Steps to create a product-led development strategy

Product-led approach aims to identify market gaps and bridge it with efficient software. This blog unfolds the roadmap to build a product-based strategy

Know More : https://wseinfratech.com/infographics/how-to-create-a-productled-development-strategy

Lab 916: Your Partner in Crafting Winning Amazon Strategies

Introduction: Lab 916's Expertise in Amazon Strategy

In the ever-evolving world of e-commerce, Lab 916 stands as a beacon of expertise, providing businesses with tailored Amazon strategies to succeed in the competitive marketplace. With a deep understanding of Amazon's algorithms, trends, and best practices, Lab 916 helps businesses navigate the complexities of selling on the platform and achieve their goals.

Strategic Planning with Lab 916

Lab 916 takes a strategic approach to Amazon strategy development, focusing on optimizing product listings, implementing competitive pricing strategies, leveraging advertising tactics, and fostering customer engagement. By customizing strategies to align with each client's unique objectives and market dynamics, Lab 916 ensures that businesses can maximize their potential on Amazon.

Optimizing Product Listings for Maximum Visibility

A crucial aspect of Lab 916's Amazon strategy is optimizing product listings to enhance visibility and drive conversions. Through meticulous keyword research, compelling product descriptions, and high-quality imagery, Lab 916 ensures that each product listing is optimized to rank higher in Amazon search results. By improving the visibility and appeal of product listings, businesses can attract more customers and increase sales.

Implementing Competitive Pricing Strategies

Lab 916 assists businesses in developing competitive yet profitable pricing strategies tailored to their market segment. By analyzing competitor pricing data, market trends, and consumer behavior, Lab 916 helps businesses set prices that maximize sales while maintaining healthy profit margins. Additionally, Lab 916 provides guidance on leveraging dynamic pricing tools and promotional strategies to stay competitive on Amazon.

Leveraging Advertising Tactics for Enhanced Visibility

Advertising is a key component of Lab 916's Amazon strategy, aimed at increasing product visibility and driving targeted traffic to product listings. Lab 916 utilizes Amazon's advertising platform to create and optimize sponsored product ads, sponsored brand ads, and sponsored display ads. By strategically targeting keywords and audience segments, Lab 916 helps businesses maximize their advertising ROI and generate sales on Amazon.

Fostering Customer Engagement and Loyalty

Lab 916 emphasizes the importance of fostering strong customer relationships to drive long-term success on Amazon. Through proactive customer service, timely responses to inquiries and feedback, and strategies to encourage positive reviews, Lab 916 helps businesses build trust and loyalty with their customers. By delivering exceptional shopping experiences and maintaining positive seller ratings, businesses can enhance their reputation and drive repeat purchases on the platform.

Conclusion: Achieving Success with Lab 916's Guidance

In conclusion, Lab 916 serves as a valuable partner for businesses seeking to excel on Amazon. With Lab 916's expertise and strategic guidance, businesses can optimize their Amazon strategies and achieve success in the competitive e-commerce landscape. By leveraging Lab 916's insights and best practices, businesses can unlock their full potential on one of the world's largest online platforms.

Introduction: Lab 916's Expertise in Amazon Strategy

In the ever-evolving world of e-commerce, Lab 916 stands as a beacon of expertise, providing businesses with tailored Amazon strategies to succeed in the competitive marketplace. With a deep understanding of Amazon's algorithms, trends, and best practices, Lab 916 helps businesses navigate the complexities of selling on the platform and achieve their goals.

Strategic Planning with Lab 916

Lab 916 takes a strategic approach to Amazon strategy development, focusing on optimizing product listings, implementing competitive pricing strategies, leveraging advertising tactics, and fostering customer engagement. By customizing strategies to align with each client's unique objectives and market dynamics, Lab 916 ensures that businesses can maximize their potential on Amazon.

Optimizing Product Listings for Maximum Visibility

A crucial aspect of Lab 916's Amazon strategy is optimizing product listings to enhance visibility and drive conversions. Through meticulous keyword research, compelling product descriptions, and high-quality imagery, Lab 916 ensures that each product listing is optimized to rank higher in Amazon search results. By improving the visibility and appeal of product listings, businesses can attract more customers and increase sales.

Implementing Competitive Pricing Strategies

Lab 916 assists businesses in developing competitive yet profitable pricing strategies tailored to their market segment. By analyzing competitor pricing data, market trends, and consumer behavior, Lab 916 helps businesses set prices that maximize sales while maintaining healthy profit margins. Additionally, Lab 916 provides guidance on leveraging dynamic pricing tools and promotional strategies to stay competitive on Amazon.

Leveraging Advertising Tactics for Enhanced Visibility

Advertising is a key component of Lab 916's Amazon strategy, aimed at increasing product visibility and driving targeted traffic to product listings. Lab 916 utilizes Amazon's advertising platform to create and optimize sponsored product ads, sponsored brand ads, and sponsored display ads. By strategically targeting keywords and audience segments, Lab 916 helps businesses maximize their advertising ROI and generate sales on Amazon.

Fostering Customer Engagement and Loyalty

Lab 916 emphasizes the importance of fostering strong customer relationships to drive long-term success on Amazon. Through proactive customer service, timely responses to inquiries and feedback, and strategies to encourage positive reviews, Lab 916 helps businesses build trust and loyalty with their customers. By delivering exceptional shopping experiences and maintaining positive seller ratings, businesses can enhance their reputation and drive repeat purchases on the platform.

Conclusion: Achieving Success with Lab 916's Guidance

In conclusion, Lab 916 serves as a valuable partner for businesses seeking to excel on Amazon. With Lab 916's expertise and strategic guidance, businesses can optimize their Amazon strategies and achieve success in the competitive e-commerce landscape. By leveraging Lab 916's insights and best practices, businesses can unlock their full potential on one of the world's largest online platforms.

Google’s enshittification memos

[Note, 9 October 2023: Google disputes the veracity of this claim, but has declined to provide the exhibits and testimony to support its claims. Read more about this here.]

When I think about how the old, good internet turned into the enshitternet, I imagine a series of small compromises, each seemingly reasonable at the time, each contributing to a cultural norm of making good things worse, and worse, and worse.

Think about Unity President Marc Whitten's nonpology for his company's disastrous rug-pull, in which they declared that everyone who had paid good money to use their tool to make a game would have to keep paying, every time someone downloaded that game:

The most fundamental thing that we’re trying to do is we’re building a sustainable business for Unity. And for us, that means that we do need to have a model that includes some sort of balancing change, including shared success.

https://www.wired.com/story/unity-walks-back-policies-lost-trust/

"Shared success" is code for, "If you use our tool to make money, we should make money too." This is bullshit. It's like saying, "We just want to find a way to share the success of the painters who use our brushes, so every time you sell a painting, we want to tax that sale." Or "Every time you sell a house, the company that made the hammer gets to wet its beak."

And note that they're not talking about shared risk here – no one at Unity is saying, "If you try to make a game with our tools and you lose a million bucks, we're on the hook for ten percent of your losses." This isn't partnership, it's extortion.

How did a company like Unity – which became a market leader by making a tool that understood the needs of game developers and filled them – turn into a protection racket? One bad decision at a time. One rationalization and then another. Slowly, and then all at once.

When I think about this enshittification curve, I often think of Google, a company that had its users' backs for years, which created a genuinely innovative search engine that worked so well it seemed like *magic, a company whose employees often had their pick of jobs, but chose the "don't be evil" gig because that mattered to them.

People make fun of that "don't be evil" motto, but if your key employees took the gig because they didn't want to be evil, and then you ask them to be evil, they might just quit. Hell, they might make a stink on the way out the door, too:

https://theintercept.com/2018/09/13/google-china-search-engine-employee-resigns/

Google is a company whose founders started out by publishing a scientific paper describing their search methodology, in which they said, "Oh, and by the way, ads will inevitably turn your search engine into a pile of shit, so we're gonna stay the fuck away from them":

http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf

Those same founders retained a controlling interest in the company after it went IPO, explaining to investors that they were going to run the business without having their elbows jostled by shortsighted Wall Street assholes, so they could keep it from turning into a pile of shit:

https://abc.xyz/investor/founders-letters/ipo-letter/

And yet, it's turned into a pile of shit. Google search is so bad you might as well ask Jeeves. The company's big plan to fix it? Replace links to webpages with florid paragraphs of chatbot nonsense filled with a supremely confident lies:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/14/googles-ai-hype-circle/

How did the company get this bad? In part, this is the "curse of bigness." The company can't grow by attracting new users. When you have 90%+ of the market, there are no new customers to sign up. Hypothetically, they could grow by going into new lines of business, but Google is incapable of making a successful product in-house and also kills most of the products it buys from other, more innovative companies:

https://killedbygoogle.com/

Theoretically, the company could pursue new lines of business in-house, and indeed, the current leaders of companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Apple are all execs who figured out how to get the whole company to do something new, and were elevated to the CEO's office, making each one a billionaire and sealing their place in history.

It is for this very reason that any exec at a large firm who tries to make a business-wide improvement gets immediately and repeatedly knifed by all their colleagues, who correctly reason that if someone else becomes CEO, then they won't become CEO. Machiavelli was an optimist:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

With no growth from new customers, and no growth from new businesses, "growth" has to come from squeezing workers (say, laying off 12,000 engineers after a stock buyback that would have paid their salaries for the next 27 years), or business customers (say, by colluding with Facebook to rig the ad market with the Jedi Blue conspiracy), or end-users.

Now, in theory, we might never know exactly what led to the enshittification of Google. In theory, all of compromises, debates and plots could be lost to history. But tech is not an oral culture, it's a written one, and techies write everything down and nothing is ever truly deleted.

Time and again, Big Tech tells on itself. Think of FTX's main conspirators all hanging out in a group chat called "Wirefraud." Amazon naming its program targeting weak, small publishers the "Gazelle Project" ("approach these small publishers the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle”). Amazon documenting the fact that users were unknowingly signing up for Prime and getting pissed; then figuring out how to reduce accidental signups, then deciding not to do it because it liked the money too much. Think of Zuck emailing his CFO in the middle of the night to defend his outsized offer to buy Instagram on the basis that users like Insta better and Facebook couldn't compete with them on quality.

