EU Poised to Warn Broadcom Over VMware Deal

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EU Poised to Warn Broadcom Over VMware Deal

The European Union is poised to issue a warning to Broadcom over its proposed purchase of VMware for $61 billion.

Broadcom announced a deal to acquire VMware for $61 billion in May 2022. The deal came as a shock to many, including many VMware employees who were not happy with the prospect of joining Broadcom.

Regulators have expressed concerns about the deal, with the EU Commission opening an investigation in December, after UK regulators took a similar step in November.

According to Reuters, the EU is now preparing to issue a warning to Broadcom over the proposed deal. This will give the two companies an opportunity to address concerns and offer potential remedies, although the outlet’s sources say Broadcom has no intention of preemptively offering remedies before seeing the charges in the warning.

EU Poised to Warn Broadcom Over VMware Deal
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Dish Network Customer Data Stolen in Ransomware Attack

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Dish Network Customer Data Stolen in Ransomware Attack

More details have emerged regarding Dish Network’s recent outage, including the fact that customer data was stolen in the incident.

Dish began experiencing major issues Thursday morning, with employees unable to work or access internal systems. The company’s website was also down. At the time, CEO Erik Carlson chalked it up to an “internal outage.”

In a filing with the SEC, however, the company has admitted the issue was the result of a ransomware attack, one that compromised customer data:

On February 27, 2023, the Corporation became aware that certain data was extracted from the Corporation’s IT systems as part of this incident. It is possible the investigation will reveal that the extracted data includes personal information. The measures described above are continuing while the Corporation, with the assistance of third-party experts and advisors, investigates the extent of the cyber-security incident.

The company is working to restore the impacted services and is working with law enforcement.

Dish Network Customer Data Stolen in Ransomware Attack
Matt Milano

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Ford Is Working on Self-Driving Repos

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Ford Is Working on Self-Driving Repos

Ford has a novel idea for self-driving tech, with plans to use the it to automatically repossess cars from owners that default on their payments.

Ford originally filed for a patent in 2021 describing a system that would enable a vehicle to repossess itself. The patent, which was just rewarded last week, would allow a lender to ramp up repossession efforts, from sending notifications to limiting the vehicle’s movements to a specific geofenced area.

In the final state of the process, when the repossession involves an autonomous vehicle, the vehicle’s computers can drive the vehicle back to the lender or repo agency.

In some other cases, the vehicle can be an autonomous vehicle and the repossession system computer may cooperate with the vehicle computer to autonomously move the vehicle from the premises of the owner to a location such as, for example, the premises of the repossession agency, the premises of the lending institution, an impound pound, or any other pre-designated location. The address of such locations may be previously stored in a database of the repossession system computer.

Ford’s approach is certainly an interesting use of self-driving tech, and one that will probably make more than a few customers uncomfortable.

Ford Is Working on Self-Driving Repos
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YouTube TV Is Experiencing Issues

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YouTube TV Is Experiencing Issues

YouTube TV appears to be experiencing an outage, one that is impacting Apple TV, TVision Hub, and other streaming devices.

Users began reporting errors on Monday afternoon. According to 9to5Mac, Apple TV users seem to be heavily impacted, although it’s not the only device experiencing trouble.

WPN confirmed that the Android-based TVision Hub was also impacted, although the problem appears to be fixed.

YouTube TV Is Experiencing Issues
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Reddit’s IPO May Be on Track for the Second Half of 2023

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Reddit’s IPO May Be on Track for the Second Half of 2023

Reddit may finally be moving forward with its IPO after laying the groundwork for nearly two years.

Reddit hired its first CFO in early 2021 in what many saw as one of the first major steps toward an IPO. At the end of 2021, the company filed paperwork with the SEC to go public, but little forward movement has happened since then, thanks to the economic downturn and other factors.

According to The Information, however, it appears the social media company is once again moving forward. The outlet’s sources say the company plans to move forward later this year, likely in the second half.

Interestingly, unlike other tech firms — ServiceTitan, StockX, and Cohesity — that have allowed their IPO paperwork to lapse, thereby taking the option off the table in the short term, Reddit has been maintaining its filing with the SEC. This would support The Information’s sources, essentially keeping Reddit in a ‘holding pattern’ until the market improves.

Reddit’s IPO May Be on Track for the Second Half of 2023
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Google Wants Employees to Share a Desk

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Google Wants Employees to Share a Desk

Google is taking an unusual approach to bringing people back to the office, asking them to share a desk.

Like many in the tech industry, Google has been working to bring employees back to the office at least part-time. According to an internal document seen by CNBC, the company is looking to optimize its use of real estate by asking some employees to share a desk on alternating days.

“Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler,” the internal document stated, describing a system of alternate work days so desks don’t have two people using them at the same time. “Through the matching process, they will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with their desk partner and teams to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment.”

In the event someone comes into work on an off-day when their desk will be in use, they will have to use “overflow drop-in space.”

Google’s approach is a novel one to the new normal in which hybrid workflows require rethinking traditional office space requirements.

Google Wants Employees to Share a Desk
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Microsoft Angering Users With Overly-Aggressive Edge Ads

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Microsoft Angering Users With Overly-Aggressive Edge Ads

Microsoft is hell-bent on keeping people using its Edge web browser, resorting to overly-aggressive ads to accomplish its goal.

Edge is the company’s default browser and successor to Internet Explorer. By all rights, Edge is a very capable browser, but Microsoft seems intent on pushing it as much as possible, even resorting to ads within Windows.

According to Windows Latest, the company is displaying a popup whenever a user visits the Google Chrome website from within Edge. Interestingly, the popup seems to engage in a bit of false advertising.

“By continuing, you will set Microsoft Edge as your default browser. Offer valid for 1 person/account within first 14 days of joining,” the popup reads.

Microsoft Edge Ad – Credit WindowsLatest.com

It’s unclear why the popup says the offer is only valid for 14 days, since a user can obviously use Edge as their default browser any time they want. The popup was likely recycled from another promotion, and someone forgot to clean up and change the verbiage.

Clicking on the “Browse securely now” button doesn’t do anything — evidently another bug — but clicking the “X” in the upper right corner closes the dialog box.

While it’s good to see Microsoft playing nice with other companies, unlike how the company behaved under Gates and Ballmer, it’s more than a little disconcerting to see the company cluttering up its product with ads — especially after users have paid a premium to use those products.

Microsoft Angering Users With Overly-Aggressive Edge Ads
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Twitter Payments Head Esther Crawford Has Been Laid Off

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Twitter Payments Head Esther Crawford Has Been Laid Off

The carnage at Twitter continues, with Twitter Payments head Esther Crawford laid off, along with most of her team.

Esther Crawford was head of Twitter Payments, putting her in charge of Twitter Blue. According to Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer, Crawford is the latest to be purged from Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover.

Crawford’s departure is especially surprising since she was viewed as a Musk loyalist. in fact, she was one of those employees that answered Musk’s call to fully commit to the company.

Source: https://t.co/WB53Ora7cv

— bö (@ThBenkoe) February 26, 2023

The Verge’s Alex Heath says the layoff extends to most of “product org.”

