from JPT Group | February 2024 | Vol. 17 No. 2
Who You Gonna Believe?
Who are you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes? Anymore, it’s hard to say.
Rightly or wrongly, many have claimed since its inception that all the facts on the internet are wrong. Of course, that’s an overstatement, but there are those who are not only questioning the internet’s veracity, but investigating it as well.
New research out of Germany claims that Google is search declining due to spam. If you didn’t know, Google is the world’s largest search engine. The fact that the second largest search engine is YouTube – which is owned by Google – doesn’t exactly inspire much confidence.
With increasing frequency in recent years, Google has come under fire for manipulating search results by how it applies its terms and conditions, or by outright bias, or by, as one critic puts it, “favoritism toward Google-owned properties.”
Many web purveyors and experts have raised flags over Google’s recent "helpful content" update. Google states that its “helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content created for people in search results.”
Critics disagree claiming that the new algorithms give preference to “AI generated crap” and that “Google is apparently forcing publishers to generate AI spam or die.” It’s true that AI is making it a lot easier to produce content with little or no consideration for relevancy or accuracy.
This is consistent with an issue we raised some time ago. Historically, sound marketing dictated that companies generate content with their customers (or target audiences) in mind. In recent years, that approach has surrendered to the concept that the number one audience is Google and its algorithms to ensure high search engine optimization (SEO) results – especially higher rankings.
Hubspot – a developer of software products for marketing, sales and customer service – notes that the phrase “Google is getting worse is almost a meme at this point. Go into any forum or sub-reddit that mentions search results, and you’ll find someone complaining that SEO has ruined Google Search.”
Perhaps the real meme should be a turn on an old phrase: searcher beware.
“The joke’s on them. SEO has been ruining Google Search for 26 years.”
— Anonymous
BUSINESS UPDATE
Negative response
“Many companies that do engagement surveys are so disappointed in the results that they can’t bring themselves to share them with employees… Or they aren’t as fully committed to the difficult work of culture change to take action.” This, according to Leigh Branham, author and founder of talent management consultancy Keeping the People, on what employers do with negative engagement survey results.
— The New York Times
A day in the life of…
Two weeks from today is February 29. Or, as some people call it “leap year day.” Ah yes, leap year. It surfaces every four years so that American presidential hopefuls can have an extra day to campaign.
Just kidding. It exists to keep earth in alignment with its astronomical place in our solar system. Most years are 365 days long. But not quite. According to the National Air and Space Museum, the earth completes one orbit of the sun in 365.242190 days, or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 56 seconds. That extra quarter day needs to be accounted for, so every four years we get an extra day and we call it February 29.
Except it’s not quite a quarter day. That’s why some leap years are not leap years. To keep the orbital accounting in balance (as near as possible) three out of every four hundred years there are no leap years at the turns of the centuries. Again, our friends at Air and Space note that there was no February 29 in 1700, 1800 and 1900; but there was one in 2000.
The next time that there won’t be a February 29, in what otherwise would be a leap year, is 2100.
“Use this day to do something daring, extraordinary and unlike yourself.”
― Vera Nazarian,
author, artist, musician
KEEPERS
Even without pornography, if cyber crime were a country, it would have the third largest economy on the planet.
— Brett Johnson on The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
Pucker up, Valentine! Cleopatra had a special lipstick made for her, consisting of a crushed mixture of ants and deep red carmine beetles.
— Mental Floss
Testing your mettle. Calcium is the most common metal in the human body.
— QI
Queen B. During Queen Victoria’s 64-year reign there were nine prime ministers. During Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign, there were 15.
— britannica.com
Say, “Cheese!” Scientists at Northwestern University have created teeny-tiny virtual reality headsets for laboratory mice.
— Sky News
Puss ‘n Butts. When your cat sticks his butt in your face, it’s a gesture of friendship.
— oddee.com
Sleeping on the job. More than 50 percent of those who work night shifts have a sleep disorder.
— Earth.com
Sleep tight. Cheddar cheese actually contains more tryptophan than turkey.
— ripleys.com
What’s in a name. The winners of a snowplow naming contest in Minnesota were Taylor Drift and Clark W. Blizzward.
— Associated Press
Vampires beware. Around 46 billion pounds of garlic are grown annually, 80 percent of it in China.
— uselessdaily.com
Truly committed. A barber in the U.K. proposed to his girlfriend with a giant tattoo on his thigh saying, “Marry Me.” He had to drop his pants to display it.
— nypost.com
The Month of February
Month of the Month
Isn’t it interesting that the same month which is home to Valentine’s Day is also National Condom Month? Not so strange is that February, one of the coldest months of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, is also Beat The Heat Month. If you’re experiencing a touch of cabin fever this month, you can take heart that it’s also National Goat Yoga Month. (?)
Today is February 15th. You’ll sleep better knowing that today is Angelman Syndrome Day as well as Lupercalia Day.
Don’t shoot the messenger.
Question of the Month
Who talks more? Men or women.
You might want to cover your ears for this one.
Quote of the Month
“We may have found a cure for most evils; but we have found no remedy for the worst of them all, the apathy of human beings.”
— Helen Keller,
American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer
Get a Headstart
If you have ever thought about including a newsletter in your marketing communications toolkit, before you begin, download our free digital booklet – Getting Started with Your Newsletter – to get some basic questions answered as well as a little inspiration to nudge you forward. Be sure to check out “Something Special” at the end. Download your copy.
A Gridiron MBA?
Maybe that’s not possible, but there is much you can learn about business from football in the book, Hard Hitting Lessons. The subtitle says it all, “Some not-so-obvious business lessons learned from playing football.”
Get your copy here!