It's like every Big Tech schemer has a folder on their desktop called "Mens Rea" filled with files like "Copy_of_Premeditated_Murder.docx":

https://doctorow.medium.com/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself-f7f0eb6d215a?sk=351f8a54ab8e02d7340620e5eec5024d

Right now, Google's on trial for its sins against antitrust law. It's a hard case to make. To secure a win, the prosecutors at the DoJ Antitrust Division are going to have to prove what was going on in Google execs' minds when the took the actions that led to the company's dominance. They're going to have to show that the company deliberately undertook to harm its users and customers.

Of course, it helps that Google put it all in writing.

Last week, there was a huge kerfuffile over the DoJ's practice of posting its exhibits from the trial to a website each night. This is a totally normal thing to do – a practice that dates back to the Microsoft antitrust trial. But Google pitched a tantrum over this and said that the docs the DoJ were posting would be turned into "clickbait." Which is another way of saying, "the public would find these documents very interesting, and they would be damning to us and our case":

https://www.bigtechontrial.com/p/secrecy-is-systemic

After initially deferring to Google, Judge Amit Mehta finally gave the Justice Department the greenlight to post the document. It's up. It's wild:

https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-09/416692.pdf

The document is described as "notes for a course on communication" that Google VP for Finance Michael Roszak prepared. Roszak says he can't remember whether he ever gave the presentation, but insists that the remit for the course required him to tell students "things I didn't believe," and that's why the document is "full of hyperbole and exaggeration."

OK.

But here's what the document says: "search advertising is one of the world's greatest business models ever created…illicit businesses (cigarettes or drugs) could rival these economics…[W]e can mostly ignore the demand side…(users and queries) and only focus on the supply side of advertisers, ad formats and sales."

It goes on to say that this might be changing, and proposes a way to balance the interests of the search and ads teams, which are at odds, with search worrying that ads are pushing them to produce "unnatural search experiences to chase revenue."

"Unnatural search experiences to chase revenue" is a thinly veiled euphemism for the prophetic warnings in that 1998 Pagerank paper: "The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users." Or, more plainly, "ads will turn our search engine into a pile of shit."

And, as Roszak writes, Google is "able to ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics…supply and demand." That is, the company has become so dominant and cemented its position so thoroughly as the default search engine across every platforms and system that even if it makes its search terrible to goose revenues, users won't leave. As Lily Tomlin put it on SNL: "We don't have to care, we're the phone company."

In the enshittification cycle, companies first lure in users with surpluses – like providing the best search results rather than the most profitable ones – with an eye to locking them in. In Google's case, that lock-in has multiple facets, but the big one is spending billions of dollars – enough to buy a whole Twitter, every single year – to be the default search everywhere.

Google doesn't buy its way to dominance because it has the very best search results and it wants to shield you from inferior competitors. The economically rational case for buying default position is that preventing competition is more profitable than succeeding by outperforming competitors. The best reason to buy the default everywhere is that it lets you lower quality without losing business. You can "ignore the demand side, and only focus on advertisers."

For a lot of people, the analysis stops here. "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." Google locks in users and sells them to advertisers, who are their co-conspirators in a scheme to screw the rest of us.

But that's not right. For one thing, paying for a product doesn't mean you won't be the product. Apple charges a thousand bucks for an iPhone and then nonconsensually spies on every iOS user in order to target ads to them (and lies about it):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

John Deere charges six figures for its tractors, then runs a grift that blocks farmers from fixing their own machines, and then uses their control over repair to silence farmers who complain about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/31/dealers-choice/#be-a-shame-if-something-were-to-happen-to-it

Fair treatment from a corporation isn't a loyalty program that you earn by through sufficient spending. Companies that can sell you out, will sell you out, and then cry victim, insisting that they were only doing their fiduciary duty for their sacred shareholders. Companies are disciplined by fear of competition, regulation or – in the case of tech platforms – customers seizing the means of computation and installing ad-blockers, alternative clients, multiprotocol readers, etc:

https://doctorow.medium.com/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse-3cc01e7e4604?sk=85b3f5f7d051804521c3411711f0b554

Which is where the next stage of enshittification comes in: when the platform withdraws the surplus it had allocated to lure in – and then lock in – business customers (like advertisers) and reallocate it to the platform's shareholders.

For Google, there are several rackets that let it screw over advertisers as well as searchers (the advertisers are paying for the product, and they're also the product). Some of those rackets are well-known, like Jedi Blue, the market-rigging conspiracy that Google and Facebook colluded on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue

But thanks to the antitrust trial, we're learning about more of these. Megan Gray – ex-FTC, ex-DuckDuckGo – was in the courtroom last week when evidence was presented on Google execs' panic over a decline in "ad generating searches" and the sleazy gimmick they came up with to address it: manipulating the "semantic matching" on user queries:

https://www.wired.com/story/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/

When you send a query to Google, it expands that query with terms that are similar – for example, if you search on "Weds" it might also search for "Wednesday." In the slides shown in the Google trial, we learned about another kind of semantic matching that Google performed, this one intended to turn your search results into "a twisted shopping mall you can’t escape."

Here's how that worked: when you ran a query like "children's clothing," Google secretly appended the brand name of a kids' clothing manufacturer to the query. This, in turn, triggered a ton of ads – because rival brands will have bought ads against their competitors' name (like Pepsi buying ads that are shown over queries for Coke).

Here we see surpluses being taken away from both end-users and business customers – that is, searchers and advertisers. For searchers, it doesn't matter how much you refine your query, you're still going to get crummy search results because there's an unkillable, hidden search term stuck to your query, like a piece of shit that Google keeps sticking to the sole of your shoe.

But for advertisers, this is also a scam. They're paying to be matched to users who search on a brand name, and you didn't search on that brand name. It's especially bad for the company whose name has been appended to your search, because Google has a protection racket where the company that matches your search has to pay extra in order to show up overtop of rivals who are worse matches. Both the matching company and those rivals have given Google a credit-card that Google gets to bill every time a user searches on the company's name, and Google is just running fraudulent charges through those cards.

And, of course, Google put this in writing. I mean, of course they did. As we learned from the documentary The Incredibles, supervillains can't stop themselves from monologuing, and in big, sprawling monopolists, these monologues have to transmitted electronically – and often indelibly – to far-flung co-cabalists.

As Gray points out, this is an incredibly blunt enshittification technique: "it hadn’t even occurred to me that Google just flat out deletes queries and replaces them with ones that monetize better." We don't know how long Google did this for or how frequently this bait-and-switch was deployed.

But if this is a blunt way of Google smashing its fist down on the scales that balance search quality against ad revenues, there's plenty of subtler ways the company could sneak a thumb on there. A Google exec at the trial rhapsodized about his company's "contract with the user" to deliver an "honest results policy," but given how bad Google search is these days, we're left to either believe he's lying or that Google sucks at search.

The paper trail offers a tantalizing look at how a company went from doing something that was so good it felt like a magic trick to being "able to ignore one of the fundamental laws of economics…supply and demand," able to "ignore the demand side…(users and queries) and only focus on the supply side of advertisers."

What's more, this is a system where everyone loses (except for Google): this isn't a grift run by Google and advertisers on users – it's a grift Google runs on everyone.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

Macron's fiery Sorbonne speech targets summering American Millennials

It’s no coincidence that Emmanuel Macron gave a fiery speech about the threats facing Europe the same week that American Millennials in New York, LA, and Miami began talking about booking their one-way flights to the continent. "There is a risk our Europe could die - we are not equipped to face the risks," Macron said, referring to the dietary allergies, alternative milk needs, and tedious conversations of trust-funded, unemployed young adults who will begin their summer in Paris to attend a museum benefit that spills into a large dinner party with several professional photographers before traveling to Puglia, Comporta, or Ibiza where they will subsist on ‘beautiful tomatoes,’ flat whites, and MDMA. 

Europe has struggled with illegal immigration for decades, and there is no more pressing illegal immigration threat than American Millennials who have decided that being unemployed in Europe is less distressing for their parents than being unemployed in Williamsburg. Google searches for ‘how long can I stay in EU without passport’ spiked in late-April among Americans who have not yet bought a Portuguese passport from a guy who used to run a turnkey Burning Man camp who is now running a Golden Visa scheme in Lisbon. “Our Europe today is mortal,” Macron said. “It can die and that depends solely on our choices,” the choices being whether or not to search and detain for ketamine at customs and how to clearly define tipping protocol in restaurants. 

“It used to be enough to spend a couple weeks in Italy in July,” observes Coco, a 34-year-old retired gallery founder who is on the board of several art-related non-profits that she instructed her unpaid interns to start. “But now it gets so hot in Europe in July that everyone is going in June and even like, May.” Coco has several weddings and dinner parties in various coastal destinations in Europe in June, but she has not yet RSVP’d nor has she booked any travel. “I know I’m going to go, but I’ve just been too busy to look at the dates or book anything,” she says, absently picking some kind of beige matter from the left eye of her toy goldendoodle. Macron at one point asserts in his speech that Europe is “too slow and lacks ambition,” referring directly to Coco’s ambivalent European travel plans. 

Uncertainty permeates the vibe in Europe right now, not because of a military threat posed by a giant, angry country with cocked nukes driven by a weak-minded Cold War relic, but because every Millennial in New York, Miami and Los Angeles has expressed their intention to occupy Europe without declaring the targets. 

“Is very stressful,” says Aldo Melpignano, the proprietor of Borgo Egnazia, a trendy boutique hotel in Puglia that for Europeans costs €120 a night and charges 30something Americans visiting from coastal zipcodes $970. “I see the hashtags on the Instagram, like, I’m coming for your @borgoegnazia,” he says. “Va bene, Allison, when you gonna come for us, and are you gonna come with that stupid capello?” says Aldo while making a pinched-fingers emoji with one hand and pointing to his head with the other. Hotel, coffee shop, organic market, and narcotics purveyors all over Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal have echoed this desire for more resolute planning and fewer hats from the demographic that funds the less productive but more desirable EU countries.  

"We must produce more, we must produce faster, and we must produce as Europeans," Macron said, a rallying cry to European DJs to sample only vocals that were recorded in native European languages.  

“Europe must show that it is never a vassal of the United States and that it also knows how to talk to all the other regions of the world," Macron said, refuting the irrefutable fact that Europe has become a summer camp for unproductive younger Americans and suggesting that they be immediately deported to Bodrum or Izmir upon landing at CDG, MXP, and LIS. 