Lots of speculation among ex employees that Musk must be about to install a whole new regime and that’s why he is cleaning house. Otherwise the cuts don’t make sense. “Hard to keep the lights on with the people who are still left,” one ex manager told me.

— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) February 26, 2023

Crawford’s departure makes one thing crystal clear: No one is safe in Musk’s Twitter.

Twitter Payments Head Esther Crawford Has Been Laid Off
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New Year, New Goals: 3 Goals Your Team Should Work Toward in 2023

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New Year, New Goals: 3 Goals Your Team Should Work Toward in 2023

The demands placed on teams and organizations are vastly different today than they were just five years ago. Between leaps forward in technology, pandemic-driven upheavals, structural shake-ups, and transformed customer expectations, the learning curve might be mistaken for a mountain.

However swift various changes arrive, teams need to be just as agile, if not more. And for business leaders, it’s essential to convey clarity, steadfast vision, and awareness of what’s ahead. As you structure your goals for 2023, resist the urge to load up your team with surface-level goals. Instead, drill down to the foundational work needed to help you achieve your most significant milestones this year and beyond. 

1. Establish a Clear Vision with Storytelling

Teams come to work, they complete their tasks, but then what? Without an understanding of how their daily deliverables impact the organization’s whole picture, it’s tough for employees to stay engaged. Whether you’re leading a front-line contact center, development team, or marketing department, communicating how their expertise fuels success matters. 

Take your organization’s broad goals and use them to develop a clear vision for your team. Say your contact center tracks average handling time and first call resolution rate metrics. These quantitative measurements may feel more like grades than a way to serve your customers. If agents do well, life is great, and if they fall short, it can feel like a losing battle.

Bring your goals to life by using storytelling to achieve strategic alignment between metrics, employee output, and customer experience. Your vision may be “customers feel heard and are supported when they need us most.” This vision is relatable across generations, roles, and styles. 

Next, outline how your team’s specific work drives this vision forward. Break down your vision into specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely tactics that’ll help teams achieve them. This format, also known as S.M.A.R.T. goals, allows for accountability and clear measures of success. Without this time-proven structure, your well-meaning vision is at risk of falling short. 

2. Improve Efficiency for Today’s Workforce

Distributed teams, different time zones, and allowance for varying work styles can provide employees with greater flexibility. However, when you shift from a standard 9-to-5 workplace, it also invites complexity. Assess your current work styles, technology solutions, and the known gaps and issues among them. 

Interview colleagues across the organization to get a clear picture of problems known and uncommunicated. Use surveys, guided discussions, and open feedback to get a pulse on where the issues exist and to source solutions. Without a request for this type of feedback, many employees are hesitant to provide it. Once you’ve sourced feedback, keep your team up-to-date with what’s being done with the information. Even if there’s not an immediate solution, open dialogue and transparency will build trust over time. 

Partner with relevant departments to make improvements for your team. Some updates will require cross-functional collaboration, like implementing a collaboration tool. Others can be successfully launched within your group, like a method for managing team workload or files. Newly distributed teams that regularly share documents for editing may be feeling the pain of version control. After assessing specific needs and success criteria, you may find that a cloud-based file-sharing platform will solve the problem.

By developing specificity for your efficiency initiative, you can ensure proposed solutions have higher odds of success. Launch change initiatives only after conducting user testing, providing training, and identifying a support structure. With checks and balances, your team will benefit from thoughtful and strategic efforts designed to boost efficiency without confusion.

3. Prioritize the Human Needs of Your Team

The business world’s obsession with work-life balance has been replaced with a more realistic, refreshing outlook: work-life integration. At first glance, this may appear to be a pre-approval to shed the boundaries between home and work. However, it’s really an acknowledgment that humans crave both flexibility and purpose for both work and life. 

Forget for a moment the constraints of your line of work. Instead, get curious about what your team wants and needs without adding in qualifiers. Schedule exploratory conversations with your direct reports to share your desire to learn more about their lived experiences. Keep these open-ended and casual, focusing on “what-if” statements and listening more than you speak.

You may be surprised to learn about the challenges your team faces outside of their workload. Long commutes eat up valuable hours of daylight and add stress at the front and back end of their days. Their continuing education goals keep getting set aside because it’s hard to find the time. Take notes and listen to what’s not said as much as what is to get to the heart of the issues. 

One conversation likely won’t be enough to identify the depth of the issues or the breadth of the opportunities. Integrate this type of conversation into your quarterly reviews to build a culture of communication that improves over time. Then consult with your leadership team to determine how you can improve your employees’ work life. Updates to policies, benefits, and practices can fuel a better employee experience that improves worker satisfaction and business results. 

Nurture Your Goals Toward Success

Now that you’ve launched your 2023 goals, it’s time to nurture them toward their fullest potential. Make your qualitative and quantitative goals part of your organization’s vocabulary. Hold a kickoff meeting that lays out the goals, why they matter, and how the team can make a difference. With consistency, clarity, and steady leadership, your team’s results will take your organization to the next level. 

New Year, New Goals: 3 Goals Your Team Should Work Toward in 2023
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Stanford Professor: Tech Layoffs Are ‘Copycat Behavior’

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Stanford Professor: Tech Layoffs Are ‘Copycat Behavior’

A Stanford professor has confirmed what many suspect, saying Big Tech’s layoffs are more about “copycat behavior than necessary cost-cutting.”

Tech companies have already laid off hundreds of thousands of workers, blaming an economic downturn and overly-aggressive hiring during the pandemic for the current cuts. It appears many of those cuts are not necessary, instead reflecting a fundamental truth about human nature, Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer told Business Insider’s Sarah Jackson:

The idea that human behavior is influenced by what others do is really old. If you’re a pedestrian and you see a stop signal, but no cars are coming and somebody steps into the street, you’ll probably do it too. It’s almost automatic behavior.

We should expect this to also be true in business. A lot of companies were hiring during the pandemic, so everybody decided to hire. Now, companies are laying off, and everybody decided to follow each other and lay people off. A lot of this is just imitation.

Read more: LinkedIn Hit With Layoffs

Professor Pfeffer goes on to question the dubious “advantages” many companies tout when laying off employees:

In many instances, layoffs don’t increase stock prices or cut costs. Between things like the cost of severance and the loss of productivity, layoffs have pretty nasty and negative consequences for the company. It’s not clear they actually increase profits.

The irony is that these same companies were talking a year ago about people as their most important asset, and now they’re treating their employees pretty badly, laying them off via email or by abruptly cutting off their access to the company. These layoffs are a decision that reflects the company’s values, and these companies have basically given their employees the middle finger.

Virtually every one of the world’s biggest tech firms has already laid off thousands, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta. In fact, only Apple stands apart among Big Tech companies as the one that has yet to engage in mass layoffs.

Perhaps, given Professor Pfeffer linking layoffs to “copycat behavior,” it’s not all that surprising Apple is the one Big Tech company to avoid layoffs. Apple has a long history of bucking popular conventions and the company and has rarely, if ever, been accused of being a copycat.

