There is SO much going on in this state – especially in the Tech Sector!

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However, the difference between simply writing a press release, and trying to promote it by hand, or simple social media posting generally will not merit enough attention to make a difference – there is just too much “white noise” drifting through the free channels – and without commercial, controlled distribution networks, there is very little return on your effort. While it may show that a business is active to those that know the company,  the messages gets “lost” when trying to reach an new audience – which is the primary target for marketing.

It’s not like the audience is shrinking – according to a recent Pew Research Center study, the share of Americans who prefer to get their news online is growing rapidly – at least 34% of U.S. Adults preferred to get their news online, and may soon surpass television as the most popular  preference. While social media is still a driving force is delivering some of the news, Americans are skeptical of the information found on social media – a majority (57%) say that they expect the news found on social media to lie largely inaccurate. So how can a business owner effectively announce news about their brand or get a message out, with these handicaps?

To be successful, a press release must be tailored to stand out amid a media environment teeming with competing messages. When the attention span of consumers has been reduced to split seconds, timing is everything. With a solid PR strategy in place to support a well-timed press release, your company can still be very successful in drawing new attention to your name, brand or product.

For your Press Release to make a difference, here are four tips and some advice from Digital Warlock.

1. In accordance to your announcement or news – research the key phrases and trending interests and try in incorporate this into your news announcements. Your press releases needs to be actual news or events – not just an advertorial, or a vanity puff piece talking about how amazing your product or services are. It needs to be written to engage the audience in the trending topics of the day AND convert your message at the same time. The editors who choose whether or not to feature your story in their publication are doing so to attract, pacify, or draw readers – so if your story is not interesting or relevant, you will get far less coverage and distribution – or less priority placement.

2. An effective release also has be scheduled for the best possible coverage. Your PR manager or provider should make every effort to closely track what is trending in the media. Timing your press release to coincide with trending topics can help leverage your message dramatically and make it more “newsworthy.” Adopting this strategy enhances your chances of getting the attention and coverage you desire. After many years of sending releases and gauging performance, Digital Warlock has found that Monday through Wednesday appear to be the most effective three days for distributing press releases, with several indicating Tuesday wins out as the day with the highest likelihood of getting clicks on your pressers. Depending on the subject of your release, this can vary, but in general, this method of timing properly and monitoring other current news releases has proven to amplify the quantity of editors that elect to cover a story.

3. Make your Release Interactive and Interesting by adding images, links, and videos.  Yes, it is true – even press releases have modernized and become increasingly more interactive. By including videos and links to additional resources that can better support the topic of your press release and add value to its message, your organization could have a much greater chance of successfully attracting the right people. Modern press releases are rapidly morphing into a more interactive and engaging type of media event. The most effective press releases are reaching their target audiences sooner and more effectively by integrating these visuals and links.

4. If you are going to invest your time in drafting and sending out a press release, then invest in commercial and accountable distribution networks. The phrase “you get what you pay for” apply to all marketing, including the use of news media distribution. The whole point of a news release is to announce your story to not only the people and customers who already know you, but more importantly, to the people who are NOT your customers YET, who do NOT YET KNOW YOU. And to do this, you should send your news through well known, well documented news distribution networks with a very well documented following – such as the Associated Press, PR Newswire, or CISION.  These networks have a very wide reach, and for a small fee, can expand your reach by topic or industry, state wide, nationally, or even globally with a 24 period.

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In addition, if done properly by a experienced agent, you can also receive a full documented report of the media outlets that covered your story with complete links to those media sites with 48 hours. This allows a business to see the results of their release, capture the links where their news appeared – and showcase the coverage on a “As Seen On” section of the business website, as well as show the news coverage on their social media channels.

With a good public relations or promotional agent, a business can build a scheduled news release structure that will provide great benefits to the digital marketing footprint of an online business. Not every press release needs to be the most expensive and national coverage – the most effective can be a mix of lower cost release and 1 or 2 national releases of the course of a year. These releases should be written well, and over 600-800 words, with at least one photo or logo, direct links to the services or products showcases, phone numbers, and a media contact that editors can reach out to if they want to do a follow up up story. Each story submitted in the proper can also result in 150-200 news websites connecting their site to the business, providing not only great exposure and credibility, but higher domain authority links that have a significant boosting impact on a business SEO ranking score as well.

Let Digital Warlock, a experienced writer and distributor of Associated Press releases for over 22 years, help you craft your stories and message – and create your own online news cycle that will help you meet your next clients.

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The Past Google Deal

If you did a web search by typing your query into the integrated Safari bar, that search will (unless you manually changed the default) be carried out on Google. That’s because Google paid Apple a multi-billion dollar sum each year for the privilege. For Apple, it was a worthwhile sum even by its standards, and it was almost pure profit. For Google, it got search traffic from a  dedicated Apple audience – a very valuable demographic. The deal made financial sense for both sides. But not for the other search engines – and potentially their users, the public at large. That’s why the U.S Department of Justice recently ruled this deal to be a monopolistic abuse of Google’s dominant position in search.

