📈 Startup and up and up

Is Google manipulating us with its search results?

Sure, many online platforms use algorithms to manipulate us into buying stuff. But does Google do it by secretly altering our search queries?

During Google’s ongoing antitrust case, a projection screen briefly showed a slide about changes to its search algorithm.

Former DuckDuckGo executive Megan Gray was in attendance and, in an opinion piece for Wired, said it involved “semantic matching” to generate more shopping-oriented results.

Semantic matching…

… makes sense: If you type “feline,” you also get results for “cat.” But Gray’s example of what Google may be doing isn’t simply swapping synonyms:

• You search for “children’s clothing.”
• Google changes it to “NIKOLAI-brand kidswear.”
• Now that your search is more related to shopping, ads from various retailers pop up, earning Google money if you click on them.

Ultimately, searchers get worse results, advertisers pay Google more, and Google makes more money.

Gray wrote that in the decades she’s monitored Google for manipulated results, it never occurred to her that “Google just flat out deletes queries and replaces them with ones that monetize better.”

Why it matters

Google has long maintained that its search results are objective, autonomous, and not altered by humans. However, a 2019 Wall Street Journal investigation found that Google:

• Made algorithmic changes that favor big advertisers like eBay and major websites like Amazon and Facebook.
• Adjusted autocomplete suggestions, “featured snippets,” and other info — sometimes to hide controversial topics.
• Blacklisted certain sites (and not just those required by law).

And if Google Search isn’t objective…

… it’s left users with little choice. Google holds 90%+ of the search engine market share and comes as the default search on Apple products.

Earlier this week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified in Google’s trial that advertisers and publishers cater to Google’s requirements, making it harder for other search engines — like Microsoft’s Bing — to compete.

“Everybody talks about the open web, but there is really the Google web,” he said.

BTW: This scenario is a prime example of “enshittification,” the term coined by Cory Doctorow to describe why digital platforms suck now. Read his related thread here.

How would you sell Foam Party Hats?

With Halloween creepin’ up quick, we thought you’d appreciate this harmless product’s holiday potential.

Grace and Manuel showed up on “Shark Tank” with the kind of festive headgear that makes parties, proms, and parades way more on-theme.

The top selling point of Foam Party Hats is full-scale customization — so you can ask for fruit-basket sun hats, ‘80s-style wigs, or the head of your home-team mascot.

But is SEO or B2B the best way to make more sales? We debate distribution strategy on the Another Bite podcast — live from INBOUND.

Google launched its new phones — the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro — and Pixel Watch 2. Its updated Android 14 operating system will enable new features on the phones, including AI-powered photo-editing tools and an updated Google Assistant.

Chicken wars: Popeyes surpassed KFC for the second-place spot in the US chicken chain rankings. Chick-fil-A remains on top. KFC has lost footing in the US, where its market share fell to 11.3% in the last year.

Hyundai will begin using North American Charging Standard ports in its electric vehicles in the US and Canada. The move will give its drivers access to 12k Tesla Superchargers and double the size of Hyundai’s current charging network.

Uhh: Jaswant Singh Chail has been sentenced to nine years in prison for treason, the UK’s first such case in 40+ years, over his attempted assassination of Queen Elizabeth II in 2021. Prosecutors claimed Replika’s AI companion chatbot had encouraged then 19-year-old Chail’s plan.

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky revealed the company will expand to long-term rentals, which could help it regain ground in NYC, where stays shorter than 30 days carry new regulations. The company is also considering car rentals and dining pop-ups.

The brackets are in: It’s like March Madness, but for sad people — the IRS announced its new federal income tax brackets for the 2023 tax year. Income thresholds and standard deductions were raised for each bracket.

PayPal is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that its anti-steering rules, designed to limit how customers may be directed to make purchases, stifle competition and cost consumers more.

The post-pandemic startup surge

It turns out people were starting much more than sourdough during covid — some were actually founding businesses.

New research published in the journal Brookings Papers on Economic Activity suggests that the pandemic fueled a surge in American businesses, ranging from restaurants to tech startups.

While the pandemic changed the way we live and work overnight, it also unearthed opportunities for hungry entrepreneurs:

• Trillions of dollars distributed by the federal government for pandemic assistance gave some folks the much-needed capital to finally start their business and hire employees.
• The work-from-home movement spurred new consumer and business needs.
• The Great Resignation freed workers up to leave large corporations for small new businesses.

All of these socioeconomic changes have created new opportunities for nimble entrepreneurs, who can pivot quicker than larger corporations.

Their scrappiness has seemingly paid off

Monthly applications for new businesses — which, in turn, create new jobs — are over 30% higher than they were in 2019.

As of August, there were 466k+ new US business applications.

And that’s all good news: The paper’s researchers say this could mean “a revival of business dynamism.”

It’s a big deal…

… because prior studies show that startup activity has been declining for decades.

But this new paper suggests that the pandemic might’ve actually broken these trends.

One caveat: It’s likely too early to know for sure whether the entrepreneurial surge will continue.

Welcome to Weekend Reads

There probably won’t be a quiz in Monday’s newsletter about this collection of the week’s best, but do you really want to chance it? Catch up here…

• Tweet: Same angst, but cozier.
• Chart: Americans are weirdly apathetic about one of the world’s biggest athletic competitions.
• Story: How Etsy became a financial lifeline for Ukrainian artists.
• Video: Can a company “own” a color?

📸 On this day: In 2010, Instagram was released on Apple’s App Store. Facebook purchased the company for $1B in 2012.

🪑 That’s cool: Fill 3D is an AI tool for visualizing what furniture or art would look like in a room.

📚 That’s interesting: The story of America’s first banned book, Thomas Morton’s New English Canaan.

✏️ Cure boredom: With Tic-Tac-Toe.

🐐 Aww: One of these things is not like the others.