Stanford Professor: Tech Layoffs Are ‘Copycat Behavior’
Matt Milano

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DOJ Says Google Misled It, “Systematically Destroyed” Messages

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DOJ Says Google Misled It, “Systematically Destroyed” Messages

The Department of Justice says Google “systematically destroyed” messages and misled the agency about its actions.

US companies are required by law to keep copies of internal communications if there is any reasonable anticipation of upcoming litigation. In Google’s case, the DOJ argues in its filing that the company should have anticipated the government’s legal action against it as early as mid-2019, according to CNBC.

In spite of the DOJ’s belief that Google should have anticipated the current litigation, the company continued to delete its internal chats every 24 hours…right up to this month. Instead, the company left it up to individuals to decide whether they would keep or auto-delete their messages.

“Few, if any,” did, says the DOJ.

To make matters worse, the DOJ says the company repeatedly and “falsely” told the agency that it had ”‘put a legal hold in place’ that ‘suspends auto-deletion.’”

See Also: States Sue Google for Antitrust

As a result of the DOJ’s claims, Judge James Donato indicated at the end of January that he would consider an adverse jury instruction, although he would be open to allowing the jury to arrive at their own conclusions regarding the implications of Google’s actions.

Eileen Scallen, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, told CNBC that an adverse jury instruction would be “very damning.”

“The one person the jury respects in a courtroom is the trial judge,” Scallen said. “And if the trial judge is telling them you can presume that this was bad news for Google, they’re going to take that to heart.”

In the meantime, Google is disputing the DOJ’s claims. A company spokesperson told CNBC that company officials “strongly refute the DOJ’s claims. Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation. In fact, we have produced over 4 million documents in this case alone, and millions more to regulators around the world.”

Given the various antitrust investigations that have been building against the company for years, it is hard to fathom any halfway intelligent individual not anticipating possible litigation against the company. Google may well have dug its own grave on this one.

DOJ Says Google Misled It, “Systematically Destroyed” Messages
Matt Milano

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Dish.com Is Down, Employees Unable to Work

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Dish.com Is Down, Employees Unable to Work

Dish Network is experiencing a major outage, one that has crippled its website and stopped employees from working.

According to The Verge, Dish began experiencing issues Thursday morning. The company’s website displays a notice saying it is experiencing problems, and the company’s internal apps and customer support systems are also impacted. What’s more, employees are reportedly being kept in the dark about what is going on.

The outage began around the same time as the company’s Q4 earnings, giving CEO Erik Carlson an opportunity to address the problems. He said that Dish, Sling, and the company’s wireless network are operational, but that “internal communications, customer care functions, Internet sites” are all down.

The Verge also goes on to point out that customers are unable to pay their bills, although company reps are assuring customers they won’t lose service if they can’t pay their bill as a result of the outage:

Hi, William! We are currently experiencing issues with processing payments and making account updates for some customers. If you are affected, you will not lose your service while we resolve this issue. Thanks for being a valued DISH customer. ~ Reyna D

— DISH Answers (@dish_answers) February 24, 2023

Dish.com Is Down, Employees Unable to Work
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Ericsson Laying Off 8,500 Employees

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Ericsson Laying Off 8,500 Employees

Ericsson is joining the list of tech companies laying off staff, with CEO Borje Ekholm saying 8,500 employees will be laid off.

The tech sector has been especially hard-hit by the economic downturn, with companies large and small laying off workers. Ericsson is the latest to announce job cuts, according to Reuters, with Ekholm sending a memo to employees to inform them of the company’s plans.

“The way headcount reductions will be managed will differ depending on local country practice,” Ekholm wrote in the memo.

“In several countries the headcount reductions have already been communicated this week,” he said.

Ericsson did not specify which regions would be most impacted, but analysts have predicted that North America would likely be one of the hardest hit.

Ekholm said the layoffs were necessary to help the company remain competitive.

“It is our obligation to take this cost out to remain competitive,” Ekholm said in the memo. “Our biggest enemy right now may be complacency.”

Ericsson Laying Off 8,500 Employees
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EU Considers Making Big Tech Pay For Infrastructure Upgrades

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EU Considers Making Big Tech Pay For Infrastructure Upgrades

The EU Commission is considering a proposal that would see tech companies charged for network infrastructure upgrades.

The Commission is trying to address challenges likely to arise as the technological landscape continues to evolve. Cloud computing, edge computing, and AI are just a few of the transformative technologies that could have a profound impact on infrastructure requirements.

The Commission outlined its concerns in a survey:

The aim is to gather views on the changing technological and market landscape and how it may affect the sector for electronic communications. It also touches upon the types of infrastructure and amount of investments that Europe needs to lead the digital transformation in the coming years.

Digital markets and in particular connectivity markets are facing transformative technological and market developments. These include cloud data storage, the transition to edge computing, the usability of the Metaverse, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and more. Moreover, such developments are not isolated from the challenging geopolitical and the broader economic situation.

These various technologies will require “massive investments” in infrastructure:

New generations of mobile communications will require massive investments in fibre and densification of antennas. New performance will enable critical use cases and the connection of objects. These developments will likely have a significant impact on the business model of providers of electronic communications networks (“ECNs”), as well as of other actors in the value chain. In light of this, it is important to broadly reflect on how to secure a resilient connectivity architecture based on a sustainable business model able to support our digital future in the EU.

To be clear, the Commission has not publicly endorsed any possibility, but TechCrunch says it is leaning toward a telco proposal that would see Big Tech companies charged for the upgrades. In particular, the EU is looking at those companies that are responsible for the majority of online traffic, such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix.

EU Considers Making Big Tech Pay For Infrastructure Upgrades
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6 Powerful Ways Social Media Will Build Your SEO

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6 Powerful Ways Social Media Will Build Your SEO

Because social media shares are not Google ranking factors, many companies ignore social media in their SEO efforts. That’s a mistake for two reasons.

First, while social media shares have no direct impact on SEO rankings, shares can indirectly improve SEO in very meaningful ways.

Second, other aspects of social media marketing aside from shares have a positive effect on SEO.

Here are the top six ways social media builds SEO:

1- Backlink Generation

Backlinks are a tremendously important ranking factor — so much so that an SEO campaign may devote well over 50% of its budget to developing high-quality backlinks.

Social media shares encourage backlinks — when your social media marketing activities are conducted with SEO in mind. What does that mean?

First, it means your social network community is designed to attract followers with an enthusiastic interest in reading and sharing content about your company, products, services, and/or industry.

For the most part, such followers will be customers, prospects, industry peers, suppliers, and people in related industries. These are the people who are interested in linking to your shared content on their blogs and websites. 

Second, it means that your social media communication strategy includes and perhaps emphasizes scheduled sharing of on-site content strategically important to your SEO campaign. While having backlinks to any page of your website is helpful, links to those pages that you want to rank highly produce the best SEO results.

Third, it means that the quality of your shared on-site content is high. Google’s algorithm evaluates content qualitatively. If your content is relevant, free of grammatical errors, useful, engaging, and authoritative, it will inspire people to link to it.

Fourth, it means that you engage followers on social media to encourage or even request a backlink. This is best done personally and selectively–blanket social media messages asking for links are interpreted as overly self-promotional and will backfire.