“This is a betrayal of our values that ultimately leads us to dependency on other counties,” Macron said, making an observation about Europe’s frustration with having to work between May and August in order to show American Millennials how to correctly tap their credit card on puzzling European payment terminals.

“Europe must become capable of defending its interests, with its allies by our side whenever they are willing, and alone if necessary,” said Macron, in defense of French baristas who do not like working with oat milk. Taking a hands-on approach to ensuring the EU’s “ability to ensure our security” Macron and his wife will begin their Summer at a wedding in the Aeolian Islands in early June, float around Sicily or Puglia the following week, head to Bonjuk Bay for an appearance of prominent LA-based DJ, RICHE, and then couch-surf in Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera the rest of the summer.

The main reason to use Firefox and Linux and other free and open source software is that otherwise the big tech monopolies will fuck you as the customer over in search of profits. They will seek to control how you use their products and sell your data. When a company dominates the market, things can only get worse for ordinary people.

Like take Google Chrome for example, which together with its chromium reskins dominate the web browser market. Google makes a lot of money from ads, and consequently the company hates adblockers. They already are planning to move to manifest V3, which will nerf adblockers significantly. The manifest V3 compatible chrome version of Ublock Orgin is a "Lite" version for a reason. Ublock's Github page has an entire page explaining why the addon works best in Firefox.

And Google as we speak are trying to block adblockers from working on Youtube, If you want to continue blocking Youtube ads, and since Youtube ads make the site unuseable you ought to want that, it makes the most sense to not use a browser controlled by Google.

And there is no reason to think things won't get worse. There is for example nothing stopping Google from kicking adblockers off their add-on stores completely. They do regard it as basically piracy if the youtube pop-ups tell us anything, so updating the Chrome extensions terms of service to ban adblocking is a natural step. And so many people seem to think Chrome is the only browser that exists, so they are not going to switch to alternatives, or if they do, they will switch to another chrominum-based browser.

And again, they are fucking chromium itself for adblockers with Manifest V3, so only Firefox remains as a viable alternative. It's the only alternative to letting Google control the internet.

And Microsoft is the same thing. I posted before about their plans to move Windows increasingly into the cloud. This already exists for corporate customers, as Windows 365. And a version for ordinary users is probably not far off. It might not be the only version of Windows for awhile, the lack of solid internet access for a good part of the Earth's population will prevent it. But you'll probably see cheap very low-spec chromebookesque laptops running Windows for sale soon, that gets around Windows 11's obscene system requirements by their Windows being a cloud-based version.

And more and more of Windows will require Internet access or validation for DRM reasons if nothing else. Subscription fees instead of a one-time license are also likely. It will just be Windows moving in the direction Microsoft Office has already gone.

There is nothing preventing this, because again on the desktop/laptop market Windows is effectively a monopoly, or a duopoly with Apple. So there is no competition preventing Microsoft from exercising control over Windows users in the vein of Apple.

For example, Microsoft making Windows a walled garden by only permitting programs to be installed from the Microsoft Store probably isn't far off. This already exists for Win10 and 11, it's called S-mode. There seem to be more and more laptops being sold with Windows S-mode as the default.

Now it's not the only option, and you can turn it off with some tinkering, but there is really nothing stopping Microsoft from making it the only way of using Windows. And customers will probably accept it, because again the main competition is Apple where the walled garden has been the default for decades.

Customers have already accepted all sorts of bad things from Microsoft, because again Windows is a near-monopoly, and Apple and Google are even worse. That’s why there has been no major negative reaction to how Windows has increasingly spies on its users.

Another thing is how the system requirements for Windows seem to grow almost exponentially with each edition, making still perfectly useable computers unable to run the new edition. And Windows 11 is the worst yet. Like it's hard to get the numbers of how many computers running Win10 can't upgrade to Win11, but it's probably the majority of them, at least 55% or maybe even 75%. This has the effect of Windows users abandoning still perfectly useable hardware and buying new computers, creating more e-waste.

For Windows users, the alternative Windows gives them is to buy a new computer or get another operating system, and inertia pushes them towards buying another computer to keep using Windows. This is good for Windows and the hardware manufacturers selling computers with Windows 11 pre-installed, they get to profit off people buying Windows 11 keys and new computers, while the end-users have to pay, as does the environment. It’s planned obsolescence.

And it doesn’t have to be like that. Linux distros prove that you can have a modern operating system that has far lower hardware requirements. Even the most resource taxing Linux distros, like for example Ubuntu running the Gnome desktop, have far more modest system requirements than modern Windows. And you can always install lightweight Linux Distros that often have very low system requirements. One I have used is Antix. The ballooning Windows system requirements comes across as pure bloat on Microsoft’s part.

Now neither Linux or Firefox are perfect. Free and open source software don’t have a lot of the polish that comes with the proprietary products of major corporations. And being in competition with technology monopolies does have its drawbacks. The lacking website compatibility with Firefox and game compatibility with Linux are two obvious examples.

Yet Firefox and Linux have the capacity to grow, to become better. Being open source helps. Even if Firefox falls, developers can create a fork of it. If a Linux distro is not to your taste, there is usually another one. Whereas Windows and Chrome will only get worse as they will continue to abuse their monopolistic powers over the tech market.

The Perfect One

Shinsuke Kita x reader

~You visit Kita at his Farmers Market booth and realize that he has closed up early to run an important errand.

WC: 1.6k

The market hasn’t even been open for thirty minutes, but already the streets are packed full of cars; your eyes scan the packed street, searching for even the tightest parking spot.

Today you plan to surprise your boyfriend at his farmer’s market stand, give him some much-needed quality time, and take him out for a lunch date after he closes up shop, Which, according to your calculations, should be selling out in an hour or so…

Shinsuke Kita’s Rice stand is one of the most popular booths due to the high quality of his product and the fact that most vendors and patrons have fallen head over heels for the handsome rice farmer.

And how could they not?

Shinsuke’s honest charm and hardworking demeanor are enough to make anyone fall in love with him. But out of everyone, he chooses to be with you because he loves you just as much as you love him.

And this silly feeling called love is what compelled you to wake up early on a Saturday morning fueled with nothing but the promise of a large cup of coffee and some freshly baked scones with raspberry jelly once you find him.

Your car creeps through the street at a snail’s pace as you spot a light blue truck pulling out from a parking spot on the corner. As you approach, you notice that it looks like a tight fit, but you squeeze into it the best you can. Pulling forward, you hear the overly dramatic sound of your front bumper hitting the curb, but as you reverse slightly and put the car in the park, you shake it off, slipping out of the driver’s seat and onto the pavement. 

Rays of sun hit your skin through the layer of cloudy overcast as you walk, making the short trip to the center of the market rather pleasant as you pass people carrying baskets overflowing with fresh produce, baked goods, handcrafted soaps, and other goods.

Stands to sparkle with racks of handmade jewelry and blown glass trinkets that vie for your attention as you walk; if you haven’t been here before, you would’ve lost yourself amongst the crowd, but luckily, you know your way around fairly well by now.

As you get closer to your boyfriend’s usual spot, a few produce vendors you recognize from the weeks before. Despite the many customers at their stalls, they still give you a friendly wave as you walk; off in the distance, you see the edge of the hand-painted sign outside of Shinsuke’s booth, the sign the two of your painted together months ago. 

Memories of that wine-stained night bring a giddy smile to your chapstick lips as you quicken your pace, springing over a spilled cone of shaved ice that someone must’ve just dropped. 

You creep slowly around the corner, ready to scare. Instead of his soft smile and strong form, behind the register rests a generic sign.

Be back in 30 minutes…

That’s strange; even with his cashbox secured, Kita would never just leave his booth unattended for such a long time. You can’t help but wonder where he has gone.

Is he not feeling well?

Is he in the bathroom?

Whatever the answer may be, you choose to go sit at his stall to watch it until he gets back. You would hate for someone to try and steal things from him.

The next stand over, a friendly older woman peeks out from behind a massive pile of unshucked corn on the cob and gives you the warmest smile you have received all week. She is a longtime friend of Kita’s grandmother and almost always slips you one of her homemade apple tarts. Her floppy sun hat protects her lovingly aged skin from the harsh rays of the overcast sky. 

“Oh, hello, My Dear,” she calls in her soft voice. “What brings you to the market so early?” 

“Good morning,” you smile, watching fondly as her little leopard-printed cane carries her closer to you. I came to surprise Shinsuke, but it seems he went off somewhere.”

“Oh, don’t worry about him, Dear; he’ll be right back.” she laughs. There is a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she looks at you. “But I told that sweet boy I would watch his stall.”

“An errand?” you ask. “Is he feeling alright? It is so unlike him to just leave the stall”.

She just smiles knowingly. “He is just fine dear, but if you would like to check on him, head to the stalls near the main street while I hold down the fort.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” you smile. “I’ll head over there now.” With a final wave, you turn the corner and leave the stall in her capable hands.

It’s only a quick walk to the main street, but the cluster of booths is different from the usual produce stalls you are familiar with. It only takes a little sniff of the fresh air to figure out that Main Street is where all the flower vendors set up shop to sell their wonderfully constructed bouquets of flowers. Sunflowers, lilts, Peonies, and Daisies galore in every color you can think of rest in large buckets of water reaching upwards toward the light.

You wander past each stall, enchanted by the sweet smells and vibrant petals, until you hear a familiar voice speaking to one of the vendors.

“Thank you for taking the time to help me out with this. All of these are breathtaking, but I want to find the right one.” Your boyfriend says, aching down and smelling a large pink Lilly.

“Is there a particular combination you are looking for?” the vendor says, a light pink blush on their cheeks, no doubt having fallen victim to his natural charm.

“Not a combination in general; I just want a Bouquet that looks like them.” he hums, placing his hand under his chin in thought.

The vendor turns their head to the side. “How so?”

“The peonies with the iris are so fun and vibrant, just like Y/n, but then the Tulips with eucalyptus, baby’s breath, and Callalilles look so elegant and beautiful it makes me wonder if they could see themselves in those as well.”

“Young man, if everyone put as much thought into a bouquet of flowers as you did, the would be a much better place,” they say honestly. “I am sure whatever one you choose, your partner will love, especially with you being such a romantic.”

“I don’t know if I would consider myself a romantic; I just want y/n to have a nice bouquet of flowers today,” he says simply. Even though he has his back to you, you see the way the back of his neck flushes at the vendor’s words. 

