Industry News

Google seems to have rolled out the Shop with Google AI feature to some users after announcing it back in November. I cannot see it unless I am logged into my personal Gmail account which is opted into SGE, on the Google Search app on iOS.

A week ago we wrote about the timing it takes to recover from a Google helpful content update. Then on Friday, Danny Sullivan, Google's Search Liaison, added more clarity on the fastest time a site can possibly recover after being negatively impacted by the helpful content update.

Google Search seems to be testing a new search bar design on mobile search. The bar shows the images, videos, news, shopping, maps, etc buttons but with a light blue background color, as a curved button.

Google Ads will update its unacceptable business practices portion of the misrepresentation policy in March 2024. The update says you cannot entice "users to part with money or information by impersonating or falsely implying affiliation with or endorsement by a public figure, brand, or organization."

Google is testing a new menu item in its search bar. The new item is "Forums" and it filters the search results to forums, such as Reddit, Hacker News, and other forums on the internet.

This is an excellent read from McKinsey. It turns out that, unsurprisingly, organizational health is (still) the key to long-term performance:

McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index (OHI) continues to show, for instance, that, over the long term, healthy organizations deliver three times the total shareholder returns (TSR) of unhealthy organizations, regardless of industry. Other findings point to greater resilience and higher financial performance in healthy organizations, even as the...

An Unreasonable Investment is another excellent leadership essay by Michael Lopp. Here’s something to take with us into our jobs every day:

You want some free leadership advice? You build yourself by building… by helping others. The selfless act of helping humans will teach you more about being a credible leader than any book.

Your career is not your job. It’s the humans you help along the way.

Molly Graham has a fantastic essay on how to figure out if a job is the right fit for you. The post focuses on senior roles, but there are some great tips for everyone here:

What I look for, truly, is the intersection in the two sides of the equation: does what we NEED match what this person WANTS to do? As I said, most companies and most interviews focus more on the question: can this person do what we need? But if you’re trying to recruit the best talent in the world, it needs to start...

I love JJ Skolnik’s essay Love + Work for Flaming Hydra (paywalled but well worth it—this newsletter is great). JJ used to work at Bandcamp and reflects on “loving your work” when it doesn’t love you back. And he has some wonderful reflections on the meaning of music too:

Underground music is vital because it is an experience that cannot be replicated in capitalist language. No matter how much one tries to distill it down to a matter of commodity exchange—there is nothing that can...

Mike Fisher preaches the good stuff in Quality vs Quantity. He talks about the importance of shipping small, incremental releases to customers:

By prioritizing the quantity of opportunities to learn, teams encourage a culture of continuous learning and flexibility. Each iteration becomes a learning opportunity. This method aligns more closely with real-world conditions where customer preferences and market dynamics are constantly evolving. Furthermore, this approach reduces the risks...