2- YouTube Optimization

YouTube is the world’s largest social media platform and the world’s second largest search engine, exceeded only by its parent company, Google. Optimizing video on YouTube and connecting your YouTube videos to your website have tremendous SEO value.

An optimized YouTube channel and keyword-optimized YouTube videos generate views on YouTube and then send relevant traffic to your website. If your videos do a great job of selling your products and services, that referred traffic will generate conversions, the overriding goal of any SEO campaign.

Keep in mind that video is a search category for Google. Videos posted on your YouTube channel may rank very well for general searches on Google when properly optimized. If your business involves products or services that need to be seen to be sold, you cannot afford to overlook YouTube’s SEO potential.

3- Instagram Optimization

Everything about YouTube and SEO applies to Instagram and SEO.

Instagram is an excellent platform for products and services that are visually interesting — which can be just about anything if you approach your marketing creatively.

For instance, plumbing is not a particularly glamorous industry, but photos that depict the steps to install a shower head will be extremely useful and interesting to the Instagram community when the need arises.

If you connect your Instagram photos to your SEO strategy, especially in terms of images containing your target keywords, you will improve your brand’s visibility for your most important products and services, as well as generate referred traffic from Instagram to your website when people are in the market for what you sell.

4- High-ranking Social Profiles in Google SERPs

Your social media profile pages may rank higher on Google SERPs (search engine results pages) than your website content. This can even hold true for branded searches: for instance, a company’s LinkedIn profile page often outranks its website’s home page.

Facebook profile pages also tend to rank highly for branded searches, and branded search queries may generate a section for your company’s tweets on the SERP.

Depending on what the Google user is looking for, links to your social media content on Google SERPs may attract a considerable number of clicks. If your social media content is well optimized, with links pointing to your website — including links to the home page and strategically important SEO pages — those clicks can ultimately result in conversions.

With respect to Twitter, keep in mind your most recent tweets may appear in their entirety on Google SERPs. Make sure your tweets always reflect well on your brand and inspire clicks from your target prospects. 

5- Boosting Conversions

Facebook profile pages have an important feature: customer reviews. If you cultivate positive customer reviews on Facebook, you will not only improve your brand perception, but you will also give your SEO campaign a very large helping hand.

That customer reviews strongly influence buying decisions is a well-known fact. For this reason, your Facebook page can help close sales after SEO has brought visitors directly from Google to your website. Why? Because these SEO visitors will want to check out your company’s Facebook reviews before they make a buying decision.

Social media thus becomes a component of your SEO campaign’s conversion strategy. The path is: Google search  ̶  to website  ̶  to Facebook profile  ̶  to website  ̶  to inquiry form submission or online order. Complex … but common!

While other social media sites don’t feature formal customer reviews, they do reveal what sort of communication you have with customers. Again, search engine traffic to your website will lead interested prospects to explore your social media pages to better understand how you engage with your customers and how being your customer would feel.

What conclusions will they reach based on your social media customer interactions?

6- Improving Website Ranking Factors

As illustrated throughout this article, when visitors come to your website from social media sources, they are likely to be very interested in what you sell.

This high level of interest is important from an SEO perspective because it encourages website activity that Google loves to see:

●  Long visits

●  Visits to multiple website pages

●  Repeat visits

●  Low bounce rates

By improving the quantity and quality of your website’s traffic, social media thus helps improve your website’s overall authority and thus its rankings.

Conclusion

Social media is a powerful tool for building your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. By utilizing these six strategies, you can increase your online visibility and drive traffic to your website.

Social media and SEO are interconnected, and by incorporating social media into your SEO strategy, you can establish a strong online presence, connect with your target audience, and ultimately improve your bottom line.

So, whether you’re just starting or have been in the game for a while, make sure to take advantage of social media’s SEO benefits to grow your business and increase your online reach.

6 Powerful Ways Social Media Will Build Your SEO
Brian Wallace

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EU Commission Bans TikTok On Staff Phones

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EU Commission Bans TikTok On Staff Phones

The EU Commission has followed the US Congress, banning TikTok on all government-owned devices.

TikTok has increasingly been in the crosshairs of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic over privacy concerns and the company’s link to Beijing. The issues have taken a sharp turn for the worse after the company admitted to surveiling journalists.

According to BBC News, the EU Commission has banned the app from government-owned devices to “protect data and increase cybersecurity.”

“The measure aims to protect the Commission against cybersecurity threats and actions which may be exploited for cyberattacks against the corporate environment of the commission,” EU spokeswoman Sonya Gospodinova said.

In the meantime, legislation has been introduced in the US that would ban the app entirely, and the EU has warned TikTok that a similar measure could be taken in the EU if the company fails to respect user privacy.

EU Commission Bans TikTok On Staff Phones
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Comcast Caught Giving Fake Coverage Data to FCC…Again

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Comcast Caught Giving Fake Coverage Data to FCC…Again

Comcast seems determined to maintain its status as one of America’s most hated companies, repeatedly misleading the FCC about its coverage.

The FCC has been working to build accurate internet coverage maps of the US in an effort to better allocate funds and resources to close the digital divide. Unfortunately, Comcast seems hell-bent on not providing accurate information.

According to Ars Technica, the company has once again been caught providing misleading information, only correcting it when called out for the behavior.

The issues revolved around service in Fort Collins, Colorado, an area Comcast claimed to cover with its service. Justin Olsson, a lawyer for a tech company, was unable to get Comcast service for his mother’s address, despite Comcast claiming it covered the location.

Only after Ars reached out to Comcast did the company stop disputing Olsson’s challenges and admit to the FCC that it did not, in fact, cover Olsson’s mother’s address.

Upon further review of the location ID in question, Comcast has determined that the location is currently not serviceable by Comcast,” the company told the FCC.

Olsson shared his response to Comcast with Ars after the broadband company informed him that it had modified its coverage data to reflect reality:

I appreciate that you finally admitted it after Ars Technica reached out to you… I would like to point out, however, that it’s really absolutely unacceptable that you contested my challenge without even looking into it—even when you had evidence in your own system that the address wasn’t serviceable.

You wasted hours of my time, and it’s hard not to think that was part of the strategy, hoping that people wouldn’t follow up and letting you get away with your blatant dishonesty in the broadband map effort. I hope for the country’s sake that you all can clean up your act and not continue to do business in this way.

Olsson hits the nail on the head and rightly calls out Comcast for its unacceptable and dishonest behavior.

In the meantime, the company’s status among America’s most hated companies remains securely intact.

Comcast Caught Giving Fake Coverage Data to FCC…Again
Matt Milano

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Walmart Selling Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods

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Walmart Selling Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods

Walmart is selling outdoor retailer Moosejaw, with DIck’s Sporting Goods buying it for an undisclosed amount.

Walmart purchased Moosejaw in 2017 for $51 million as it was ramping up its online offerings. The purchase seemed like a good fit, given Moosejaw’s successful e-commerce presence.

Just a few years later, Walmart is now offloading the company, selling it to Dick’s — which is arguably an even better fit, given both companies’ focus on outdoor apparel and gear.

