more cheaper, faster ways to produce energy—like through solar and wind. “If we are in an energy emergency then we should roll back the recent pauses on wind and solar permitting, not try to bring back old coal plants already a decade past their lifetime, on the backs of American ratepayers,” Shearer says. Solar specifically is the cheapest source of electricity, the International Energy Agency says, and also the fastest energy source to deploy. (Besides finding new sources of energy, we could also work to increase how energy efficient our systems and tools are, Gleick says, which is even less expensive to do.) No country that has reduced its dependence on coal would voluntarily go back to that energy source, Gleick adds. “The only people who want more coal to be burned are fossil fuel company executives. No one else wants this,” he says. “Bringing coal back to the U.S. is not making America great again.” View the full article

In summer 2022, when artificial intelligence-based text-to-image generation tools hit the mainstream, architects were cautiously excited. The ease of generating real-ish images of design concepts and buildings with just a few simple sentences was irresistible, and many architects began experimenting with ways of letting AI quickly do some of the sketching and ideating they’d gotten used to spending hours or days laboring over. “It’s almost like you’re speaking a building into existence,” one architect said. But now, with AI maturing and getting integrated into tools and industries far and wide, a surprisingly low number of architects are actually using AI in their work. Architects are slow to adopt AI Only 6% of architects report regularly using AI for their jobs, and only 8% of architecture firms have implemented AI solutions, according to a new report from the American Institute of Architects. Based on a survey of 541 members of the architecture profession, the report shows an industry-wide shyness around AI adoption, with many unsure what AI can do for them, and a large percentage—39%—downright uninterested in finding out. Some architects are making AI a part of the way they practice, though, and the report shows strong interest in using AI more, particularly among architects younger than 50. The report finds that while only 8% of firms are actively using AI on a day-to-day basis, 20% are currently working on implementing AI solutions. More than half of architects have at least experimented with AI tools, and three-quarters are optimistic about AI automating some tasks. “The reality is that there are a lot of industries that are still figuring this out,” says Evelyn Lee, president of the AIA. “I do think that architects, when it comes to new technology implementation, we do tend to lag a little bit.” But there’s big opportunity Lee, who has a tech background, says architects can do more with AI than just generate quick imagery. Other use cases include marketing, project management, and construction document creation. According to the report, image-based content production is still the main way architecture firms use AI, but Lee suggests that the tech may be more useful for the operational side of the business, where it could resolve simple tasks, like eliminating the need for manual time sheets, as well as more labor-intensive jobs, like maintaining and updating building material libraries. “There’s a really big opportunity there for AI to illuminate the library and the wealth of materials available right now,” she says. “So much of what we learn about new materials is from the individual manufacturer’s rep showing up and saying ‘Here is the latest ceiling tile.’” That could help architects improve the way their projects are designed, lower their costs, and even reduce their environmental footprint by finding new sustainable materials to integrate into their projects. AI tools could speed up product delivery “The biggest opportunity ultimately is on the product delivery side,” Lee says. As AI begins to be more fully integrated into the software that architects use to design their projects, it can speed up the process of turning design concepts into detailed plans and eventually into the construction documents used to get projects built. That could open the door for smaller architecture firms to be more competitive. There are more than 19,000 architecture firms in the U.S., and almost three-quarters of them have fewer than 10 employees, according to another recent AIA report. “The software will allow them to do more, quicker, better,” Lee says. “That’s a huge opportunity for AI to be leveraged to democratize the design delivery process.” View the full article