Welcome back to digital creator. My name is Dylan Schmidt. If it is your first time listening to this podcast, you're in store because, I've been switching things up recently on the topics I cover within this podcast. And if you are a return listener for digital creator, welcome back. Thanks for listening to another episode, and, I'm gonna continue on what I was doing previously in covering 3 topics that I think are relevant to digital creators, today, I got a good episode planned for you. So we're gonna be talking about Notion, the library Wiki tool. They just launched a new standalone calendar app. We're gonna be talking about Apple Vision Pro. It's coming, and influencers are posting more and more about it. And then we're gonna be talking about a new study which has proved Google search results are getting much worse. It's a really interesting study out of Germany. I'm glad you're here. Sit back, relax. Unless you're driving, pay close attention. Or if you're working out, make sure your form is good, and, let's dive in. So Notion launched a stand alone calendar app. If you haven't been following their marketing, which, let's be honest, probably a lot of people aren't. They have been doing a countdown on their Instagram. They deleted all of the previous posts on their feed, and then they just had a countdown going to, like, the big day, which was today or yesterday when you're hearing this episode. And everyone was speculating what it was gonna be. On the Notion subreddit, people were like they actually found someone typed in, like, a URL, or they found, like, a glitch that said a mention of the Notion calendar, and then it sparked naturally, like, on the Internet. It does. Bunch of people were like, that can't just be it. It can't just be a calendar. I'm sure there's way more going on. People were basically saying all these things that they wish Notion did, and there were some, like, wild ideas floating around of what it could be, but the general vibe within the Notion subreddit was it can't just be a calendar. Like, that's not big enough to delete or archive all of your posts on your Instagram and create, like, this hubbub as they say, around just a calendar, well, turns out it is just a calendar, which, you know, it's exciting for some is not exciting for others. But this is a stand alone calendar app from Notion. Now if you're not familiar with Notion, which I meet people that are kind of familiar with it, it's a project management tool, note storage tool, it's kinda like Evernote if you're familiar with that. I'm a big fan of it. I have basically built my life in Notion now. It's where I store everything. So I use my Apple notes app for, like, quick notes that I don't wanna reference, but I use Notion for repeatable things like chat g p t prompts. I have Podcast Academy built inside Notion, and it's like, it's my everything. So when they announced today or yesterday when you're hearing this, when they announced the calendar app, I was like, okay. I mean, how much better can a calendar be? Because I like my tools simple, and that's one of the things I really like about Notion is how simple it is. It's easy to just do a couple clicks to get to what I wanna get to, and that's really important to me. So when I saw it was calendar, I was like, Okay. I'll download it. I must have seen it right after they launched it because within a couple minutes of them posting about it is when I downloaded it, and there were some issues that I had launching it. So I had to remove it from my computer. But I at least got to poke around in there a little bit before I closed it, and then it just wouldn't reopen. So I was like, you know what? It's nothing I'm seeing here that is gonna make me need to hop on this right now. I can revisit this later. So I will revisit, you know, a deeper dive when things kind of smooth out, because it seemed a little rough there at launch. From what I can tell, the general, you know, vibe around the the reception of them watching the calendar app seems pretty lackluster. People are not that excited about, just another calendar app. There's already a lot of competition in that space. The whole productivity space in general, there's so many apps, people have their preferences on doing things. I'm starting to come to the conclusion. I've just started using Apple Reminders, which is, you know, in free app if you have Apple Devices. It Apple apps just work really well within the Apple ecosystem, if you're doing, like, more solo stuff. And so, like, Apple Reminders works great. Apple Calendar works great. It syncs easily across the board. And so to use something like Notion calendar, if you're not an Apple user, maybe if you're like, you know, Windows. Or if you're working in a team setting, it makes sense. But to add on this and to give more context of why Notion launched calendar is they acquired Kron or Kron, I think it is, which was, as they put it, a smartly designed calendar app. They acquired that company in 2022. So Notion calendar is like the next gen version of Chrome, and they have you know, looking at the article here, which I'll link below, has Calendly like scheduling tools, and a deep but optional