“We admire what Moosejaw has accomplished over the past 30 years as leaders in the outdoor industry and look forward to the opportunity to share insights and learn from one another,” said Todd Spaletto, President, Public Lands and Senior Vice President, DICK’S Sporting Goods. “We believe there’s potential to grow the Moosejaw business and provide compelling experiences and an expanded product assortment to its millions of loyal customers.”

The deal is expected to close March 2023. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Walmart Selling Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods
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Developer Opens eBay Account, Gets Suspended Indefinitely

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Developer Opens eBay Account, Gets Suspended Indefinitely

Rafael Conde, a developer for Sketch and Hand Mirror, created an eBay account, made his first purchase, and promptly got suspended indefinitely.

eBay was once THE online destination for used, unique, and vintage items on the internet. In recent years, however, it has been eclipsed by a variety of other platforms. A recent Twitter thread by Conde illustrates an issue that could be a major factor in eBay’s decline.

According to Conde, he set up an eBay account to look for and buy vintage items that aren’t easily found elsewhere. After his first purchase, however, he was notified that his account had been suspended. Talking with an online customer support representative didn’t yield any resolution, with the customer service rep saying the decision was final and nothing could be done.

To matters even worse, the transaction for the item Conde bid on had already gone through. eBay’s solution was to tell him to contact his payment provider and dispute the charges.

What’s more, in an unfathomable admission, the eBay rep seemed to indicate that this was a common and normal way of verifying new users.

The Ask eBay Twitter account responded to Conde’s thread, reiterating that nothing could be done.

Hi there! I am sorry to hear your account is suspended.Due to limited verification process here we aren't able to review suspended accounts.Our support always review all the details on the account before providing the final decision. I am sorry it was not appealed.~Olga

— Ask eBay (@AskeBay) February 23, 2023

The entire exchange is displayed below and is definitely not a good look for a company that needs to attract users…not alienate them.

Is @eBay a real company?
I created an account and bought an item yesterday, today I got suspended and pose a risk to the community. pic.twitter.com/Nc2PVD0hA3

— Rafa (@rafahari) February 23, 2023

Developer Opens eBay Account, Gets Suspended Indefinitely
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7 Ways Realtors Can Use Digital Marketing to Boost Sales

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7 Ways Realtors Can Use Digital Marketing to Boost Sales

Real estate is a competitive field, and success relies on staying ahead of the game. In today’s digital age, technology is making it easier than ever before for realtors to reach potential buyers and to network with peers in the industry. With so many effective digital marketing strategies available to them, there’s no excuse for not taking full advantage of this convenient platform.

In this blog post, we’ll detail 7 innovative ways that realtors can use digital marketing to promote listings online, unlocking superior results for buyers and sellers alike.

1- Mobile Friendly and Fast Loading Website

A website is a crucial tool for real estate agents as it provides a platform to showcase their listings, provide information about their services, and connect with potential clients. A website is the hub of all digital marketing strategies and it should be fast loading, easy to navigate and mobile friendly as well. Availability of website builders make it easier for real estate business owners to create professional looking websites with zero coding skills and expertise.

2- Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy that helps improve the visibility of a website in search engine results. By optimizing their website for relevant keywords and phrases, realtors can increase their visibility to potential clients searching for properties online.

Some of the ways SEO can help realtors increase sales include:

• Improving Local Rankings
• Driving Organic Traffic
• Targeting Home Buyers and Sellers
• Building Trust and Credibility
• Generating Quality Leads

However, one should use the right keywords to appear in relevant search results. For instance, if you are offering services in Jackson MS, you should optimize your website for keywords like best realtors in Jackson, MS and so on to drive more local visitors and generate more leads.

3- Leverage Landing Pages 

Landing pages are designed to capture leads and generate conversions. They should be used to offer prospects information about properties, services, and other real estate related topics and drive them toward making a purchase decision. Realtors can create landing pages that feature top listings or highlight the latest market updates. Landing pages can be used to collect contact information from prospects and segment them for future marketing campaigns. Landing pages should be well designed, visually appealing, and user-friendly. They can also be integrated with email marketing platforms and social media channels for greater reach. With the right strategy in place, landing pages can help Realtors generate more leads and close more sales. 

4- Create Engaging Content 

Content is king in digital marketing, and Realtors should make sure they are producing engaging content that resonates with their target audience. Their content should be informative and entertaining, while also providing valuable insight into the real estate industry. Realtors can blog about current market trends, share tips on buying or selling a home, offer their expertise in the local market and more. Creating engaging content can help Realtors gain visibility, build trust with prospects, and generate leads that could lead to sales. 

5- Utilize Email Marketing 

Email campaigns are an effective way for realtors to reach prospective clients, stay top-of-mind, and offer relevant content to their database of contacts. Emails should be personalized and sent with a frequency that does not overwhelm prospects yet keeps them informed about the latest listings and offers. Realtors can craft emails that feature new property listings, open houses, and other real estate related events. They should also ensure their email content is relevant to their target audience and offers valuable information and resources. By utilizing email marketing, Realtors can stay connected with potential buyers and sellers and increase their chances of closing sales. 

6- Make Use of Social Media Platforms 

Social media has become an effective way for realtors to reach out to potential buyers and sellers. They should create profiles on the major social media platforms and share content that is relevant to their target audience. Realtors can post updates about listings and open houses, promote blog posts, share industry news, and interact with prospects to build relationships. Social media can also be used to showcase properties in a visually appealing way and generate more interest from potential buyers.  By leveraging social media, Realtors can increase their reach and boost sales. 

7- Track & Analyze Results 

Last but not least, Realtors should track and analyze their digital marketing efforts to ensure they are producing desired results. They should monitor website traffic and conversion rates, review email open and click-through rates, measure social media engagement, and analyze the performance of their campaigns to determine what is working and what needs to be improved. Tracking and analyzing results can help Realtors make informed decisions about their marketing strategies and optimize them for better results.

Conclusion

Digital marketing offers realtors and real estate agents a wide range of opportunities to reach potential clients and boost sales. From social media platforms to websites, email campaigns, and search engine optimization, agents can leverage technology to showcase their properties and connect with potential buyers. By staying up-to-date on the latest digital marketing trends and techniques, realtors can differentiate themselves from their competition, establish a strong online presence, and ultimately close more deals.

7 Ways Realtors Can Use Digital Marketing to Boost Sales
Brian Wallace

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eCommerce Email Marketing: Why Do You Need It?

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eCommerce Email Marketing: Why Do You Need It?

eCommerce email marketing is one of the earliest forms of internet advertising, and studies show that it’s still just as effective today. Social media advertising may be new, flashy, and appealing to younger audiences, but when choosing between an eCommerce email marketing agency and a social media marketing agency, there are a few other factors to consider. Emails have been a tried and true method of marketing for a long time and are trusted by many generations of consumers. While social media allows for more creative expression in terms of graphics, gifs, and video—as well as the interactive nature of comments—social platforms like Instagram are quickly becoming oversaturated with ads. Not all of these ads are trustworthy or legitimate, and it’s not infrequent for scam ads to appear on social feeds.

