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Industry News

Catch up on interesting new discussion and industry news.

    My $500M Mars Rover Mistake: A Failure Story

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Dec 3, 2023 at 6:31 AM
    My work at Jeli so far has given me a new lens on “incidents”—both in the software world and beyond—that I didn’t have before. These “failures” are everywhere around us. But are they really failures? Or are they ways for us to learn more about the systems we work within, and how to improve them? I think it’s the latter, and My $500M Mars Rover Mistake by Chris Lewicki is another story that showcases that…

    The core lesson I’ve drawn from my rover ordeal is best expressed in these words:...

    Zoom Fatigue is Real, According to Brain Scans

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Dec 2, 2023
    I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear that we now have brain scan research that shows that Zoom fatigue is a real thing:

    The brain and heart readings suggested that videoconferencing led to significantly greater signs of fatigue, sadness, drowsiness, and negative feelings, as well as less attention and engagement, than a face-to-face lecture. The questionnaires also showed the volunteers felt significantly more tired, drowsy, and fed up and less lively, happy, and active from...

    20 Years Covering The Search Industry

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Dec 1, 2023
    20 years ago tomorrow (December 2, 2003), I started this blog aimed at archiving some of the best discussions within the search marketing community...

    Alternatives To Product Managers

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Nov 30, 2023
    In his characteristic spicy way Marty Cagan says that if you want to replace product managers that’s fine—but be careful:

    If you’re a CEO or GM, you might be thinking that instead of trying to recruit and develop strong, true product managers, maybe you’ll just do like Apple and skip the product managers, and you’ll just take responsibility for value and viability yourself?

    If so, it’s critical to understand that the Apple product model depends on exceptionally strong product leaders....

    Lessons from going freemium: a decision that broke our business

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Nov 30, 2023
    In Lessons from going freemium: a decision that broke our business, Bobby Pinero (CEO of Equals) makes some interesting points about what they’ve learned about freemium pricing models. This point about how user friction is not always a bad thing stood out to me:

    In all of our pursuit of getting people into the product, the thing we forgot is that the goal of onboarding is not for people to complete onboarding. It’s not to just get people into the product. The goal of onboarding is for...

    Google Search Ranking Volatility - Is It The End Of Reviews Update?

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Nov 30, 2023
    I am seeing some signs of some big Google Search ranking volatility and shuffling today. The core update just finished, so Google would say it is not the core update but the reviews update is still rolling out. Or maybe this new ranking volatility is unrelated to any confirmed update - I don't know.

    Google November 2023 Core Update Finished Rolling Out

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Nov 29, 2023
    After just under 26 days, the Google November 2023 core update is finally done rolling out. It took almost two weeks longer to roll out than the average core update and rolled out during the huge shopping days on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, also overlapping the November 2023 reviews update. So it was a big deal.

    New Google Profile Page & Discussion Forum Structured Data With Search Console Reports

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Nov 28, 2023
    Google has announced new structured data for discussion forum and profile page structured data on Google Search, with new markup and also new Search Console reports. Also, with this change, Google updated the Q&A forum structured data. This seems related to the new personalized experience within Google Search, the hidden gems, the follower counts and discussion and forum features.

    Daily Search Forum Recap: November 27, 2023

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Nov 27, 2023
    Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

    Google Search Console Currently Down

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Nov 27, 2023
    Google Search Console seems to be down right now. If you try to access it, you will get a 500 server error. I suspect Search Console will be back up shortly but right now, if it is down for you, you are not alone.