Industry News

Catch up on interesting new discussion and industry news.

    The anatomy of a people-first job ad

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Mar 3, 2024
    I love all the advice Charlotte Carnehl gives in The anatomy of a people-first job ad. If you’re about to go into a hiring phase, definitely bookmark this one for when it’s time to write the job description. One example:

    When looking for a new job, it’s not only the position and responsibilities that are part of the package, but also the people I’ll be working with. So please tell me in your job ad: Who will be my manager? Who will I work and interact with most? Once I know, I can learn...

    In IndieWeb interactions: what builds connection?

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Mar 3, 2024
    Tracy Durnell brings up a good point about the importance of “lightweight interactions” in our digital communication. I remember the blowback against these kinds of “reaction messages” when they first became a thing. But I think Tracy is right that in a lot of ways, they keep our relationships strong:

    The idea that lightweight interactions like a thumbs up or a “love it” comment are not valuable has, I suspect, grown out of a distrust of corporate-owned social media platforms mediating,...

    Flop rock: inside the underground floppy disk music scene

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Mar 3, 2024
    I love stories like this. Turns out there’s a sort-of movement of music being released on floppy disk… I will have to watch it from afar with admiration though. I’m already collecting vinyl and CDs so this is probably not a good idea for me.

    There are almost 2,300 floppy releases listed on Discogs.com, most of which are electronic, but other genres include hip-hop, a smattering of classical and jazz, a bunch of metal subgenres, and “non-music” like experimental field recordings from...

    Daily Search Forum Recap: March 1, 2024

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 1, 2024
    Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

    Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Volatility, Tons Of Google Bugs, Most Read Articles, Bing Deep Search & Quality & SEOs Not Loving Google

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 1, 2024
    We had two periods of Google Search ranking volatility this week, one last weekend and one on Thursday or so. Google court documents say search quality has improved and not degraded. Google dropped the see more results in the local panel this week for a period of time until it fixed...

    Google Court Document Says Search Quality Continues To Improve

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 1, 2024
    Google has posted its post-trial debrief document for the DOJ trial that talks about many different things, including stating that its search quality continues to improve. We covered its statement that Microsoft Bing Search had search quality issues earlier.

    Google Structured Data Carousels Beta Documentation Added

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 1, 2024
    Google has added new structured data carousel beta documentation, also known as host carousel. Google wrote that this is "a new carousel rich result that's in beta, which is a list-like rich result that people can scroll horizontally to see more entities from a given site (also known as a host carousel)."

    Now You Can Opt Out Of Google Search Place Entities In Page Insights

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 1, 2024
    Google has added a form where you can now request to opt out of displaying in the place entity feature in Page Insights to users in the European Economic Area (EEA). Page Insights is that button you can press while on a website using the Google app to get more details about that web page, I think it was called SGE while browsing.

    Google Updates Business Profiles Customer Interactions Every Few Days

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 1, 2024
    When you search for you Google Business Profile in Google, Google may show you the number of "customer interactions." The question is, how often is that number updated? Matt McGee said in the Local Search Forum that he believes it is updated every 2-3 days.

    Google AdSense Offerwall Messages (Beta)

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 1, 2024
    For the past year or more, Google AdSense (and Ad Manager) has this feature named Offerwall messages (Beta). Google AdSense has recently pushed it more via the AdSense console interface and more publishers are noticing it.