Just got this from United. It's very strange ... I suppose they're trying to be sensitive to people whose parents have passed away.

But people struggle with various holidays, depending on their circumstances and family relationships. Will they offer this for Thanksgiving or Xmas?

Ask Maps, PoS Penalty, Short List, AIO Accuracy Ask Maps Is the Future I was recently in Oaxaca, Mexico for a short vacation with friends and posted on LinkedIn about some of my real-world experiences with Ask Maps, ChatGPT (with precise location)...

Latest @nearmedia.bsky.social newsletter now online: Ask Maps Is the Future, PoS Review Penalty, AI Short List, AIO Accuracy. www.nearmedia.co/ask-maps-pos...

Mark Zuckerberg offered to 'help' Elon Musk with DOGE in 2025 According to court documents, Mark Zuckerberg texted Musk approvingly about his work with the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Zuckerberg and Musk do battle for most odious tech leader. www.engadget.com/big-tech/mar...

The enshittification of Instagram: www.threads.com/@upasnagauta...?

This seems kind of irresponsible: futurism.com/future-socie...

Apple Maps Ads, OpenAI's Retreat, GBP Benchmarks, Socially Addictive Local Ads Coming to Apple Maps Apple will be launching local ads in Maps in the next few months, according to a report from Bloomberg. Apple Business Connect (soon Apple Business) listings must be cl...

Latest @nearmedia.bsky.social newsletter: Apple Maps Ads, OpenAI's Retreat, GBP Benchmarks, Socially Addictive www.nearmedia.co/apple-maps-a...

mine is "make it again"

Khosla is myopic and has a limited understanding of what's going on in the economy.

Attorneys Embrace AI, LSA Secrets, Lawyer Finding, Review Diversification The first issue of Near Media's new monthly legal marketing newsletter.

The new @nearmedia.bsky.social legal marketing newsletter: Attorneys Embrace AI, LSA Secrets, Lawyer Finding, Review Diversification. www.nearmedia.co/attorneys-em...

Google Slips, TikTok Local Feed, Ads Not AIOs, Social Media on Trial Google Review Dominance Slips Near Media behavioral and survey research has found repeatedly that, across categories, reviews are a/the top consumer-decision driver. And despite still-rampant fraud, ...

Here's the most recent @nearmedia.bsky.social newsletter: Google Reviews Slip, New TikTok Local Feed, Ads Not AIOs Are Killing Your Traffic, Social Media 'Addiction' on Trial www.nearmedia.co/google-slips/

Winning in 2026 Reviews Ai and the New Rules of Search Near Media’s new user-behavior research reveals what prospects really do before they click—how trust forms, reviews sway decisions, and AI is reshaping local search. Join us for actionable insights to...

Join @mikeblumenthal.bsky.social @davidmihm.bsky.social and me next Tuesday (Feb 24) for a webinar on our latest behavioral research: Winning in 2026: Reviews, AI, and the New Rules of Search. go.gatherup.com/winning-in-2...

Bad actors in the US gov't are trying to get info on critics from Google and Google is complying in some cases. Take my poll on how you might react if you were being targeted: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Local Pack Ads, Google Ka-Ching!, Claude Super Bowl Ads, AI Ankle-Biters Local Pack Ads Explosion As part of Google's increasingly aggressive monetization of the SERP, it's blurring the differences between ads and organic links at the top of the page. But it's also puttin...

The latest @nearmedia.bsky.social newsletter, Super Bowl edition. Local Pack Ads, Google Ka-Ching!, Claude Super Bowl Ads, AI Ankle-Biters www.nearmedia.co/local-pack-a...

Apple sales, profit beat Wall Street estimates amid 'staggering' iPhone demand Apple beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue on Thursday, powered by ​strong demand for its iPhones and a sharp rebound in China, with CEO Tim Cook telling Reuters that demand for ‌the lates...

Broken Siri and lack of AI capabilities don’t seem to have hurt Apple results: quarterly sales up 16% on ‘staggering’ iPhone demand www.reuters.com/business/app...