Is he really putting all this thought into a bouquet for you? 

A part of you feels guilty for eavesdropping on him, but really, your heart is fluttering out of control at such a romantic gesture. You turn your back and dart quickly behind a tent that shields you from his view. 

Just as you think you are in the clear, you hear a pleasant voice call out from behind out. “It looks like you caught me.” Your breath hitches; Kita has always been too good at picking up those little details, especially when it comes to you.

“I-i’m sorry,’ you stammer, turning around to face him, “I just wanted to surprise you, and I ended up ruining yours.”

His coffee-colored gaze softens as he takes in every inch of your flustered features as if they were a work of art. “You didn’t ruin anything, quite the opposite, actually.”

You blink as you take in his words; how exactly is you ruining his floral surprise a good thing?

“How so?”

He chuckles to himself, “Because now we can pick out the flowers together.” He says it so simply as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Your knees feel weak as he continues, “I want to know what you like so that I can surprise you in the future. You deserve a life full of happy surprises.”

Boom, there goes your heart, and blood rushes to your cheeks so quickly that your hands fly to cover your face from the world.

“Flustered, are we?” he laughs softly, removing your hands from your face and tilting up your chin with the utmost care. 

Playfully you stick your tongue out at him with an endearing boldness, “Sometimes I think you’re too good at this. Is there someone else you practice on?”

He rolls his eyes as a characteristic snort escapes his lips. “Only you, My Love. Do I need to prove it to you?”

“Absolutely,” you tease, letting your gaze fall from his sparkling eyes and onto his soft lips. They curve upward knowingly before they meet yours in a tender kiss. He holds you gently as if you are one of the many flowers in the surrounding booths. 

You’re breathless, but you want more; Kita’s touch, combined with the sweet floral fragrance, is dizzying and makes you forget about the hundreds of people passing by on the other side of the tented wall. 

He pulls away with a tenderness that makes you feel like you are falling in love over and over again. The sweetest look in his eyes as he guides you back towards the flower stalls and the rows and rows of bouquets, so that the two of you can pick out the perfect one together.

Tagging: @enchantedforest-network

New Business Marketing Tips And Tricks for Success

Starting a new business can be an exciting endeavor, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges, especially in the competitive landscape of today's market. Effective marketing is crucial for the success of any new venture. Here are four essential marketing tips and tricks to help your new business thrive.

Define Your Target Audience: Before diving into marketing efforts, it's essential to identify and understand your target audience. Define your ideal customer persona by considering demographics, interests, pain points, and buying behaviors. Conduct market research to gather valuable insights that will guide your marketing strategies. Tailoring your messages and campaigns to resonate with your target audience will significantly increase your chances of success.

Once you have a clear picture of your audience, choose the most suitable marketing channels to reach them effectively. Social media, email marketing, content marketing, and pay-per-click advertising are just a few options to consider. Your choice of channels should align with where your audience spends their time online.

Create Compelling Content: Content marketing is a powerful tool for new businesses to establish their brand and build credibility. Develop high-quality, informative, and engaging content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience. This content can take various forms, including blog posts, videos, infographics, and podcasts.

Consistency is key when it comes to content creation. Develop a content calendar to plan and schedule regular updates. Providing valuable content not only helps you connect with your audience but also boosts your search engine rankings, making it easier for potential customers to find you.

Leverage Social Media: Social media platforms have become indispensable for marketing in today's digital age. Create profiles on relevant social media platforms and engage with your audience regularly. Share your content, interact with followers, and participate in industry-related discussions.

Paid advertising on social media can also be a cost-effective way to reach a broader audience. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer targeting options that allow you to reach users who match your ideal customer profile.

Monitor and Adapt: Marketing is an ever-evolving field, and what works today may not work tomorrow. To stay ahead of the curve, regularly monitor the performance of your marketing efforts. Analyze key metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI). Use tools like Google Analytics and social media insights to gather data and insights.

Based on your findings, be prepared to adapt your strategies and tactics. If a particular marketing channel isn't delivering the expected results, reallocate your resources to more promising avenues. Stay up-to-date with industry trends and keep an eye on your competitors to ensure your marketing efforts remain relevant and competitive.

In conclusion, effective marketing is essential for the success of any new business. By defining your target audience, creating compelling content, leveraging social media, and continuously monitoring and adapting your strategies, you can position your new business for growth and long-term success in a competitive market. Remember that success may not come overnight, but with persistence and the right marketing approach, your new business can thrive.

Instead I Pour the Milk. [Alejandro Vargas x fem!Reader] Chapter 1: Prologue

Next Chapter

Check the tags at https://archiveofourown.org/works/42983298

"I'm pretending not to see them, and instead I pour the milk."

-Suzanne Vega, Tom's Diner

You were warned by your family and friends that moving to Las Almas would be dangerous. The city was teeming with Cartel activity that only brought murder and chaos. That should have swayed you to change your mind and not relocate afterall. But something was telling you that you would be fine, that opening a coffee shop may do the city some good.

Las Almas originally caught your eye during a family trip as a child. Originally, you were only meant to drive through the city to get to your campsite in the countryside but your car's front left tire caught a flat. That put a damper in your family's plans to say the least. While your father argued on the phone with his auto insurance about getting the tire fixed, your mother took you and your siblings downtown to keep you all occupied.

Mercado Las Almas, a colorful stone archway read as your mother guided you all through. Las Almas' Market. She figured she could pick up something for you all to eat while the car's tire got repaired. As she searched through various fruits and snacks the market had to offer, your eyes wandered. Something about this city was hard for you to ignore, like you were meant to be there. The colorful buildings and traditional architecture left you captivated.

Civillians much like yourself mingled and walked through the market like they were all one big family. Clearly the community was tight-knit, and it showed in how they addressed each other. You imagined what it would be like living there, becoming part of the circle and learning each and every one of these current strangers. The city enchanted you, to say the least.

Alas, your father got the flat fixed and you all were able to make it to the campsite before sundown, but you weren't nearly done with the city. You did plenty of research on the city as the time passed. Keeping up with its politics, frequently checking the real estate, even visiting a handful of times before you decided that this was something you really wanted to do.

You managed to snag a great deal on a café that had a two bedroom flat upstairs. The previous owners had enough of Las Almas and was willing to sell it for dirt cheap all things considered. The building itself was in great shape, and they even left most of their equipment. Being a connoisseur of all types of coffees and teas, you figured this would be easy work. And it was, eventually. People came for coffee and stayed for the atmosphere, and soon you were known by the townspeople as "la señora del café". The coffee lady. You took the nickname in stride and it encouraged you to keep up with the hard work to maintain a healthy and safe environment for your customers. Eventually you earned enough money to hire some employees. Mostly teens who just wanted cash to burn, but you would prefer them spending their time working in your shop than getting involved with criminal activity.

Your cousin on the other hand found a desk job. He moved with you to Las Almas not only to make sure you were okay but because he needed the change in scenery. With the two incomes and a lack of a need to commute on your end, money was almost never tight. Sometimes there were slow months, but you two eventually anticipated them and budgeted preemptively.

The townspeople loved you and treated you as a local despite only moving there as an adult. They protected you, making sure after any particular shootout close to your home that you and your cousin were okay. One time an altercation outside the shop left several bullet holes in your buildings outer wall. By the time you got up and went downstairs that morning to check, men from all ages were patching up the walls and assuring you they'd repaint the area once the cement dried. In return, you served them all lemonade and freshly baked goods for their labor in the sun.

It wasn't always like this, though. Your first few months in Las Almas were tricky to say the least. The townsfolk were wary of you, figuring you were just some hipster young woman hoping to gentrify their area. They talked about you around town, asking each other what they thought of you and if they'd been to your café yet. You still got customers, but it mostly seemed like people trying to size your place up and judge you without taking the time to talk to you. You couldn't quite blame them. They'd seen a lot these past few years what with the Cartel moving in, last thing they need is someone trying to profit off of their town's misery by buying a cheap shop and selling overpriced coffee. Even though that's... not at all what you were trying to do. If anything, your prices were pretty normal if not a little cheaper. They'd know that if they gave you a chance. It left you rather discouraged for a while. Eventually you thought your parents may have been right, and you hated when they were right.

But one fateful day, one of those hopeless days where you thought of going back home, a soldier came in. He had his rifle strapped to his back and wore the typical green camouflage uniform. Removing his shades, he found a seat at one of the many empty tables and you scooped up a notepad and pen to greet him.

He smiled at you. "Afternoon, Señorita."

"Welcome, Señor. Can I interest you in a concha? Do you need a menu?"

"No thank you Señorita, just a shot of espresso will suffice."

You nodded, wilting inwardly considering you spent the early hours of the morning making those conchas. But this was progress! You'd never had a soldier in your shop before, maybe he would enjoy your service and recommend your shop to his friends. Soldiers needed coffee, right?

While the press was brewing his espresso you turned to face him. "What is your name, Señorita?" He asked from where he sat, which was within earshot from the contraption you were working.

You told him, and he smiled. Uh oh, his smile was cute. Everything about him was cute, now that you started to notice. His black hair was slicked back neatly, and he was working on a five o'clock shadow. He appeared to be your age, two years older at max you thought. He had nicely defined cheekbones and jawline, too.

"A beautiful name." He said before cocking his head to the side slightly "Why the long face?" He asked.

You scrambled to come up with an excuse for your persistent frown. "No reason, I suppose I'm a bit sleepy if anything." You lied. You were totally upset because he was your first customer in days and didn't even buy a concha.

He grinned. "A sleepy coffee shop owner?"

You laughed bashfully as you took his espresso from the machine and brought it to him. "Well, when you word it like that it sounds ridiculous. It's not long until I can have a siesta, though." You said, looking upwards at a clock on the wall that read 11:54.

He nodded and thanked you for the coffee, and if he wasn't going to purchase anything else you rung up his bill.

He took a sip and raised his brows slightly. "Ay, this is great. What blend is this?" He asked.

"Oh, it's a blonde roast I had shipped from The States." You answered. Despite being less bitter in taste, the blonde roast actually had a higher caffeine content than most dark roasts.

"If you keep this in stock I may just keep coming back." He joked.

"You'd be my number one customer. My only customer, really." You sighed.

"Don't get much business?"