Partially due to the increasing scams and oversaturation of ads on social media, eCommerce email marketing is many consumers’ preferred form of advertising. While you do want to use marketing mediums that fit your team members’ expertise, your consumers are the ones who are ultimately exposed to the finished product. Moreover, if you or your team members are struggling considerably with writing creative email copy, it may be worthwhile to invest in an eCommerce email marketing agency. But why is email marketing such a preferred advertising method by employees and consumers alike? What makes it superior?

What is the Difference Between eCommerce Email Marketing and E-Marketing?

Before exploring the ways in which eCommerce email marketing can improve your business, it’s essential to understand what eCommerce email marketing does. Any company can use email marketing—that is, sending product information or ads for new products via email. It’s becoming increasingly rarer for a store to have a physical shop without an online shop, but those stores that do can still make sure of email marketing. If you have a business, you can send out marketing emails. Similarly, if you have an online store, you can send out eCommerce marketing emails. This means that a non-profit can use email marketing but not eCommerce email marketing. E-Marketing, on the other hand, refers to any online marketing medium, including social media platforms and email. eCommerce email marketing can include general emails about upcoming sales in an online shop or emails that are tailored to a shopper and the items in their cart.

Consumer Control

Unlike social media marketing, email marketing allows consumers more control over the advertisements, coupons, and deals that they receive. Because consumers are required to subscribe to your company’s mailing list or newsletter in order to receive emails from you, consumers are less likely to receive emails from brands that they don’t know and trust. Any scam emails are directed to spam, and consumers have the freedom to unsubscribe from a mailing list in order to stop receiving product information.

More Trustworthy

While it may seem counterintuitive to allow consumers to stop receiving product information from your company, it is imperative to win their trust. In fact, 77% of consumers prefer to receive marketing information via email. It makes sense that emails are the most trustworthy. We’re already using our email addresses for work and networking so it feels professional whereas social media ads are fun, but a little too casual to be legitimate. Email marketing feels trustworthy and professional, but how can it work for your business? How do you ensure that your emails are being opened and your content consumed?

High Open Rates and ROI

It’s more likely than you think that consumers will open your marketing emails. According to Forbes, 65% of small businesses report that between 11 and 50% of their marketing emails are opened. It’s easy to track open rates using tools like Cirrus Insight. Even if a customer doesn’t open your email as soon as they receive it, there is a potential that they may do so later. Social media posts, on the other hand, disappear as soon as someone refreshes their feed—meaning they might never even see it. It’s also hard to beat the price and return on investment of marketing emails.

Forbes tells us that you earn $42 for every dollar you spend, and most email marketing campaigns cost very little. You might find that your open and click-through rates become even higher when you put effort into the design and layout of your emails. As long as you don’t flood your consumers’ inboxes (40% of small businesses send marketing emails weekly while 30% send them at least once a month), your clients are sure to appreciate a thoughtfully made email with memorable colors and graphics. Cleverly worded subject lines that include slang and emojis are especially popular with more “hip” brands like skincare lines and fashion companies.

Conclusion

Even with the rise of social media, eCommerce email marketing is still a trustworthy form of marketing—and, in fact, one that is usually preferred by consumers. The return on investment and ease of content creation makes email marketing a no-brainer for your next campaign.

eCommerce Email Marketing: Why Do You Need It?
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Meta Plans to Lay Off More Personnel

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Meta Plans to Lay Off More Personnel

Meta appears to be moving forward with plans to lay off additional personnel despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicating the contrary.

Meta laid off 11,000 employees in late 2022, marking the biggest layoffs of the year among tech firms. According to The Washington Post, Zuckerberg framed the layoffs as a necessary step to “minimize the chance of having to do broad layoffs like this for the foreseeable future.”

“I obviously can’t sit here and promise you that nothing will happen in the future because it’s a very volatile environment,” he added. “But what I can say is that for where we are right now, that’s what I foresee.”

Unfortunately, according to the Post, Meta appears to be preparing for another major round of layoffs, despite Zuckerberg’s assurances. The company is having its lawyers, financial experts, executives, and human resources personnel devise a plan that would reorganize the company and possibly lead to thousands of jobs being cut.

Part of leadership’s goal is to flatten the corporate hierarchy, reducing the path between Zuckerberg and the company’s interns. The move will see some team leaders taking on lower-level roles. The Post’s sources said the company expects some of the individuals whose roles have changed to eventually resign, naturally reducing the company’s headcount through attrition.

The Post’s report confirms other rumors regarding the company’s plans. Meta recently gave thousands of its employees the second-lowest review possible, raising concerns it was laying the groundwork for another round of layoffs.

Meta’s actions also appear to be a concerted effort to streamline its operations and return to the startup-style way of operating it enjoyed before becoming a multi-billion dollar corporation. The company has recently taken fire for its ‘self-sabotaging’ behavior by none other than legendary developer John Carmack.

“We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort,” Carmack wrote when he departed the company in December. “There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy.”

“I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it,” he added.

Meta Plans to Lay Off More Personnel
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Microsoft Expands AI Bing Preview to Mobile Apps & Skype

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Microsoft Expands AI Bing Preview to Mobile Apps & Skype

Microsoft has expanded its AI-powered Bing preview, incorporating it in Bing and Edge mobile apps, as well as Skype.

Microsoft announced a version of Bing powered by AI on February 7. The AI is the next-generation version of the OpenAI tech used in ChatGPT. The response to the new Bing has been all over the spectrum, but one thing is clear: Bing is getting more attention than it has in years, if ever.

As a result, it’s not surprising that Microsoft is continuing to roll out the new search engine, bringing it to Skype, as well as the company’s mobile apps. Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, announced the news in a blog post:

We’re beginning to roll out the incredible capabilities of the new Bing and Edge on your smartphone along with some exciting new features, such as voice input. In addition, we are creating a new chat experience, beginning with Skype, to enhance your social communications with your friends and family.

The company also sees Bing as being a copilot for users in their Skype chats:

Imagine having a copilot for your friends and family as you stay connected and plan your next get together. Simply add Bing to the group, as you would any Skype contact, and now you can ask Bing to answer questions and provide information for the entire group. For example, if your family is chatting about the next family reunion, you can simply ask Bing for suggestions on travel destinations, expected weather forecasts and interesting events around your time of travel, and everyone in the chat will get access to the results. When you are catching up with friends, you can ask Bing to simply fetch information from the web, for example, the latest news or last night’s award shows to add to your conversation.

Everyone in the preview will automatically have access to the new Bing on both mobile and Skype.

Microsoft Expands AI Bing Preview to Mobile Apps & Skype
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Ubuntu Flavors Drop OOTB Flatpak Support

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Ubuntu Flavors Drop OOTB Flatpak Support

Ubuntu has made yet another controversial decision, dropping out-of-the-box (OOTB) support for Flatpak apps.

Flatpak is one of the newer methods of packaging Linux applications, one that is distro agnostic. Regardless of whether a user is on Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Fedora, openSUSE, Slackware, or any of the others, as long as they have the Flatpak backend installed, any and all Flatpaks will work on their distro of choice.