The Myth of an Apple Search Engine

For years, many have thought Apple has been seeking to replace the Google payment revenue, and actually greatly improve on it in Apple fashion, by fully integrated their very own Search Engines in their walled garden of Apple Services.  The indications were there – The company has already been indexing the web using Applebot for around a decade now – initially for Siri, and more recently to train Apple Intelligence. So many business analysts predicted that Apple was already starting the process of developing such as a service, since it already has the data, and of course, has the necessary resources to potentially build a better search engine than Google, with Apple’s distinct style flair, and adherence to User Privacy.

Definitely an Undertaking – It may not be worth it

One of the key elements, would be that of User Data Privacy – and while Google has been lambasted for its practices regarding privacy over the years,  all of the data derived from people’s prior web searches have given it a strong advantage in delivering relevant results, even if peppered with Sponsored Ads. Creating a search engine is a serious process – and Apple may be hesitant to invest in such an endeavor right now. Apple absolutely would not want to deliver a subpar service, nor risk being criticizing for violating user privacy – and would not take any steps that might damage its brand by affiliation.

The only potential way it could make sense is to use it as a way to further enhance the ecosystem, by implementing search in a privacy-focused way, without worrying too much about ad revenue. But that’s financially risky. Not only would Apple incur substantial costs in building and operating its own search engine, but we don’t even know whether search engines in their current form have a future.  Investing billions in re-creating Google makes even less sense at a time when Apple might find itself re-inventing a technology that’s on the verge of being made obsolete by Artificial Intelligence guided search – a completely different business model than Google is currently pursuing.

The $20 billion+ in revenue from Google may seem like a hefty sum, but from Apple’s perspective, it may not be enough to tip the scales. While it was significant pure profit coming in, the potential for loss in what is a rapidly changing search ecosystem – may just be too much risk for Apple to jump into becoming its own search provider anytime soon.

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Google, of course, disagrees with this decision, and has indicated that it will be appealing this decision.  But given the possible final ruling, maybe it’s time to consider how dependent many have become on Google Search, and possibly consider some worthy alternatives. In 2024, we don’t have “google” anything – there are quite a few good options to choose from, some with some serious privacy benefits.

Why change from Google Search?

Google has been the premiere search engine for some time now, because it’s fast, easy to use, and integrates heavily with other Google Apps, such as YouTube, Gmail, and Google Docs. Due to partnerships with Samsung and Apple, the Google Search Engine has become the default option on most mobile devices.  Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., paid Apple $20 billion in 2022, for example, to make Google Search the default search engine for the Apple Safari browser on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This is where the Justice Department’s argument for a monopoly begins.

In addition, Google has decades of documented privacy concerns, personal data mining, and search results that aren’t always what you are actually looking for.  As a result, Google probably knows more about you than any other company, with the exception of social media platforms that we willingly upload every detail of our lives,  and it uses that knowledge to serve you the ads it thinks you are more likely to click on.

With this incredible amassing of your personal data, Google wields incredible power – and has become the target of lawsuits in both the U.S. and European Union for that very reason. These concerns have been very public, and it shows – some of the most recent popular search trends show a rapid interest in privacy protection, and Google Search alternatives.

What Search Engines prioritize User Privacy?

One of the oldest privacy-focused Search Engines is DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo was founded on the premise that relevant search results DO NOT require an exchange of Persoanl Data. DuckDuckGo does not track user searches, and does not store your data to build a profile on the user. The search interface is very clean and straightforward, and it presents the results with clear listings, with filters for region, data, and other criteria.

DuckDuckGo also offers easily filtered searches for news, images, video and other types of results, similar to Google,  but with privacy being the key focus of the engine. It even provides a paid upgrade to gain access to a built-in VPN, and to remove older personal information from data broker sites that sell your info, and also identify identity  theft restoration, if you need it.

Brave Search is another privacy-focused search engine option. Coming from the innovative creators of the privacy-focused Brave web browser, Brave Search claims “unmatched privacy.” Using the EFF’s Cover Your Tracks Tools, Brave was found to be the most private browser, so the claim has some weight behind it. Brave gets its results both from its own web crawling index and “anonymous API calls to third parties.” Brave now gives you a choice of AI-powered or standard web results via its Answer With AI button. A Discussions section on the result page features content from Reddit and the like. Finally, Brave’s Goggles feature lets you filter your results with parameters like No Celebrity content or News from the Left or Right.

The downsides of using private search engines are minimal;  without any personalized tracking, these engines results may be slightly less relevant to you personally. With this less invasive approach, these engines are seeing massive growth and adoption over the past few years.

What’s the most attractive or Visual based Search Engine?