You looked around at the empty seats, biting back the urge to be sarcastic. "No, not really. A few tourists have come in, but I'm still trying to win the favor of the locals."

"I see. They'll come around once they know your intentions here are good, as well as the coffee."

You smiled weakly but jumped when your timer went off. Dismissing it, you excused yourself and jogged into the kitchen to pull freshly baked bread out of the oven and slice it.

By the time you returned, the man was gone. He left the money for his espresso on the bill you had left on the counter as well as a tip easily twice the amount of the original price. Picking up the money, you noticed he'd written something on the bill.

Cheer up, hermana.

-A

That's when it hit you. You never got his name.

Next Chapter

The Missing Piece

Ficlet Mysterio x OC for @hollowsart

sfw!

Damn that Spider-Man!! Beck had barely escaped from their encounter on the streets of Manhattan, his costume tattered from the broken glass when he was slammed into the side of a parked car.

But that wasn't the only thing, he was missing one of his gauntlets. Now, to other rogues, this wasn't such a big deal, buying equipment on the black market was a regular chore, but for Mysterio, all of his gear was handmade. He had spent painstaking hours crafting all of his gadgets and even placed small homing trackers in parts of them so he could always retrieve it later.

After nursing his new cuts and bruises, he was doing just that: tracking down his lost glove, but it was completely gone, and not just from the police grabbing evidence. The tracking app he had installed was not giving him any signal for the missing piece. Frustrated, he began to search the area for any clues. What he didn't know was that he had a secret admirer.

Up in one of the apartments a block away was a girl who had watched the whole battle. In fact, when she could, she loved to see Mysterio in action. He was a showman! His booming voice, his grandiose gestures and fantastical illusions, his physique in keeping up with a super human, and his meticulous fashion sense. He was the whole package. He was cunning and smart, he was brave when he needed to be and sly when he didn't. He was a professional and she was smitten with him. Was it weird? To see this otherworldly man and fall in love? He was a super villain, a member of the Sinister Six! A bank robber! It didn't matter much to her, he wasn't like the Red Skull or any other genocidal freaks. He was a man who lacked recognition and respect from the world, and if someone could give him even a little bit of it, she would. Even if it was in secret.

Her walls had a few sketches of him, some posters of their famous battles, and most recently, she managed to grab something a little more substantial to add to her gallery: his gauntlet. Now, she wasn't think of ever reselling it or using it on her own, oh no. She had a little stand for it and carefully cleaned the grime from every nook and cranny upon its surface. It sparkled and shimmered in the light with its golden hue, resting on its custom stand. Maybe next time she could snag one of his famous eye clasps or a hologram projector!

Ah, that was just wishful thinking. And if anything, if she could meet him.. oh, how her heart would flutter! Silly dreams of a silly girl, she snapped out of these fantasies as her doorbell rang.

Quentin had been walking the streets in irritation trying to pick up any signal, any clues to his missing gauntlet, but the tracker must have gotten busted in the fight. He was about to give up when something caught his eye; glancing up he saw a glimmer of gold through one of the windows and upon further inspection, it was unmistakably his missing armor!!

"So, someone /did/ steal it! Damned thieves, taking /my/ hard work! Bad enough dealing with the Spider, now this," he thought to himself, thoroughly ticked off at the situation he found himself in. With a sigh he left to change his attire into a different civilian role, a plan forming in his mind.

He had to get into that apartment, but busting in was not ideal, especially not in his currently injured state. Instead, he could pose as building maintenance and simply ring up and bullshit his way into the space, then when the owner was distracted he would just grab the armor and bolt. Simple enough, right? That particular place looked to be... the 5th floor? South side? Easy enough to track down.

When Acedia opened the door she was greeted with a man in his thirties, mole upon his face and dark hair in a bowl cut. Quentin was wearing dark blue coveralls and holding a tool box. One he was hoping to use to put his gauntlet in for his escape. He had used fake contacts to change his eyes and some prosthetics to alter his nose and chin. He was a wanted man and couldn't often be himself in public anymore, at least not when talking to someone one on one who might recognize him.

"Hello miss, forgive the sudden intrusion, but I received an alert. Your unit is in need of an emergency fix with the ventilation, mind if a take a look inside?

This was a bit strange, she never had an issue with her heating or cooling and certainly never asked for any help with her vents.

"U-uhm, are you sure you have the right unit? I haven't had any problems, maybe you want the neighbo--"

"N-no, miss! I am sure it is this unit that is in need of repair! It shouldn't take too much of your time, just a few minutes." Beck gestured towards her bedroom. "I believe perhaps in there could be a blockage, which is very dangerous. You don't want carbon monoxide poisoning, right? I have to do my job here." Now he was really bullshitting.

Carbon monoxide? On the 5th floor? Only her unit? She gave him a raised eyebrow at that. He was trying hard now to keep his cool, his fists clenched and his face forced into a serious frown when he wanted nothing more than to sneer and tell her off, tell her exactly what he thought of her stealing his hard work! Play it cool, Becky, play it cool.

Acedia relented and let him inside, but felt profoundly awkward about having someone else in her home. Especially her bedroom, oh lord, he was going to see her artwork! Her, uh, interest in Mysterio! Hopefully he wouldn't notice.

Quentin stiffly walked past her and opened the door to her room only to be smacked straight in the face with sensory overload. Dozens of photos, drawings, and posters of him lined her walls, meticulously curated with quite the artistic flair. He must admit... she did capture his better angles. Goodness, were his thighs really that thick? Is that how others saw him? He had to hide his shock and keep himself from blushing and instead spotted what he was looking for, his glove. But she was standing right behind him, he couldn't just snatch it and run with her in the way. Instead, he would force himself to walk over to the vent under her window and take out a screw driver to open it, pretending to inspect it.

Oh gosh, she noticed that. How he froze a bit at the sight of her room. She was glad he didn't remark on it and just got to work, but she was very flustered and turning bright red in the face and ears. "S-s-sorry about the, er, mess, haha, I just have been working on my art and Mysterio is very, um-- artistic! Yeah, he is very colorful and does a lot of battles around here so, he makes for good practice, yeah!"

Ouch, that was... not a smooth excuse.

"Y-yeah? Is that so? I heard he was an actor, or tried to be one. Didn't work out so good," Beck mused out loud. He wasn't sure what to make of this girl, she was a... a fan?? Clearly, look at the state he was in right now!

"T-they must have made a mistake!! He is a showman, I'm s-sure if they gave him more of a chance he would have made many movies! Er, probably!" She balled her hands around the bottom of her sweater, she couldn't help but defend him, but this was too much.

What Beck needed was for her to exit the room so he could snatch it and walk out, but hearing her defend him made his heart do a bit of a backflip. Someone... liked his work?

"He did do some films, have you seen them?"

"Y-yes, of course, I-I mean... I..." Acedia was getting too embarrassed and excused herself from the room. Perfect. All he needed to do was put it in the bag and... oh. She had cleaned it. Cleaned it very well, it was polished and oiled and everything! Quentin was bewildered at the sight, causing him to pause. He was about to put it in his bag when she walked back in, staring at him. Caught red handed. Ah hell.

"W-what are you doing??"

Quentin pulled the prosthetics off his face and took out the contacts. He tried to puff out his chest and give her a stern look.

"I am taking back what is mine. I am Mysterio!" He announced with a flourish, trying to intimidate his way out of this. It might have worked on any other would be thief, but his gamble didn't pay off as he thought. She stood there, shocked, in disbelief, and then recognition. He /was/ Mysterio! Right in front of him! Quentin held his pose but felt his face going bright red. Ah fuck.

"L-look this is mine and I need it back, alright? I am grateful to have such an.. adoring fan, but I need it."

"..You're.... you're really Mysterio!" She stammered. He felt himself getting warm from the embarrassment rising in his chest. She was gushing now, she loved his work! Loved his style, loved... him!

"Yes I am Mysterio, I just told you that!" He gazed back at the drawings. He really should just bolt now while he had the chance, but something held him back. He.. really had a fan. Someone who loved him, loved his work. Not just the idea of him, but actually him. She wasn't off put at all by his real face, if anything she seemed more excited than ever. No, he should leave. Now. But.... he didn't. He stayed.

"I'm sorry I couldn't fix it completely for you, I-I cleaned it up though! I didn't mean to steal it from you, I just... It's /so/ cool!"

Beck looked down at the gauntlet, appreciating the hard work she had done to clean it. "Yes, you did... a really good job actually. It's not your fault, it's Spider-Man's for busting it and throwing it across the street. I... it's all right," he reassured her.

Acedia breathed a sigh of relief, still nervous and excited that he was really here in front of him!

"I.. I do like your movies, b-by the way. I have them all." She pointed to the living room to her TV. She had a shelf of DVDs and when he peered at it, he could definitely see some of his titles in there.

"Those aren't easy to get. They only made so many," he observed. Making up his mind, he set the gauntlet down and went to inspect her collection instead. It was... remarkable! "You have good taste," he complimented. She blushed at that, but let him be. She was the weird one here having a collection, a shrine dedicated to him almost. Like some sort of stalker, but she wasn't she really wasn't! How was it any different from someone having their favorite movie posters on their walls? Or favorite action heroes? She never expected him to someday turn up at her door!

"Sorry, I never introduced myself, my name is Acedia. D-do you w-want something to drink? Water?"

Quentin glanced up at her and smiled. "Yes, actually, today has been a lot. It's... nice to finally meet a fan," he admitted. Beck could use a rest. He sat down on the sofa and felt his body ache. He unzipped his coveralls a bit to look at his bandaged shoulder, making sure it didn't get loose. He had been fighting then looking for his gauntlet all day, he hadn't had a moment to sit and rest. She came back with the water and noticed his cuts.

"He really roughed you up this time didn't he?" Becky nodded with a wince as he readjusted it. "Hold on, let me get my first aid kit, I can take a look at it for you."

"Oh, nono, I'm alright--"

"No, you aren't!" She insisted. He relented. He was a good actor but a bad liar. He was not feeling great and had only done a quick patch job before heading out again. She came back and took a better look at his wounds, disinfecting them and stitching him back together. "Better?" She asked.

"Better." He watched her work, her small hands quick but strong, precise and thorough. Her skin was... soft and hair hair and eyes were gentle. His one and only admirer. "Thank you," he said at last, as she cleaned up. She beamed a smile at him and he felt his heart melt.

