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A Fresh Perspective on Search, Ranch Dressing & Water Bottles

A chaotic grab bag of observations on a few different trends this week. Plus, ranch dressing.

Author

Cameron Huppertz
January 19, 2024

Google Lament 

404 Media (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite digital publishers btw) ran a piece this week about a new study of search engine results quality. I was very much not shocked to learn that Google is objectively worse now. The study calls out the prevalence of lower quality, overly SEO-optimized results ranking high on Google. I’ve definitely felt this as a Google user over the past few years, but I’ve realized my creeping mild dissatisfaction with Google Search was a frog in boiling water situation. 

Last weekend, I switched my default search engine to DuckDuckGo. For some searches, there isn’t a huge difference, but I’m not running into what I call “search scavenger hunts” as often. You know when you 100% know an article or fact has been published somewhere, but Google just isn’t bringing it up, and you have to keep modifying your search to triangulate a set of keywords that will actually deliver what you want. I’ll likely return to Google for certain categories of searches as I get a sense of what each Search Engine does best. But I’m really happy I changed things up and discovered I was missing out.  

So many of the digital platforms we use every day have now been around for a while. There’s a temptation to fall into old habits and just go with what we know. But good technology products aren’t static. They need frequent updates, iterations, and care to remain high quality. It’s easy to stick with what we know and never realize someone else might have built a better option for you. My experiments with Twitter alternatives this past year really opened my eyes to this. Bluesky’s ability to add custom feeds and algorithms to your experience vs. the one-size-fits-all approach to content curation on other platforms is wonderful. I’d love algorithm choice to be a bigger part of how all social networks work. 

If I Had to See It, So Do You

This unholy abomination is a real product. And it’s currently sold out. 

Also, did you know that both Hidden Valley and Burt’s Bees are owned by Clorox? 

Platform Updates

Instagram & Threads

The Rest of Meta 

TikTok

YouTube

Google 

Apple

Microsoft 

Amazon

Reddit

LinkedIn 

Twitter, Sorry X

The Product 

Twitter Alts 

On Stanley Cups

I get that I’m not the target market for it, but I’ve always struggled to understand the Stanley Cup thing. I love staying hydrated. I love a big water bottle. I love a trendy item. But I always recoiled a bit at the 40oz Stanleys. At first, I thought it was my contrarian impulse to dislike a popular thing because of its popularity. But it finally dawned on me the other day when I saw images of the OG Stanely water bottle. The trendy bottles are obviously designed for cars. It’s designed to fit in a cup holder. 

I get that most Americans rely on private cars for a lot of their transportation, but I’m lucky enough to live in an area with great public transit and walkability. I don’t own a car and haven’t for almost a decade. Something strange happens when you decouple cars from your life. You notice just how much society bends over backward to design for cars. Stanleys are just another one of those weird, “huh, that’s for cars, not me,” moments I notice from time to time. 

Culture Movers 

Film & TV

Publishing 

Creator Economy 

Gaming 

AI 

Housekeeping

Kinda Brief will be dark next week. I’ll be on vacation on a cruise with a big group of friends. Expect the next newsletter to drop in February. Bon voyage! 

PS

*I’m very dyslexic, and this is a largely free project/hobby. I do not set aside the same time for proofreading that I do for other professional work. If you spot a typo that would cause a communication error, please reach out to gently let me know.