Flatpaks directly compete with Snaps, Ubuntu’s own attempt to build a distro-agnostic packaging format. Unfortunately for Ubuntu, Snaps are not nearly as popular as Flatpaks. In fact, while some distributions may offer both package managers OOTB few, if any, offer Snaps but not Flatpak.

It appears Ubuntu plans to be the first, announcing its decision to drop OOTB support for Flatpaks in the upcoming 23.04 Lunar Lobster release.

Philipp Kewisch, Canonical Community Engineering Manager, broke the news:

As part of our combined efforts, the Ubuntu flavors have made a joint decision to adjust some of the default packages on Ubuntu: Going forward, the Flatpak package as well as the packages to integrate Flatpak into the respective software center will no longer be installed by default in the next release due in April 2023, Lunar Lobster. Users who have used Flatpak will not be affected on upgrade, as flavors are including a special migration that takes this into account. Those who haven’t interacted with Flatpak will be presented with software from the Ubuntu repositories and the Snap Store.

Kewisch makes clear that the update will not delete Flatpak from existing installations, and the package format will still be available for users that want to install it manually. Nonetheless, the decision to remove OOTB support is in-line with the company’s belief that Flatpak doesn’t properly fit in with the “Ubuntu experience.”

We think this will improve the out-of-the-box Ubuntu experience for new users while respecting how existing users personalize their own experiences. However, we don’t want this to come as a surprise. If you have comments specific to this change you are welcome to respond here on discourse.

There are a number of reasons Snaps are not as popular as Flatpaks, among users and distro maintainers. One of the big ones is the fact that Snaps can only be installed via Ubuntu’s Snap Store. As a result, while the apps themselves may still be open source, the store they are available in is not.

Another reason many users don’t like Snaps is because of performance. Compared to Flatpaks and native packages, many snaps are notoriously slow to start for the first time. In fact, Canonical’s own Snap Advocate, Alan Pope, left the company and created an app to help users migrate their Snaps to Flatpaks.

https://twitter.com/popey/status/1511342841112498188?s=20

In recent years, Ubuntu has come under increased criticism for being so focused on the server and IoT market that it is no longer the best distro for desktop users, a distinction it held for years.

This latest decision is sure to add fuel to that fire.

Ubuntu Flavors Drop OOTB Flatpak Support
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SCOTUS Appears Reluctant to Overturn Section 230

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SCOTUS Appears Reluctant to Overturn Section 230

The US Supreme Court appears reluctant to overturn Section 230, setting up a major win for tech firms and online platforms.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects online companies from legal fallout for content posted by users on their platforms. The law is what shields Twitter, Facebook, and other from being legally liable, regardless of the kind of content their users post.

In recent years, Section 230 has come under attack, with lawmakers and regulators on both sides of the aisle looking to see its protections repealed, or at least scaled back.

SCOTUS is considering the first significant challenge to the law, a case brought by the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, one of the victims of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The case alleges that Google was partially responsible for the radicalization of the perpetrators by algorithmically pushing Islamic State videos to interested parties.

According to The New York Times, the justices appeared unconvinced that fundamentally crippling how internet platforms recommend information will solve anything.

“If you’re interested in cooking,” Justice Clarence Thomas said, “you don’t want thumbnails on light jazz.” He later added, “I see these as suggestions and not really recommendations because they don’t really comment on them.”

Meanwhile, Google’s lawyer argued that repealing Section 230 would basically break the internet, causing it devolve into super-moderated zones that border on censorship, or lawless zones that are “a horror show.”

Given how important Section 230 is, there’s sure to be people upset on both sides, regardless of how the court rules.

SCOTUS Appears Reluctant to Overturn Section 230
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Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G Subs Top One Billion in 2022

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Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G Subs Top One Billion in 2022

5G subscriptions hit a major milestone in 2022, topping one billion globally and growing by 136 million in Q4.

Ericsson just released its Ericsson Mobility Report Q4 2022 Update, detailing the state of the wireless industry around the world. Globally, mobile subscriptions hit 8.4 billion, with mobile broadband accounting for 86% of all mobile subscriptions.

According to the report, 5G not tops one billion subscriptions globally. Some 235 service providers are now offering commercial 5G services, with 35 providers offering 5G standalone (SA) networks.

Interestingly, while there are 8.4 billion mobile subscriptions, only 6.1 billion of them are unique mobile subscribers. Ericsson says the difference is attributed to some individuals having multiple devices, subscriptions that are optimized for different types of calls, as well as some inactive subscriptions.

Overall, however, the report shows the speed with which 5G is being adopted, outpacing its predecessor.

Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G Subs Top One Billion in 2022
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Details Emerge Regarding Google’s Upcoming Pixel Fold

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Details Emerge Regarding Google’s Upcoming Pixel Fold

New details have begun emerging regarding Google’s upcoming Pixel Fold phone, and it’s definitely a mixed bag.

Google has been rumored to be working on a foldable version of its hit Pixel phone. According to 9to5Google, the upcoming phone will be heavier than any existing fold on the market, including its biggest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.

According to the outlet, the upcoming phone will be approximately 5.5 inches tall by 3.14 inches wide. This puts it roughly the same height as the Oppo Find N2, the closest existing phone, but the Pixel Fold will be a bit wider. As a result of the phone’s size, the Pixel Fold will be closer in weight to a small tablet than a traditional smartphone.

On the flip side, however, the new phone will have a substantially larger battery than many of its competitors. The Z Fold 4 comes with a 4,400 mAh, while the Oppo comes with a 4,520 mAh battery. In contrast, the Pixel Fold will have a battery closer to 5,000 mAh, although sources said it will still come in below that number.

The Pixel has already helped Google make major headway in the smartphone market, and it looks like the Pixel Fold could help it build on that success even more.

Details Emerge Regarding Google’s Upcoming Pixel Fold
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Jaguar Land Rover Goes All-In On Self-Driving

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Jaguar Land Rover Goes All-In On Self-Driving

Jaguar Land Rover appears to be going all-in on self-driving tech, with plans for three new European engineering hubs.

Self-driving tech is the next big thing for the automotive industry, with virtually every automaker working to develop it. According to Reuters, Jaguar Land Rover is building three new engineering hubs in Europe as part of its partnership with Nvidia, a firm that is at the heart of the AI revolution.

The new hubs will be located in Munich, Bologna and Madrid, and were chosen because of their proximity to concentrations of digital engineering specialists.

The company expects to create at least 100 jobs focused “on developing driver assistance systems and artificial intelligence for self-driving cars of the future.”

Jaguar Land Rover Goes All-In On Self-Driving
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Intuit Lobbying Congress to Protect Its Tax Filing Business

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Intuit Lobbying Congress to Protect Its Tax Filing Business

Intuit is going all-in in its lobbying efforts to protect its lucrative tax filing business at a time when Congress is threatening it.

US law guarantees taxpayers earning less than $69,000 a year can file their taxes for free. Unfortunately, Intuit and other companies often make it difficult for users to find free filing options. Lawmakers wrote a letter to Intuit CEO Sasan K. Goodarzi in April 2022, demanding answers about what they called the company’s “Free File scams.”