"I uh.. umm..." The words died in his mouth, he didn't know what to say but he wanted to say something!

The feeling was mutual, words were hard to come by when your emotions ran so strongly. She chanced the opportunity to sit a little closer to him, which he accepted, blushing. Now or never, Acedia. Go for it! She gambled and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"T-there! Now we are even!"

Quentin sat there stunned and lovestruck. Her lips were so warm and nice. With his hand he tenderly moved a lock of hair from her face and leaned in for his own kiss. His lips met hers and she weaved her arms around his broad back, accepting him, loving him. They couldn't help themselves as they made out, his body leaning down on top of hers. Did... she just land her dream boyfriend? He could always stay the night if he wanted, her fated meeting.

She was glad she found that gauntlet earlier today. It brought her a much more precious treasure, and Quentin himself had found something irreplaceable.

(Fin for now, but implied intimacy is there. They def got together ya know.)

Digital Marketing Strategy

Set Clear Goals and Objectives: The first step in creating a digital marketing strategy is to define clear goals and objectives. These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Examples include increasing website traffic, generating leads, improving brand awareness, or driving online sales.

2. Understand Your Target Audience: To effectively reach and engage your target audience, it's important to understand their demographics, interests, behaviors, and pain points. Conduct market research, analyze customer data, and create buyer personas to gain insightful information about your target audience. This will help you tailor your digital marketing efforts to resonate with them.

3. Choose the Right Digital Channels: Identify the digital channels that are most relevant to your target audience and align with your marketing goals. Common digital channels include websites, search engines, social media platforms, email marketing, content marketing, mobile apps, and online advertising. Each channel has unique characteristics and advantages, so choose the ones that best suit your business and audience.

4. Develop Content Strategy: Content is at the heart of digital marketing. Create a content strategy that focuses on delivering value to your target audience. Plan and produce high-quality content that aligns with their interests, needs, and preferences. This can include blog articles, videos, infographics, eBooks, webinars, and social media posts. Consistency and relevance are key to establishing thought leadership and building trust with your audience.

5. Optimize for Search Engines: Implement search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to improve your website's visibility in search engine results. Conduct keyword research to identify relevant search terms and optimize your website's on-page elements, such as meta tags, headings, and content. Create high-quality backlinks from reputable websites to boost your website's authority.

6. Leverage Social Media: Utilize social media platforms to connect with your audience, build brand awareness, and foster engagement. Identify the platforms where your target audience is most active and create compelling content tailored to each platform. Engage in conversations, respond to comments, and encourage user-generated content to cultivate a sense of community and brand loyalty.

7. Implement Email Marketing: Email marketing remains an effective way to nurture leads and engage with existing customers. Develop an email marketing strategy that includes personalized and segmented email campaigns. Provide valuable content, offers, and promotions to your subscribers, and automate email sequences to streamline your communication.

8. Monitor, Measure, and Adjust: Regularly monitor the performance of your digital marketing efforts using analytics tools. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, engagement metrics, and ROI. Use the insights gained to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven adjustments to optimize your strategy.

9. Stay Updated and Evolve: The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving. Stay updated with the latest trends, technologies, and industry best practices. Experiment with new channels and tactics to reach your audience. Continuously adapt your strategy based on market changes and feedback from your audience.

10. Evaluate and Refine: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy against your goals. Identify successes, challenges, and areas of improvement. Refine your strategy based on the insights gained to ensure continuous growth and success.

11. In summary, a well-rounded digital marketing strategy involves setting clear goals, understanding your audience, choosing the right channels, creating valuable content, optimizing for search engines, leveraging social media and email marketing, monitoring and measuring performance, staying updated, and evaluating and refining your approach. By following these steps, businesses can effectively harness the power of digital marketing to achieve their objectives and drive sustainable growth.

Etsy Fourth Quarter Earnings 2023 - Still Banking on Improving Marketplace Sales, But Not Revealing Many Plans

Slide 23 from Etsy's 4th quarter 2023 earning report, © Etsy. it shows what percentage of sales each major category has, with performance in the quarter.

Etsy’s fourth quarter results for 2023 were as uninspiring as expected, but despite revealing few plans, the corporation is convinced it can increase gross marketplace sales through its gifting and other initiatives. There was a lot of interesting information for shop owners, though, so let’s get right to it. 

First, here are the resources that you should read/watch yourself, if you want to know more:

the press release

transcript of the conference call

slides from the conference call

video of the call (click on “Webcast” under “Latest Quarterly Results”)

my summaries of the fourth quarter 2022, and the third quarter 2023 for comparison

Then, the basic numbers (covering October to December 2023, compared to the same period in 2022):

Sales on Etsy were $3.6 billion, down 1.4% year over year

Total sales for all 3 marketplaces (Etsy, Reverb, and Depop) were $4.0 billion, down 0.7%. [Elo7 was officially sold in mid August; its numbers were still included in the comparison totals of 2022]

Etsy’s revenue (including all 3 sites) was $842.3 million, up 4.3%

Seller service revenue was up 9.4% to $226.5 million, while marketplace revenue was up 2.6% to $615.8 million

Net income was $83.3 million, down 24% (mostly due to the layoff costs of $27 million in the quarter)

Active buyers on Etsy alone stand at 92 million, a third consecutive all-time high

Active sellers on Etsy alone are now 7 million, the fourth large jump in a row compared to the previous quarter; numbers had been stagnant through the end of 2021 and all of 2022 [Note that “active” means one charge or transaction in the past 12 months; many “active” shops currently have nothing for sale.]

Sales where the buyer and/or the seller was not in the United States were 45%, up from 44% last year, but down from 47% in the previous quarter

Sales on mobile are 68%, up from 67% last year [this includes both the buyer app and mobile browsers]

As always, I am reporting what Etsy’s representatives said in the main text, with my commentary in square brackets.

Etsy Search

At the moment, Etsy’s search algorithms aim to show shoppers things they are most likely to buy. They are currently working on changing that to showing what buyers are most likely to love after the purchase. They refer to items that consistently get high reviews, have good photography, and whose shop owner provides good customer service, has quality return policies and ships on time, as “quality” items, or, “the best stuff.” 

This is all a work in progress, so search may not change drastically any time soon. Past calls and interviews have related this to the increase in Etsy Picks assigned in the past few months; they plan on using those Picks to train the algorithm to find “quality”, especially quality photos. The items staff identify as “quality” convert twice as well as other listings, so there is obvious benefit to Etsy showing them higher up in search results. 

Etsy has added some of the features in its “neural ranking model” to non-US searches; previously it was only in the US searches. 

Advertising

Offsite Ad spending was down 4% in the quarter vs. 2022, in part due to competition bidding higher than Etsy thought was worthwhile. At the time of the call, that spending was back to normal. Per slide 21, money from Offsite Ads fees covered about 35% of what Etsy spent on the ads during the quarter. 

CEO Josh Silverman explained why the performance marketing (Offsite Ads) spend can be unpredictable.

“So performance is dynamic on a, really, hour-to-hour basis depending on the ROI we're seeing on every dollar we're spending. And we've got pretty sophisticated algorithms that work on, is this bid -- is this click worth this much right now and how much should we bid. And so to the extent that CPCs rise, we naturally pull back, or to the extent that CPCs lower, we naturally lean in. The other thing, by the way, it's not just CPCs, it's also conversion rates. So in times when people are really budget constrained, we see them actually -- we see conversion rate across the industry go down. We see people comparison shop a lot more. And so we are looking at all of that. And not humans, but machines using AI are looking at a very sophisticated way of what's happening with conversion rate right now, what's happening with CPCs right now.”

Etsy also does testing twice a year where they stop running ad such as Google Shopping ads in part of the country, and then compare with the areas still advertising to see if the buyer still would have bought. Silverman admitted that the data shows “often the answer may be yes.”

Overall marketing costs went up 7% in the year. 

The Gifting Initiative

Etsy is now aiming to brand itself as the place to go to buy gifts. Gift Mode is just the start of this campaign. Their surveys report that more than half of US gift giving is based on personal occasions that occur year round, such as birthdays, or “just because”. People in the US spend an average of $1600 a year on gifts, but Etsy’s US buyers only average $38 spent per year on gifts from Etsy. They estimate that less than half of Etsy buyers in 2023 used the site to buy at least one gift. There is obviously an opportunity to do better. 

The percentage of US residents thinking of Etsy as a good place to buy a gift is now down to 10%. [Previously, the company reported it was 12%, and I commented last quarter that I’d like to see a more recent survey to judge if they have used this knowledge to improve. 

“Only 12% of buyers will name Etsy top of mind as the place to shop for gifts.” They don’t seem to have any updated numbers showing how they’ve been improving that situation. [It’s time to go after that “enormous opportunity”, Josh!]”

So despite wanting to grab a bigger gifting share before now, Etsy has managed to lose ground. This is my biggest fear about the gift push: the market was there before now, and Etsy’s own research demonstrated that. Are they only going all in now that they have run out of other ideas?] 

There were 6 million visits to Gift Mode in the first 2 weeks. [I am not really impressed, given that they promoted it very heavily, and I was personally responsible for over 100 of those visits while researching my Gift Mode blog post.]

Other plans to bring in buyers

Silverman stated “[o]ur focus will be to make Etsy even more Etsy”, and to differentiate the marketplace from sites that sell everyday needs. The following quote deserves to be read in full:

“Most other players are competing head-to-head to sell the exact same merchandise, focused on selling at $0.02 cheaper or shipping it two hours faster, and this has resulted in the commoditization of the entire experience. But that's just not Etsy.”

[This seemed to be a completely unironically-intended comment, with no recognition of the fact that he actually discussed speeding up shipping times in the same presentation, nor of the well-known fact that so much on Etsy these days can usually be bought cheaper on Aliexpress or Shein.]

He also said that the “special” aspect of Etsy is what sometimes holds the site back, as buyers might consider Etsy limited to specific items, or might “worry about the post-purchase experience”. Bringing people back more often is a goal. [They’ve been saying that for years now, though.]

