This week's best things

Discovery is broken

I like the folks at Storythings, they are smart and nice, and they do good work.

This new 4-part series is focused on content discoverability.

“…content discovery is broken. If you’re a B2B or B2C content publisher trying to build an audience right now, you’ll have seen this yourself. We’d noticed it before, but in the year since our last retreat, it feels like we’ve reached a tipping point, with more and more publishers and commentators saying that algorithmic feeds and Google search are no longer viable ways of building a sustainable audience.”

Part 1: Discovery is broken

Part 2: Social discovery is broken

Part 3: Search engine traffic is broken

We spent a week letting AI bots handle our emails and meetings. It didn’t go as planned

Three journalists at Fast Company used a range of AI assistants in their day-to-day work.

You may have been in meetings recently where an AI meeting assistant has joined the call, these apps then produce a writeup of the discussions with suggested actions.

Some of them also include sentiment analysis of the discussions and it is in these highly subjective areas that they are least accurate and potentially most harmful.

“the meeting bot indicated that I was often “skeptical” and “concerned” and even though we mentioned several story ideas and things to follow up on, the notes concluded that we had no further “actions.” Zara remarked that seeing summaries like this sent to his colleagues would make him more self-conscious about speaking up in meetings.”

However there are time and effort-saving advantages available by using these types of products, and the article also talks about those

“it even works on meetings that you are invited to but don’t attend. Later in the week, I had to miss a leadership meeting and it was helpful to return to my desk to find comprehensive notes (though I did still check in with my colleagues to see what they deemed the most important takeaways)”

They also cover products that organise your emails, assist copywriting, and other day-to-day tasks.

We’re still in quite a ‘frothy’ phase as this ecosystem develops, and most of the products currently available will likely disappear in the coming weeks and months.

So by all means try them out, but maybe don’t go all in until you’re clearer on what they’re good at, when they’re less useful, and some market leaders have emerged.

New Google Trial Docs May Explain Why Search Sucks So Bad Now

Katie and I have discussed the enshittification of Google in a recent episode of Bytes.

But it’s interesting to see this feeling about the state of things apparently confirmed in some recent disclosures.

“Gomes reportedly sparred with Google over its decision to set its metrics on the total number of user queries. The former head of search reportedly balked at this metric because an improved search functionality should ideally prioritize answering users’ questions with as few clicks as possible. Google, the DOJ argued, benefits from users taking longer to search because the company can run ads against each of those queries. Around 80% of Google revenues reportedly come from advertising. If a user needs to refine their search a few times to get what they’re looking for, or if they have to scroll deeper through the results, more ads can be served to them.”

Asos is investing £30m in brand building as it eyes a move away from ‘seductive’ performance marketing

An interesting article in Marketing Week on Asos’s investment in brand campaigns.

The article also contained this nugget:

“Asos’s least profitable customers – 6% of its total customers – cost the business more than £100m, it said earlier this year. To combat this, the retailer revealed today it has restricted promotional advertising to these customers.”

Werner Herzog saying Eeyore

Werner Herzog has one of the all-time great voices, here he is talking about the characters from Winnie the Pooh.

If you’ve seen something interesting, stick it in the comments! The algorithms are invading our lives, but the best stuff is still discovered and shared through word of mouth.

Here’s last week’s round-up