Industry News

This essay on How Group Chats Rule the World (NYT Gift Link) is really great, and I agree with all of it.

The group chat can sustain indefinitely this thin wire of connectedness. Some might argue that this feeling is a deception, another screen-based way to stave off loneliness; I would say instead that it glows with potential. Because there is no practical end to the group chat, it can be a means of keeping the lights on, constellating a set of people who would otherwise be entirely...

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

For the original iTunes version, click here.

This week we covered a new possible Google search ranking update that started brewing on Wednesday, February 7. Google's Danny Sullivan said again...

Google has updated its Web Stories documentation to explain where Web Stories can show in search. Google said Web Stories no longer will show up within Google Image Search, the carousel view and made some changes to where these Web Stories show within Google Search.

Google has made an update to its Google crawler (user agent) search documentation to change the references of "Bard" to "Gemini" because of the product name change. Google also clarified that Google Extended has no impact or effect on Google Search.

Google has added the ability to add activities and events to the Google Business Profiles dashboard. This is a quick form to add upcoming events or activities to your business quickly.

Google Search is testing various shades of blue for its search header, including a sticky version that, um, sticks as you scroll down the search results. Here are various screenshots from a few folks that I found on X over the past several days.

Did you know that both Danny Sullivan and John Mueller send emails to Google employees on a routine basis? I heard from multiple sources that John sends one weekly, I think maybe on Fridays, and Danny Sullivan shared a screenshot of a portion of the email he recently sent to Google staff on X.

You know an essay is going to be good when this is the preamble:

I am writing this piece in good faith (that you, as a reader, like to think more about the culture that surrounds you, whether it’s culture you love or hate or are ambivalent about) and that you are in turn reading in good faith (that I do not hate Taylor Swift, that this is not a takedown, that we’re talking about Swift’s image but we’re also talking about people’s reaction to that image).

But yes, this is a really...

This is another fantastic post on career development from Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale. This bit really resonated with me:

I want to feel like I’m making progress. And to feel like the various work experiences I’ve had are all building toward a thing. I want to be able to talk about work, not as a string of jobs I’ve done, but as a career.