Posts

There have been many claims of Google killers over the years, normally overhyped wishful thinking. After all, Google is huge with very deep pockets and an army of developers. 

But I honestly think someone has come along that will knock them off their perch, or at the very least force them to rethink and redesign search.

TL;DR - The Google search as you know it is about to change. 

Welcome to the world of OpenAI. In their own words:
"OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity." Certainly sounds better than "Don't be Evil", Google's historical mission statement.

What swung it for me though was playing with their search/chat functionality. This is currently in beta, using only offline data, which is regularly refreshed but isn't currently (as of Jan 2023) live to the world. Even with these limitations, it blows the socks clean off Google searches 

Let's see some examples, and then let me know what you think.

  • Example Search  - What is the capital of India

Here is a typical Google result you would expect to see.

This is how OpenAi handles the same question:

What else do you need to know? No sponsor adverts and SEO-optimised pages of waffle, writing content for content's sake (sorry SEO content writers...). Just the answer to the question.

This is where things change gear. How about a follow-up question?

  • how many people live there?

Here's Google's response:

It has no idea what you are talking about. Meanwhile, OpenAi will happily dive as deep as you want to into a topic, refining the answer until you have the information you need.

  • Impressive? Or still not convinced?

Does anyone know how to add an image to a web page, as I'm old and gone a bit senile? OpenAi not only knows, it will show me.

Let's really see what AI can do, and this is where things get a little scary and Skynet is born!

For any non-SEO people, Neil Patel is a well known influencer in the SEO world, and a prolific content generator.

  • can you write a promo piece in the style of Neil Patel

If that doesn't impress or frighten you, then you have ice water in your veins! Swap Neil Patel for Stephen King, swap promo piece for "can you do a business presentation based around xyd for business owners and keep it to a 1000 words"

All of sudden, the whole pay for content, or even we will write your thesis/homework/school project market has just evaporated. How many school teachers will be marking AI content and not even realise it? 

Now, this is early days, this is all very brand new and in development. So imagine what it will be like when this is launched onto the live web and becomes self-learning. It will get better and better and the way users will search and digest content is going to change drastically.

The days of writing 500 word waffley pages with repeated keywords so you stand a modicum of a chance of ranking are fast coming to an end. 

  • Flaws and issues

As with all technology and new advances, it's not perfect and has plenty of flaws. The biggest is something we already live with, trust. Is the content you are reading correct?

Most of us look at Wikipedia as a useful information resource, but fully understand it's not the gospel. Pages are gamed, people have agendas, and editorial bias, in the same way stories and information is manipulated or spun by tabloid outlets.

So the trust economy I suspect is going to be even more important. People or pages who are assumed to be correct, purely based on their credibility or links/associations to credible sources.

Here is an example close to home. Scotland Trusted Trader is a brand name used by one of my companies, which works in partnership with Trading Standards Teams across Scotland. Although they are official Council backed Trusted Trader schemes, Scotland Trusted Trader isn't run by the Scottish Government. Or is it?

So it is pulling information from credible sources that link to our Trusted Trader platform, putting 5 and 5 together and coming up with 21. 

But this is why I see the future of optimising for AI driven search as reliant on linking with credible and related sources, versus rolling out pages of meaningless drivel in the hopes of ranking for an elusive keyword.

  • The future

Here is the final nail in the manually created content coffin. As this is a business forum, how about the top 5 points to market a business? 

Took me a good 5 seconds to come up with that content! Even if point 3 is to create content 

The genie is out of the bottle. Search is going to change and it will be fast. Chatbots have been using this technology for a while and it gets ever more sophisticated as people are unsure if it is a bot or a human.

Google will have been doing exactly the same search research behind closed doors, but they have been pipped to the post and now have to play catchup. AI is already very dominant in Google search technology and has been for a long time. But the days of a search result being a list of links with sponsor adverts and billions of pages of SEO-optimised content fighting to outrank each other are (at least I think) set to be consigned to history.

If you want to learn more, and I strongly urge you to, visit Chat GPT and open an account. It's all free (for now), so play with it and see what it can do.