The company is currently doing buyer loyalty program research, but gave no further details. He also cited “shortening our estimated delivery dates this year by at least 2 days” as something that buyers should like, but it is unclear to me reading this if the work done last year (the year discussed in this call) already shaved 2 days off of delivery dates, or if the statement is this year’s goal. I think it is the latter [but the only ways to do that are to improve the accuracy of their tools - and I am not sure that they are currently 2 days longer than reality on average - or to pressure sellers to ship faster. Since Etsy is once again updating shop settings to add weekends to shop processing times without notifying us, I guess we can assume the latter? UPDATE (Mar 19): Silverman clarified at a recent talk that "we think we can cut shipping times on Etsy by at least two days this year."]

Other things sellers need to know

Etsy Ads now involve some localization outside of the US, which increased conversion rates. [If your ad performance changed in non-US countries during the quarter, this is the most likely reason.]

Neither sales or Etsy’s revenue are expected to increase until the second quarter, and they expect revenue to grow faster than sales this year. [Revenue is almost certain to increase, as the corporation has been surveying sellers on what they would be willing to pay more for.]

“In 2023, we removed approximately 140% more listings for violations of our Handmade Policy than in 2022.” [No word on how many of them were removed erroneously, though, as we know the “Temu” bots pulled a lot of truly handmade items that had photos stolen and listed on other sites.]

Silverman promised “innovation planned to improve the predictability of shipping costs for both buyers and sellers”, but provided no details. [I am not sure what would make my personal costs more predictable, given they change every single week with Canada Post’s fuel surcharge right now. Is it going to be forcing people to use Etsy Labels with calculated shipping? Or is this more calculated shipping options for countries outside of the US, and for new carriers? Restricting the amount a listing can charge for shipping? I really have no idea, but I hope all those people they hired for “fulfillment” jobs a few years back are coming up with something that is actually useful.] 

Miscellaneous

Depop had a decent quarter in sales and revenue. 

Reverb sales were flat. “The Reverb team made some organizational changes late in the year” which are expected to be profitable [i.e., they laid off over 30 people in October].

The Etsy layoffs in December were referred to by CFO Rachel Glaser as “our recent workforce realignment”. [At least she didn’t call those former employees churn.] The call provided no details on the restructuring they previously said would be done by the end of this quarter. 

October sales were not good, but November and December improved. January “was a little bumpy.”

Outside of the US, sales in Germany were mostly steady, while the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria improved.

The upcoming $15 fee for newly-opened shops will largely go to paying the costs of the technology for vetting sellers; it is not expected to result in much profit. 

My thoughts: this is going to be a rough year for many Etsy sellers

As I discussed last quarter, Etsy’s upper brass didn't seem to think they were responsible for the lackluster sales performance of their marketplace, and this quarter that extended to not admitting they overhired since early 2022, and not acknowledging that Etsy’s reputation as a gift site actually dropped over the past few years. The last one is particularly galling. Why keep talking about how there was great room for improvement in Etsy brand recognition for gift buyers and then fail to improve even a tiny bit? What were these folks doing the past 2 years? 

It’s clear they think bravado will get them through this, including the bold move of claiming everything will improve in the second quarter and throughout the year without revealing any real details. No wonder the stock dropped yet again. 

That said, they likely have some reasons for thinking that revenue will pick up at least, if not sales. As mentioned above, they have been extensively surveying sellers about raising fees and/or charging us for things we currently get for free (or mostly do not want). Possible downsides for Etsy include the fact that the Indie Sellers Guild and the Artisans Cooperative (among others) are likely to get more negative press for Etsy if fees are raised yet again, just as happened in 2022. It does not help that Etsy didn’t really follow through on improved services the last time they raised fees. 

And the more I think about the comment on shipping costs, the more I believe they are considering making Etsy Labels compulsory for at least some in the US, with set shipping charges sellers won’t be able to change. Bonanza did this last year, charging its US sellers $2 per order extra if they didn’t use Bonanza labels and didn’t get an exemption from the program. Most Etsy sellers using the labels and being forced to show that price as the shipping cost for buyers is the only way I can think of making shipping prices more predictable for buyers, other than capping shipping charges outright (and that sounds like a nightmare to implement). eBay does it, though. Am I missing something? [UPDATE Mar. 5, 2024: Etsy is surveying buyers about how much they like cheap shipping.]

Perhaps more importantly, the planned search changes have the potential to disrupt the status quo a great deal. We know that Etsy frequently takes a lot longer to develop these types of technologies than they expect, so it may not happen this year, but the work on promoting “quality” listings will continue, and that is already affecting some shops that used to do better in Etsy search. Do everything you can to make sure your images are "high-quality". If you rely on internal search to get most of your Etsy sales, this is a very good time to follow my usual advice and diversify your traffic sources. 

Etsy’s branding pivot to being the place to get gifts could also have a big impact on some shops and categories, if it is successful - and that is a big “if”. I’m not thoroughly convinced Etsy can manage this change in consumer consciousness, considering that the site’s reputation continues to be hammered by controversies around scams and non-handmade items. Kitkats, anyone? 

Many other comments do not bode well for most shop owners: a continuing push for discounting, emphasis on faster shipping times, and financial restrictions/impositions on “newly-opened” shops all indicate that traffic may flow away from small business owners who choose not to comply, or are unable to comply. 

Last quarter I said “[d]on’t be surprised if there are major site changes in 2024”, and I appear to have been correct. But really, anyone reading these reports over the past few years could have seen it coming.

Stay well informed, everyone! It’s the best weapon we have.

Reminder that you can sign up to receive my Tumblr and website blog posts via email.

UPDATED March 19, 2024

Here is the Spectober writing prompt list for this year! There's no pressure to make something for every prompt, but for ease of access and planning, they're all listed here, and you're welcome to plan ahead.

Prompts are rewritten below the cut:

Max was still new to being a spectral, and had a nagging feeling he’d forgotten something important.

2. Johnny has managed to steal Max’s bat again, but runs into an unexpected guest while trying to make the bat do “mutant things” - Scrapdragon.

3. Every year, the corny Mayview Maze gets set up, but this Halloween, any who enter are forced to face their greatest fears in order to win a huge prize.

4. Collin, in a fit of anger, asked for just one day where he could be alone. Now everybody’s frozen in time except for him! (Time)

5. Every year the Puckett family rewatches the Shred Eagle Halloween special.

6. Cody finds unruly vampires while on his jaunt and must dispatch them when diplomacy doesn’t work…while in his Wolverine costume.

7. A spirit attack while the entire school is gathered in the gymnasium switches the spirits bound to the spectrals-some to other spectrals, and some to those otherwise unaware…

8. Isabel had never gotten along well with her dad, so why was he suddenly volunteering to chaperone a spooky story event?

9. With the thrills of Halloween and an unexpected new power upgrade from Rules, the Sphinxes are able to get into hijinks otherwise unavailable to them.

10. Violet had bought a fake knife for her costume ages ago at a thrift shop; it wasn’t supposed to be dripping blood like this.

11. The worst case scenario happens on Lake Mayview when a speedboating accident leaves RJ drowning.

`2. Mysterious ruins that suddenly appear in the middle of Mayview sounds like the perfect thing for the Activity Club to investigate.

13. Angel is used to doing business with all sorts of quirky customers, but he has no idea what to do when Peter enters his store.

14. Vendors at Mayview’s Fall Markets can have eccentric ways of paying for their wares. If Dimitri is to get his prize, he must win the weirdest game of chess he’s ever seen.

15. Stephen’s latest plan to get evidence of cryptids - via making a giant leaf pitfall trap and seeing what he caught - goes awry when he finds something else in his trap instead.

16. Alex is convinced that she's been trapped in a glowing cage of energy by aliens. The activity club knows that the culprit is a particularly mischievous poltergeist.

17. Suzy’s newest “exaggerated” news piece about the Princess of Mayview causes odd visitors to show up at her doorstep.

18. Zarei’s search for the Ghost Train’s Lantern takes unexpected twists and turns during a fall festival.

19. Serge and the Student Council are DETERMINED to let absolutely nothing get out of hand with the fundraising hay ride this year. (Everything gets out of hand.)

20. It’s a race against time to move the rotted pumpkin Tool out into a safe area before the spirit within is able to break out of it entirely.

21. Spender wouldn't consider himself an ideal guardian, but he's pretty sure that allowing Isabel's Halloween plans to proceed would count as child endangerment.

22. Ollie tends not to believe in the supernatural, but as he encounters more and more things he can't explain, he ponders an earlier hypothesis from the group that they've been hexed.

23. Usually Isaac was excited for Halloween, but this year he just felt a nothingness in his heart.

24. Shenanigans ensue when Penny returns to the shop with her newest find, a Tool….that’s a corpse.

25. Death cults and creepy go hand in hand, but Ms. Baxter is just trying to use it to find love.

26. When Jeff starts getting bullied by a new Academy student calling himself “The Demon”, an unlikely group of kids rally together to take him out.

27. During their usual romp around the woods, the Jang finds a weirdly large skull.

28. Jean finds an unnatural being in the woods, the living dead, and has to take it out before it reaches town.

29. Lisa is framed for poison ending up in people's drinks, and she's going to make the real poisoner have a taste of their own medicine.

30. Ed’s glasses get stolen, prompting a chase that quickly and hilariously escalates.

31. PJ doesn’t remember his birthday, so Max throws a Deathday party for him instead and it winds up being crashed by everyone.

The Basics of Digital Marketing For Beginners

Tips for Beginners

As a digital marketing beginner, you don’t have to feel intimidated or lost. Here are some tips to make digital marketing for beginners easier to grasp and get going.

Know everything you can about brand awareness

Building brand awareness is an essential element to your marketing strategy and your success. Start out by knowing everything you can about it and its benefits.

Essentially, brand awareness is the recognition and familiarization by others of your brand, product, or service. To boost such awareness, you will need to help consumers learn more about your business, the products or services you offer, and what makes you stand out from your competitors.

There are several ways to build brand awareness. Consistency in how you present your brand across channels and platforms will be key. Consumers will be able to look at a blog or social media post and instantly know it’s yours if you do it right.

SEO is everywhere

Search engine optimization (SEO) is everywhere today! Once you acknowledge this, it’s time to get in the game by understanding how SEO works and ways to use it to your advantage.

Sure, it can be a little intimidating at first, so start slow and easy. Identify keywords and phrases that your target audience uses to conduct searches. Incorporate these into all your content so your audience can find you more easily. From here, you’ll want to consider a link-building strategy to boost your SEO even more.

If you start feeling anxious, remember to take action one step at a time and keep learning all you can about SEO techniques and available tools. Soon you’ll be using it to increase website traffic, gain higher-quality leads, and more.