Local AI Study, AI Mode Onramp, G-Queries Down, Squandered Tech Trust Sign up for our new Legal Marketing Newsletter. Once a month, no fluff, just good ideas. Sign Up Report: It's 30x Harder to Show Up in Local AI SOCi's Local Visibility Index is now in i...

The latest @nearmedia.bsky.social newsletter: Local AI Visibility Study, AIO-->AI Mode, Daily Queries Decline, CEOs Squandered Tech Trust

Tim Cook’s delayed and bland response to events in Minnesota is not going to satisfy his critics. He’s going to need to accelerate his retirement.

EVs Just Outsold Gas Cars In Europe For The First Time Europe hit a historic milestone as EV sales surpassed gas cars for the first time, despite geopolitical headwinds.

This is the future and the United States is, dangerously, putting its head in the sand. US auto makers will wake up five years from now finding their market share disappearing. insideevs.com/news/785541/...

Scout: Yahoo's New AI 'Answer Engine' (First Look) Yahoo has been through a lot in the past 32 years. It dominated the internet for much of its early life, until being unseated by Google as the most visited US online destination in 2000. In 2008, Yah...

Yahoo launches new AI "answer engine" Scout, which offers a nice blend of AI and traditional search features. www.nearmedia.co/scout-yahoos...

Tesla sales continue to decline in California and Europe, its biggest markets. Yet the Tesla board clings to Elon Musk as though it has no choice. He’s not an asset he’s a liability.

Latest ChatGPT model uses Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as source, tests reveal Guardian found OpenAI’s platform cited Grokipedia on topics including Iran and Holocaust deniers

Increasing reliance on Musk’s propagandapedia might cause me to switch my usage from ChatGPT to Gemini. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Tim Cook's obsequious cozying up to Trump -- really true of the lot of them (maybe Nadella is the exception) -- has tainted his legacy and the Apple brand.

Agentic Shopping, GBP Agents, Gemini Share Surge, Siri-Google Deal Near Media is the go-to advisor for executives at multi-location brands and vertical agencies seeking to optimize their search strategy and tactics.

@nearmedia.bsky.social newsletter: Agentic Shopping, GBP Agents, Gemini Share Surge, Siri-Google Deal

www.nearmedia.co/agentic-shop...

Gemini Nano Banana is faster than ChatGPT, but ChatGPT produces consistently better images.

Looking Back at Local: 2025 Some of the biggest themes, developments and issues we talked about in 2025

From @nearmedia.bsky.social … a look back at local in 2025.
www.nearmedia.co/looking-back...

2026 Predictions: Tesla Will Acquire xAI As almost everyone in Silicon Valley has found out lately, creating AI is a money drain, and many of the biggest startups eager to do so aren’t profitable. That’s true even for the AI business run by ...

Because of Elon Musk's toxic politics, many people are rooting for Tesla to fail. But Tesla was and still is an important company. I would rather see it sold or Musk ousted. However Musk may try to merge Tesla with xAI for even greater control. www.theinformation.com/articles/pre...

ProPublica — Investigative Journalism and News in the Public Interest ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

I would encourage everyone so inclined to donate to ProPublica. They do old school investigative journalism at a time when many news organizations are turning into social media. www.propublica.org

Everything Elon Musk promised in 2025, but didn't deliver Musk is now infamous for his false promises, but even this is excessive.

Here’s a bitter but amusing article about Elon Musk‘s failed/false promises mashable.com/article/elon...

A movie that’s not explicitly an Xmas movie but is a better Xmas movie than almost all of them.

BREAKING: Here’s the 60 Minutes Segment Trump and CBS News Executives Don’t Want You to See Hours before it was set to air last night, CBS News executives pulled the segment, but Canada’s Global TV app received it prior to broadcast.

For those who are curious, here’s a link to the 60 Minutes segment that was pulled in the US but aired in Canada last night. www.thereset.news/p/breaking-h...

ChatGPT Local Results Now Feature a Knowledge Panel It appears when brand links or map buttons are clicked.

From @nearmedia.bsky.social: ChatGPT local results with Knowledge Panels. www.nearmedia.co/chatgpt-loca...