If you are looking for visual and eye-popping results, you may want to consider Bing.  Microsoft’s search engine  prioritizes high-quality imagery, videos, and adds pop-up tools, and visual aids into its results pages. The layout is somewhat traditional, but it has more of a Instagram or Pinterest feel when displaying images and videos.

Bing promotes search suggestions and offers larger previews of news stories, Wikipedia entries, and other results front and center.

Bing also was one of the very first search engines to embrace Artificial Intelligence, and gives access to Microsoft’s Copilot AI to help answer questions and pull data from the web, providing summaries of topics front and center.

Bing does not promise the same privacy protection as DuckDuckGo or Brave, as it also gathers data that links to your Microsoft account, to allow it to personalize results and present ads.

What about Yahoo!?

Yahoo and Google were once involved in a long and heated search engine competition, but those days are long gone. Yahoo!  is still one of the most-visited sites on the internet, and its search is still powerful. Powered primarily by Bing, the results are similar to what you’ll see on Microsoft’s search site, which means they’re pretty good.

You might wonder why you’d use Yahoo! at all if it leverages Bing, and that’s a great question. Yahoo! isn’t just a search engine, of course; all of the added features and tools are the real draw here.  Yahoo! is kind of like Facebook versus Instagram, and is still a one-stop shop for many internet users who aren’t keen on the Google ecosystem.  But Yahoo! Search has become somewhat dated – and gets few updates and regular changes.

Does anyone still use AOL Search? of Ask?

AOL  is still alive and kicking as a favorite search engine of its prior users, though under the same company as Yahoo!, and nowhere near its old glory days either. Its interface is slick and clean, like Yahoo!’s, with an option to filter potentially offensive results. The image search filters are top-notch but not as good as Google’s. Privacy is not its strong suit, though; location and activity tracking are turned on by default, so be sure to toggle those off if you want to fly under the radar.

Older internet users can probably remember when Ask Jeeves, now known as Ask.com, was an amazing search engine, and ahead of its time.  Today,while it’s not nearly as revolutionary as it was two decades ago, it’s still worth considering as a stand-in for Google. This search engine works best when you ask a question but produces results like other search engines in an instantly familiar list format.  It does occasionally produce a completely random search result that is prioritized higher than relevance – this seems to be due to farming its search functions to third party providers that can heavily seed the search results with paid placements.

What are some of the newer interesting Alternatives to Google Search?

Here are three specific niche sites that you can use to begin a web search – each with a different unique approach.

Sustainability focused Search site Ecosia plants trees in environmentally sensitive areas when you use it, and it promises to protect your privacy.

Giburu is another new alternative that prioritizes privacy. According to Gibiru, there is no activity tracking, ads or agenda to follow you around the internet.

And if you are seeking an emotionally connected search, take a look at UK-based Mojeek. It claims that it doesn’t track you or sell your data, but the really interesting part is that it lets you search based on an emotion. Type in your query and click on an emoji-like icon such as a heart for “love,” a laughing face for “haha,” and a surprised face for “wow,” among others. It’s interesting but still super-niche, and it looks like an early iteration of an idea versus something worth switching to right now.

When considering alternatives to Google Search, these options are a great place to start. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and may have a specific reason to appeal to you, the user. In 2024, there are many options – and it really depends on each users personal preferences.

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Meet Perplexity, You.com, and Andi

Perplexity makes searching feel more like having a conversation. Instead of simply returning a series of links and leaving you to scan through and review ranking results, it generates actual answers. It’s a great tool for doing specific research because its ability to understand context and provide follow-up information makes using it similar to natural dialogue. There is a free version that works fine for basic searching, but the $20 per month Pro subscription offers more detailed results, additional AI models, file analysis, and monthly API credits.

You.com focuses on a customizable search experience where you can prioritize results from specific sources like news sites or academic journals. If you provide the site some information about yourself when you first sign up,  it will not only be able to tailor search results to your personality but learn more about your interests as you continue to use it. This Engine also offers both a free and $20 per month Pro version, and each provides access to the internet and real-time responses with citations. The Pro version offers additional advanced capabilities and customization options, including the ability to choose from a laundry list of popular AI models.

Andi is by far the friendliest entry on the list here. It’s great for breaking complex topics down into quick, easy to understand answers. It does this by leveraging 3 features – Read, Summarize, and Explain. Read is an ad-free, clean article viewer; Summarize is a quick breakdown of key points; Explain chunks complicated topics into simpler explanations. Andi is completely free to use with no paid version. The company makes commissions from affiliate links on product searches, though you can opt out if you like.

These new entries into the world of search are just getting started – and there are a few bugs, as the software continues to development. AI being the backbone for the mechanics of each lends great power and speed, but there are still issues with relevance and how the data is interpreted at times.

Interestingly enough,  when you optimize sites for the current Search Engines via Optimization, these engines see the immediate results as well – SEO is actually greatly enhanced by these AI new comers – they simply read, sort, and interpret the data faster and cleaner.

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