Intuit’s problems got worse in September 2022 when the Inflation Reduction Act set aside $15 million to help the IRS develop an easier platform for taxpayers to file for free.

According to OpenSecrets, Intuit has responded by spending a whopping $3.5 million in 2022 lobbying Congress. That sum is more than the company spent any previous year. Intuit claims that a government-run tax preparation service represents a conflict of interest.

“Unquestionably, a government-run tax preparation system that makes the tax collector the investigator, auditor, enforcer, and now also the preparer, is a conflict of interest,” Goodarzi told Business Insider.

What Goodarzi conveniently omits, however, is that government-run tax filing services work very well in almost every other developed country in the world. In fact, taxpayers in many other countries look with amazement at the state of the US tax industry.

It’s probably a safe bet that Goodarzi’s comments are more self-serving than a demonstration of genuine concern for the American taxpayer.

Intuit Lobbying Congress to Protect Its Tax Filing Business
Matt Milano

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3 Ways Online Courses are Changing eCommerce & Digital Product Sales

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3 Ways Online Courses are Changing eCommerce & Digital Product Sales

According to a recent study, in 2020 alone, nearly 5.4 million students took at least one class on the Internet. The practice has gotten so popular that about 10% of all postsecondary institutions now offer online courses of some kind, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

But the key thing to understand is that online courses aren’t solely changing the world of education, but are also having a major impact on business industries, like eCommerce and digital product sales. These Internet-driven educational opportunities are shaping the way digital products are sold thanks to the fact that they bring with them benefits to both businesses and consumers alike. This reigns true in a range of ways, all of which are worth a closer look.

1.  Online Education is Making New Opportunities Accessible to All

Thanks to online education, gone are the days when you had to attend one of a handful of specialized schools in order to pick up a particular or niche skill set. Now, it’s possible to get a robust education in practically anything if you know where to look, all from the comfort of your own home.

Case in point: wholesale real estate investing. As individuals are now pursuing this real estate investing method at a higher rate, they need specialized knowledge and insight on top of their existing real estate education.

Now, thanks to online courses including educational mentorship programs, leaders like Real Estate Skills are getting more people successfully into the wholesale mix. It has quickly ballooned into a popular investment strategy, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic when record demand met low inventory and the types of low interest rates the market hadn’t seen in decades.

2.  Preparing the Next Generation of Workers

By far, one of the biggest ways that online courses are changing eCommerce and digital sales has to do with how they’re adequately preparing the next generation of workers for the shifts that are about to happen in these industries.

The use of concepts like artificial intelligence and cloud computing were already present in eCommerce, but the COVID-19 pandemic acted as an accelerant that supercharged trends like these. They’re big, structural changes that are going to eliminate some jobs and create entirely new ones, the latter of which it has already started to do.

This type of disruption always requires people to learn new skills, be it by way of up-skilling, re-skilling, or something else entirely. Online courses are already helping enormously to that end, teaching people how to coexist with things like automation and teaching them what they need to know to function in the more technical roles that have already started to appear.

Another recent study indicated that in 2021 alone, more than 20 million new users registered for at least one online course from Coursera. That is equal to the growth in online education for the three full years prior to the pandemic. Reasons like this go a long way towards explaining “why”.

3.  Online Courses are Leveling the Playing Field

The rise of eCommerce giants left many smaller, often local businesses and suppliers at a disadvantage. Now, thanks to online courses and education, the pendulum is finally swinging back in the opposite direction. For a (relatively) low up-front cost, smaller businesses can pick up the skills they need to adequately compete with their larger counterparts. They don’t have to outspend them, but rather outthink them.

With the right education it is possible for even individuals to generate 24/7/365 income, all without worrying about opening up a physical store in their area. Anyone can build a brand and sell to customers globally, while still pricing and shipping their products in a competitive way.

But most importantly, online courses give people the opportunity to embrace one of the most important trends of the modern era: a truly personalized customer experience. No business is too small to offer the personalized level of care and attention-to-detail that the modern consumer demands. You just have to leverage the right technology and have the skills and education necessary to make it happen.

That is perhaps the single biggest benefit that online courses provide to both consumers and entrepreneurs working in the world of eCommerce and digital product sales today.

Online Courses are Changing the Way We Think About eCommerce

In an overwhelming number of sectors and spaces, online courses are changing the way we think about eCommerce and digital product sales The education that you can pick up quickly and efficiently is invaluable, to the point where both businesses and individuals can leverage it to grow their sales and reach the largest possible audience at the exact same time.

3 Ways Online Courses are Changing eCommerce & Digital Product Sales
Brian Wallace

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China’s Scientists Are Working to Circumvent US Chip Sanctions

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China’s Scientists Are Working to Circumvent US Chip Sanctions

China’s scientists are going on the offensive against US chip sanctions as the country tries to keep its semiconductor industry running.

The US has been working to restrict China’s access to advanced chip technologies and has increasingly been convincing its allies to do the same. Some reports have suggested China’s semiconductor industry is on the verge of collapse as a result, and Beijing is pouring billions into the industry to help it weather the challenges.

According to Bloomberg, China’s scientists are now joining the fray, coming up with ways to compete with the US. One of the leading strategies put forth by two academics is to amass a portfolio of patents that could be weaponized in the semiconductor wars. In their proposal, Luo Junwei and Li Shushen said the country’s scientists should focus on patenting materials and methods necessary for the next generation of chip design.

“We should vigorously promote the spirit of scientists who pursue originality and resist low-level, repetitive follow-up research,” the scientists wrote.

This development is just the latest that illustrates the high-stakes nature of the semiconductor industry and why countries are increasingly viewing the industry as a matter of national security.

China’s Scientists Are Working to Circumvent US Chip Sanctions
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Users Can No Longer Downgrade to iOS 16.3

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Users Can No Longer Downgrade to iOS 16.3

Users can no longer downgrade to iOS 16.3, a result of Apple no longer signing the iOS 16.3 update.

Apple released iOS 16.3.1 in mid-February and has stopped signing its immediate predecessor. As a result, any users who may be experiencing issues in 16.3.1, no longer have the option to downgrade, according to MacRumors.

The move is not at all uncommon, as Apple routinely stops signing older versions of its operating systems. This ensures users stay on the latest editions, which in most cases is a good thing.

Users Can No Longer Downgrade to iOS 16.3
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Windows 11 Now Displays a Watermark on Unsupported PCs

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Windows 11 Now Displays a Watermark on Unsupported PCs

Microsoft is upping the ante in its war on unsupported PCs, displaying a watermark on those systems running Windows 11.

Windows 11 has stricter system requirements than its predecessors, requiring a CPU with Trusted Platform Module (TPM). While there are ways of installing Windows on an unsupported machine, Microsoft is not keen on the idea and is making it more irritating to do so.

According to Gizmodo, reports are surfacing of Windows 11 displaying a watermark when running on an unsupported PC. The issue appears to have started with the January 2023 Windows 11 update.

Microsoft already has a major adoption problem with Windows 11 and it’s unlikely this stunt will improve the situation.

Windows 11 Now Displays a Watermark on Unsupported PCs
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