Notion integration. So if you're already a Notion user, it makes a lot of sense to, you know, maybe poke around with Notion calendar. But if you're not a Notion user, I don't see why them watching something like Notion calendar would be, you know, the tipping point for you to hop in because right away, at least, you know, on day 1, it seems rather straightforward. Now I watched the product launch video, and there was something that was pretty cool about it. And this is, again, more geared towards people that are already, like, a fan of Notion and already have, you know, stuff being kind of built out in Notion like I do, which is you create pages for everything in Notion. Right? You create a new page and then a page within a page, and pretty much that's how how you start building out your library. Now with your calendar with Notion calendar, you'll be able to attach your Notion docs, which is kind of like pages, and you'll start being able to have notes from your meetings be its own page, which is kind of interesting. It's kinda like if you, you know, were using, like, Zoom and then or you're using Google Calendar, I should say better. And then, you know, you had notes on a a call, like, say, a Zoom call or whatever, but then you had to have the Google Doc and then share it with the people, all that stuff. So I think there'll be easier integrations in the future. But right now, I don't know. To me, it seems like it's, not that exciting or useful, but it's got a lot of marketing buzz around it. There's a lot of, like, productivity experts that had early access to Notion calendar. So, you know, they were publishing about it. And as soon as it was announced, they're like, the YouTube videos are out. If you type in Notion calendar in YouTube right now, you'll see a whole bunch of people explaining how this changes everything, which does it it's a calendar. There's only so many ways you can use a calendar. And just like all productivity tools, you know, are they making you more productive, or are you, like, managing the tool instead of the tool helping you do what you wanna do more effortlessly. That's how I look at all this. I'm excited to use it if it is a helpful addition to my life, but if it's not, then I'll just stick to what's working because Apple calendar is just fine. Next up is Apple Vision Pro is launching in February, which is pretty exciting. And whenever it was announced, like, right after Apple announced Apple Vision Pro. I hopped on this podcast. I recorded an episode. It got a good amount of views on YouTube, and I find this product to be really interesting as someone in marketing and content. It's like anything Apple does, I pay attention to how they're doing it. I pay attention to, you know, like, what they're doing, not just the product and being in a consumer mode of wanting to buy the thing that they're buying, which I'm susceptible because I could be aware of what they're doing in the marketing, and sometimes I can still fall for the marketing. And next thing I know, I buy more than I maybe would have. So it's not like I'm immune to anything just because I work in marketing. Maybe you feel the same way. So with Apple Vision Pro, it's really interesting to see the release of a new product. And if you're not paying attention to it, I highly suggest watching what they're doing because it's not too often we see a brand new device being rolled out. We got it with, you know, the iPad. It was, like, 10,000 songs or whatever in your pocket. Steve Jobs said that. And then with, you know, everything Apple launches, it's like innovative. It's new. That's how they market it. But with a completely new product like the Apple Vision Pro, I find it fascinating just because the adoption period. Right? If people adopt it, it'll take off. With the iPad, it still hasn't had that mass adoption as much as, like, the iPhone or the Apple Watch or the AirPods. The iPad, for example, people will buy it, but sometimes it's just like a larger phone. They don't you know, it doesn't have exactly a specific use case. I bought multiple Ipads, and I don't know how to incorporate them in my life. And at this point, I'm just like, you know what? I don't really need 1. So I'll sell it, and I'll sometimes come across like, oh, it'd be nice to, like, draw out something. So I'll get an iPad, and I'll use it for a little bit, and then it just kind of dies, and I go, oh, I forgot to charge it and when I wanna use it. So I have to wait, and then I kind of forget. So with the Apple Vision Pro, a couple days ago, influencers were posting about it. They got the okay from Apple to be allowed to post about it. So Marcus Brownlee was posting it, and they were basically all posting a similar picture where they got to demo the Apple Vision Pro. And they were, like, sitting I'm not it looks like they were all in the same room, but it was, like, the same lighting, the same couch, you know, similar setup, but it was a very controlled demo from Apple for these influencers. And a lot of people had comments about, you know, this is all controlled. Like, they didn't get to give it didn't feel like they got to give their honest impressions. And, you know, what's