Discover the online potential of your brand

One of the most empowering moments that can occur as a digital marketer is to discover the online potential of your brand. Digital marketing is the perfect avenue for generating high-quality leads that result in more interaction with your brand and, ultimately, higher sales.

You may discover opportunities to offer webinars to customers, create courses, sponsor events, or become a thought leader in your field. The online potential of your brand is vast, and cashing in on that is possible with targeted marketing and planning.

Get to Really Know Your Customers

While you may already know everything about your product or service, it is essential to step away from that and get to really know your customers. By doing so, you can build a better marketing strategy that appeals to them and other potential customers.

Conduct your own market research by sending out surveys to existing customers and by asking for feedback. Closely study customer reviews and comments to gain a sense of what they want most. Learn all you can about who they are, what they want or need, and the type of interests they have.

Once you collect this information and start to understand your customers, develop your buyer personas. You will use these to plan your marketing strategy and the type of content to share.

Build a significant presence on social media

Consumers today spend tons of time on social media platforms. Since that is where they are, it is where you should be also. The goal is to build a significant presence on one or more platforms.

Create your social profile to match your brand and how you present yourself on your website. Now it’s time to start publishing content. Consider mixing it up a bit at times, providing informative, educational, or entertaining content to show your brand’s confidence and personality. Don’t just focus only on your products or services, but add posts that speak to your target audience’s interests and desires.

Online consumers are highly visual these days, so be sure to always include the highest quality videos and images with your posts. As you gain more followers, increase your interaction with them by responding to comments. You can even use interactive content to draw them in further.

Too big to care

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE (Apr 12), and beyond!

Remember the first time you used Google search? It was like magic. After years of progressively worsening search quality from Altavista and Yahoo, Google was literally stunning, a gateway to the very best things on the internet.

Today, Google has a 90% search market-share. They got it the hard way: they cheated. Google spends tens of billions of dollars on payola in order to ensure that they are the default search engine behind every search box you encounter on every device, every service and every website:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

Not coincidentally, Google's search is getting progressively, monotonically worse. It is a cesspool of botshit, spam, scams, and nonsense. Important resources that I never bothered to bookmark because I could find them with a quick Google search no longer show up in the first ten screens of results:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Even after all that payola, Google is still absurdly profitable. They have so much money, they were able to do a $80 billion stock buyback. Just a few months later, Google fired 12,000 skilled technical workers. Essentially, Google is saying that they don't need to spend money on quality, because we're all locked into using Google search. It's cheaper to buy the default search box everywhere in the world than it is to make a product that is so good that even if we tried another search engine, we'd still prefer Google.

This is enshittification. Google is shifting value away from end users (searchers) and business customers (advertisers, publishers and merchants) to itself:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#apor-locksmith

And here's the thing: there are search engines out there that are so good that if you just try them, you'll get that same feeling you got the first time you tried Google.

When I was in Tucson last month on my book-tour for my new novel The Bezzle, I crashed with my pals Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden. I've know them since I was a teenager (Patrick is my editor).

We were sitting in his living room on our laptops – just like old times! – and Patrick asked me if I'd tried Kagi, a new search-engine.

Teresa chimed in, extolling the advanced search features, the "lenses" that surfaced specific kinds of resources on the web.

I hadn't even heard of Kagi, but the Nielsen Haydens are among the most effective researchers I know – both in their professional editorial lives and in their many obsessive hobbies. If it was good enough for them…

I tried it. It was magic.

No, seriously. All those things Google couldn't find anymore? Top of the search pile. Queries that generated pages of spam in Google results? Fucking pristine on Kagi – the right answers, over and over again.

That was before I started playing with Kagi's lenses and other bells and whistles, which elevated the search experience from "magic" to sorcerous.

The catch is that Kagi costs money – after 100 queries, they want you to cough up $10/month ($14 for a couple or $20 for a family with up to six accounts, and some kid-specific features):

https://kagi.com/settings?p=billing_plan&plan=family

I immediately bought a family plan. I've been using it for a month. I've basically stopped using Google search altogether.

Kagi just let me get a lot more done, and I assumed that they were some kind of wildly capitalized startup that was running their own crawl and and their own data-centers. But this morning, I read Jason Koebler's 404 Media report on his own experiences using it:

https://www.404media.co/friendship-ended-with-google-now-kagi-is-my-best-friend/

Koebler's piece contained a key detail that I'd somehow missed:

When you search on Kagi, the service makes a series of “anonymized API calls to traditional search indexes like Google, Yandex, Mojeek, and Brave,” as well as a handful of other specialized search engines, Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, etc. Kagi then combines this with its own web index and news index (for news searches) to build the results pages that you see. So, essentially, you are getting some mix of Google search results combined with results from other indexes.

In other words: Kagi is a heavily customized, anonymized front-end to Google.

The implications of this are stunning. It means that Google's enshittified search-results are a choice. Those ad-strewn, sub-Altavista, spam-drowned search pages are a feature, not a bug. Google prefers those results to Kagi, because Google makes more money out of shit than they would out of delivering a good product:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24117976/best-printer-2024-home-use-office-use-labels-school-homework

No wonder Google spends a whole-ass Twitter every year to make sure you never try a rival search engine. Bottom line: they ran the numbers and figured out their most profitable course of action is to enshittify their flagship product and bribe their "competitors" like Apple and Samsung so that you never try another search engine and have another one of those magic moments that sent all those Jeeves-askin' Yahooers to Google a quarter-century ago.

One of my favorite TV comedy bits is Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the AT&T operator; Tomlin would do these pitches for the Bell System and end every ad with "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company":

https://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76aphonecompany.phtml

Speaking of TV comedy: this week saw FTC chair Lina Khan appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

The coverage of Khan's appearance has focused on Stewart's revelation that when he was doing a show on Apple TV, the company prohibited him from interviewing her (presumably because of her hostility to tech monopolies):

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/apple-got-caught-censoring-its-own

But for me, the big moment came when Khan described tech monopolists as "too big to care."

What a phrase!

Since the subprime crisis, we're all familiar with businesses being "too big to fail" and "too big to jail." But "too big to care?" Oof, that got me right in the feels.

Because that's what it feels like to use enshittified Google. That's what it feels like to discover that Kagi – the good search engine – is mostly Google with the weights adjusted to serve users, not shareholders.

Google used to care. They cared because they were worried about competitors and regulators. They cared because their workers made them care:

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/4/18295933/google-cancels-ai-ethics-board

Google doesn't care anymore. They don't have to. They're the search company.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

What Advantages You Can Expect from Listany’s Website Development Company?

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Testing and Quality Assurance: Rigorous testing processes to identify and address any bugs, glitches, or performance issues before the website is deployed.

Timely Deployment: Adhering to agreed-upon timelines for the development, testing, and deployment phases to ensure a prompt and efficient delivery.

Ongoing Support: Providing post-launch support and maintenance to address any issues, implement updates, and ensure the ongoing optimal performance of the website.

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Transparent Communication: ListAny Website Development Company main agenda is Open and transparent communication throughout the development process, keeping clients informed and involved.

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Record Store Day Roundup: 2024 Edition

Another Record Store Day has come and gone. Did you snag that coveted pressing of that album you had your eye on? Hopefully your experience was as good as mine was, and you were able to grab at least something on your list either in-person or online afterwards. In this article, I’ll be recapping things I noticed about the most popular titles going first, providing feedback on the pressing numbers for this year’s collection, and ways to keep vinyl fans engaged with their local record stores throughout the year. Most Popular Titles Across the board, it seemed that the fastest title to leave the record store shelves were the ultra-coveted 7 inch split between Olivia Rodrigo/Noah Kahan for “Stick Season/Lucy.” The single was pressed on a colored vinyl, and was limited to 15,000 copies. If you weren’t able to snag this title, the good news is that it’s labeled as “RSD First” title, meaning that it plans to get a future pressing. Another title that was unique and in very limited quantities was a cool looking mini record player plus 3″ singles from a little band known as The Beatles. This Bluetooth-enabled mini turntable featured a Beatles-branded dust cover and was packaged with four mini singles of “She Loves You,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “Til There Was You,” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” The cute set was limited to 2,300 units, and was partially responsible for the long lines during Record Store Day. Another surprisingly coveted release was the ITEIAD Sessions by The Japanese House, which was limited to just 800 copies. This set featured alternate session versions of In The End It Always Does, including an alternative version of lead single, “Boyhood,” and a cover of ABBA’s “Super Trouper.” This “RSD First” title will get another pressing, but this 6-track EP pressed on white vinyl was a hot item on the secondary market. The last “hot item” that I was lucky enough to get my hands on was the long out of print sophomore album by At The Drive-In called In/Casino/Out. This Craft Recordings “RSD First” exclusive was limited to 3,500 copies, and was a fast mover at record stores across the country. It was pressed on a cool, Purple/Green Smoke LP, and it sounds pretty damn dynamic to my ears on my turntable. The Introduction of Discogs’ Record Store Day Afters Another cool component of this year’s Record Store Day was the unveiling of an International Discogs database of RSD-exclusives from 13 countries. This is called the “Record Store Day Afters” website, and launches today at 3 PM (Eastern Time Zone) here. Additionally, other stores across the U.S. released their Record Store Day stock on Discogs and their own websites, at retail cost, as early as the day after Record Store Day 2024. This greatly helped me, and thousands of other vinyl collectors, in obtaining those RSD exclusives without being scalped on Ebay and other secondary auction sites. Recommendations for Improvements for Future Record Store Day Observances While my experience was overwhelmingly positive, I have heard from others in the vinyl community that there is still room for improvement in the Record Store Day process. The lines are a tough situation to navigate, but I feel like our indie record stores are getting better at keeping the lines moving by having helpful staff determine which titles are gone throughout the day and assisting customers with finding their wanted titles in a timely fashion. Other suggestions would be to limit the “flip through” process of the RSD bins by having customers with their lists handy to ask if certain titles are in stock so they don’t hold up the lines searching for a title that isn’t there. Many great indie stores across the U.S. were up front and communicative about their RSD stock, and this transparency will help out customers in feeling a sense of community with their local shops. The pressing numbers were fairly on point this year, with a few exceptions that I’ve already outlined. As long as Record… https://chorus.fm/features/record-store-day-roundup-2024-edition/