Now is the time to embrace, understand and learn. Fortune rewards the early adopters, so start thinking about how you can utilise this coming technology and what impact will it have on your type of business or how you can take advantage.

Any thoughts, or feedback?

Happy New Year all.

It's certainly been an interesting few years to be in business. From Brexit, pandemics, revolving door prime ministers to Putin's war in Europe and the economic fallout of inflation, fuel costs, cost of living, and industrial action 

I am looking forward to a period of stability, plenty of money in people's pockets, and general positivity. I'm not sure 2023 is going to be the year though. 

I wonder if historians will look back one day and call 2020 - 2023 the Second Depression. Maybe it happens every 100 years?

My new year's resolution is to stop watching the news and switch off LBC in the office, moving to Planet Rock or Heart 80s. It might not fix anything, but at least I'll be in a better mood and can focus on more important things. This forum for a start after promising the same thing for the last 5 years 

Paypal Scam 22nd December 2022 1:01 PM

One to be careful of if you use Paypal for business or personal use.

It’s a double scam. They use the genuine Paypal process and request payment as if you owe money, then in the invoice details, add scammy text, eg “Suspicious Transaction” to make you think it came from Paypal.

If you log in to your Paypal account, PayPal will tell you that you have an outstanding bill to be paid, and some people will, unfortunately, pay it 

If you phone the number, it will no doubt transfer you to a premium rate number and you will be fleeced.

If it happens to you, just log in to the transaction and cancel it. Paypal doesn’t help and this is what makes the scam convincing as they are using Paypal's normal processes to make you think it needs to be paid.

I’ve given up reporting spam, scam or fraud, as the process is too convoluted.

But hopefully most people will see it as what it is, a scam, and cancel and ignore it.

If you have fallen for it and inadvertently paid a fake money request, try and get some help from Paypal, this is their disputes page: Disputes & LimitationsReport a problem

Has anyone used them? 22nd December 2022 11:32 AM

My question to you is why you decided to choose them and invest your hard-earned cash.

  • A quick search shows no reviews online.
  • Looking at their website, they say they are in the UK and the address shows as Austria 

  • The domain was registered on 15/06/2022, so they have been around 5 minutes.

So I would be nervous.

But as for time-wise, SEO is a longterm investment, not an overnight magic bullet, but you get what you pay for. So you should have been given realistic expectations, and then had goals and targets you can measure, so you can decide if it's a good investment.

In 4 - 6 weeks I can confidently rank a low competitive keyword and have it in the top 3 in Google. The more competition, the harder the task and the longer it takes and the bigger budget you need.

 

Hello everyone! 22nd December 2022 11:16 AM

A very belated welcome aboard. 

I love Newark, lived there for a few years and have good friends there. As for me, running round like a headless chicken and clearly not spending any attention on the forum!

Stacey’s sparkles cleaning service 24th October 2022 11:01 AM

Hi Stacey, all listings are manually approved and this is normally done within 2 business days. You listed your business on the 10 Oct and it went live on the 12 Oct. The good news is you have 12 months, not 6, and after that you can choose to continue or revert to a free listing.

cheers
Steve

Hi guys 24th October 2022 10:54 AM

You win the cute website award 

Congrats on the new business and welcome to the roller coaster journey! What advice are you after?

aliexpress.com 24th October 2022 10:52 AM

Sorry Andy, your post was stuck in the admin moderator queue 

I thought you would already be an engraving guru based on your Pewter World stuff. 

Welcome aboard 

Employee management? 23rd September 2022 12:17 PM
There is no way to reeducate employees with a bad and negative attitude. Grown-up people manage their emotions in mature way.”
 

That's a bit harsh. A bad and negative attitude is normally a symptom of stress or unhappiness somewhere else. Everyone has to deal with seismic events in their life at some point, and everyone has a story. How people deal with these situations can vary and the most diligent professional employee can fall apart, whilst another would carry on quietly and you would be none the wiser. There's no right or wrong, just a facility to support people if required, or ask questions if the behavior is unusual.

But there are always the Victor Meldrews of the world, which will suck the life force out of you, in which case a decent induction and probation period should weed them out!