it like when you're in a dark room? All these, like, factors into everyday use, like, we're not quite seeing. With that being said, it's, like, interesting how they controlled even the aspect of these influencers demoing the product, which is just fascinating. And I find the product itself so fascinating because we as creators are gonna have to adapt to new technology. And with Apple Vision Pro, like I said when it was first announced, is I really believe that it's going to change podcasting and make it more immersive, which is a good thing. And in one of the press release articles, they talked about how, you know, you'll be able to listen to podcasts and you can set the scene that you're in. For example, you could be under the stars in Yosemite listening to your favorite podcast. And, you know, as creators, we just have to think about our content in different formats. With podcasts, a lot of people are listening while they're doing something. People like to listen to podcast while they work, while they drive, while they work out, while they clean. And it's another thing to just, like, chill out and listen to a podcast and creating content with that in mind. You know, I talk about if you're creating a podcast that's aimed towards busy entrepreneurs, it's probably not the most ideal to have, like, a 3 hour plus podcast if that's, like, your target demographic because they won't have the time for that versus if you're doing a comedy podcast that's not specifically trying to target that audience. So you might be better off doing something shorter. But with something like Apple Vision Pro, there's a huge opportunity to make something that's specifically for that. Now when Apple Vision Pro launches, I believe it's limited to, like, 80,000 units or something for the first, you know, this year. But this is version 1. You know, there's already gripes people have about it being heavier than they would like. There's already gripes about, you know, having a battery pack and a cable. And a lot of people who are much smarter than I am in the tech community are saying this is basically like a developer kit for this 1st generation Apple product. And I, you know, haven't paid as close attention when Apple rolls out a brand new product. But from what I've read, it seems like a similar thing where past products were released. The very first one was for the people that were hardcore into developing, coding, you know, engineering, and then the next release was more consumer friendly. It might be why they came out with Apple Vision Pro instead of just Apple Vision. You know, we might see an Apple Vision as a speculation. We might see an Apple Vision come down the line, that's cheaper. But this pro version is running $35100 at the start, and because it's only 80,000 units, it's gonna sell out fast. And then, you know, the price only goes up from there as far as, like, the secondary market. Right? So all interesting stuff to post. It's interesting to see how Apple is controlling the image of this product, and it will be interesting to see once it's actually in the hands of people who don't have any ties to being an apples good graces. What they say, what the problems are. And, I'm excited for Apple Vision Pro, but I'm more excited to see what happens with the next model that they release, the next generation of Apple Vision, because I think that there is a huge market there once it gets dialed in more because Apple, you know, they pour resources into this stuff, and they don't have the hugest product line. And so it'll be interesting to see how they, you know, adapt with this new gear in their own ecosystem. It's exciting times as both a a creator, a consumer, a marketer, to be living. It's exciting times to be alive during all this stuff. Would you agree? Last thing we're talking about today is a new study proves Google search results are getting worse. Now this was a big article from Mashable. So I'm gonna read a bit of a summary of the article because this is pretty interesting, and I'm gonna butcher some words that I'm gonna say in here. I'll just give you that warning. So the search results indicate that a study by German researchers from Leipzig University, Bauhaus University, Weimar, and the Center for scalable data analytics and AI examine 7,392 product review queries curious, on Google being in DuckDuckGo for a year. The researchers found that there was a significant amount of low quality content, particularly for product searches, which drowns out useful information. They also discovered a prevalence SEO product review spam in the search results. The study revealed that spam sites are highly prevalent and often appear at the top of Google rankings, leading to a constant battle between the sites and the search engine. Despite efforts to take down spam, the researchers stated that there is only a temporary positive fact. So basically, what we're seeing here is there's a bunch of AI generated spam out there that's making it for harder for SEO, you know, people that are interested in boosting their own websites, through s e o best practices and people are just out there spamming AI generated content. And it's basically AI generated content battling it out with each other. And the everyday person that's maybe trying to authentically create content, maybe thinks that they have an option and even, you know, battling with these AI generated websites. It's becoming increasingly harder, and you're just gonna be seeing more and more of a drop. And Google does updates saying that, you know, they are working on it. They're looking for more quality content, and they have all these updates that they do where they're they want people to use Google search. And so that's like a core part of Google and they need the search results to be good. But as this study points out, AI generated content is making that hard. And it's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out over the next, you know, few years, particularly because how much can Google do? You know? We can obviously tell when something is AI written, but how many websites are out there and how can you stop all these websites? It's just like AI images. Like, some of them look so real. It's not the person's fault for, you know, thinking something is real at this point depending on the context of which they view the image because it looks so real. And with these AI generated websites, it's like they are signaling to Google that they're this trustworthy website that this article is exactly what, you know, the person who searched for the thing wants to see and it's not having a good effect overall on the quality of search results. I don't know about you, but I'll Google things now just to see kind of how it compares to if I ask ChatouchBT because I want, like, maybe some links and I want more than just what, like, AI can give me. Also, I don't totally trust AI's responses sometimes. And a lot of the websites I get are just like these it seems like AI generated. It's kind of hard to tell, but they're like these perfectly formatted articles that highlight all the keywords, but it's missing a certain it's missing a certain quality to it that doesn't make me go, that's better than Chat g b t. It makes me go, that's the same result I could have got with Chat GbT just formatted on a website. You know what I mean? It's not better then Chatibit is just visually different. And I think that's just what we're gonna see more and more of for myself, and I'm not an SEO expert. I've had SEO people on this podcast, but for myself, I'm not in the SEO game. I just publish, articles here and there, and, you know, I could do more, but, you know, that's just not where I'm putting, like, my time and energy. But I still have I think I have, like, 500 plus visitors to my website each month, is last I checked. And I just, you know, have a routine of publishing my newsletter as a blog there, and I have this podcast which is in a subdomain. I don't you know, I try to, like, rank for certain keywords related to my services, but I'm not going as hard as some of these people are. I've looked at some people on Twitter that they have these you know, they're, like, coders or engineers or developers. I don't know what the label is, but they have these things set up where they can just pump out thousands of blogs, you know, over the course of a week. And you type in your keyword, and it will give you 500 blogs around that keyword. And then they'll set up, you know, some type of integration from that code or whatever they developed, and it will go to the website. So how are you gonna compete with someone that could produce 500 articles around a given keyword without having to do much work while, you know, we're over there if we're trying to create it organically. Now from what I've read from these people that are pumping out these AI generated blogs that are trying to rank the website, you know, they aren't concerned that all 500 of those articles are good. They're more concerned that, you know, a couple of them pop. It's like a numbers game to these people. And I don't know about you, but that's not, like, sustainable. It's gonna be interesting to see how much worse it gets and if Google can fix that problem, which I have low faith that they can. You know? It's it's how are you gonna how are you gonna do it? There's people that say, oh, we'll put codes in AI images or the text and things like that, but there's text cleaners. There's always ways around these restrictions that things like Google or TikTok or whatever. There's people always out there focused on getting around these restrictions, and it'll be no different now that the AI can of worms is open. That wraps up this episode of digital creator. If you enjoyed the show and this new format, it would mean the world to me if you'd leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app. Anything else you need, just feel free to hit me up on Instagram or join the creator club where we have fun live weekly discussions. You can look at the creator club as, like, your digital support community because being a digital creator is tough doing it alone. And you don't have to do it alone. You can join a community of like minded people like myself. I'm there every week facilitating the calls. It's a lot of fun, and I would love to invite you to join us. Alright. I will talk to you next