Tessera
Folgen

Sarah Frier

@sarahfrier.bsky.social

In charge of big tech coverage at Bloomberg Author of NO FILTER: The Inside Story of Instagram Email me at sfrier1 at Bloomberg dot net

40 Posts21628 Follower135 Folgt
Davey Alba@davey.bsky.social · 8mo ago

NEW: AI “recipe slop” is overrunning search and social. Food creators say Google’s AI Overviews and glossy fake food pics are drowning out real, tested recipes — collapsing traffic and setting home cooks up for disaster, especially this Thanksgiving. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet -- And Thanksgiving Dinner

Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures

bloomberg.com

Davey Alba@davey.bsky.social · 9mo ago

NEW: For months, my colleagues and I dug into YouTube's conservative airwaves and found a flourishing network of host-read ads on right-leaning podcasts. This phenomenon has enriched hosts, YouTube, and businesses that use ideology to sell. bloom.bg/3Kaio9w

YouTube’s Right-Wing Stars Fuel Boom in Politically Charged Ads By Davey Alba Priyanjana Bengani Leon Yin Ashley Carman Julia Love Rachael Dottle Elena Mejía Technology Big Tech November 20, 2025 On YouTube’s conservative airwaves, podcast hosts tout products that let people buy into the MAGA crowd: Republican Red Winery vintages for toasting the “silent majority;” Black Rifle Coffee for caffeinating gun owners; XX-XY Athletics for workout clothes symbolizing opposition to the “lunacy of the left social agenda.”The popularity of YouTube podcasts among conservatives is driving a boom in small businesses tailoring ads to their millions of listeners, paying hosts like Joe Rogan and Candace Owens to read out promotions in the hope that fans will place orders. The phenomenon has enriched both the hosts and YouTube, supporting further growth of the businesses using ideology to sell. A Bloomberg analysis of host-read ads across nearly 1,000 videos from eight of the platform’s top right-leaning podcasters found that advertisers on the shows routinely tapped into political identity in marketing. At least one host-read ad with a political message appeared in 91% of videos reviewed.
Kirsten Grind@kirstengrind.bsky.social · last yr.

White House responds to our story: “The drugs that we’re concerned about are the drugs running across the southern border.” No comment on whether Musk’s been drug tested or if Trump was aware

Kirsten Grind@kirstengrind.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: Megan Twohey and I went deep on Elon Musk’s intense drug use as he rose to political power alongside Trump last year. He was using so much ketamine that he told people it was affecting his bladder. At SpaceX, he is getting warnings ahead of drug tests www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/u...

Kurt Wagner@kurtwagner.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 New Businessweek Feature 🚨 What is behind Mark Zuckerberg's rightward swing toward President Trump? I'd wager it's less about personal politics, and more about a finely tuned sense of self-preservation... w/ @rileyraygriffin.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back?

Meta’s CEO has done everything he can to win over Trump, and it’s not clear how much he has to show for it.

bloomberg.com

Stacey Vanek Smith@svaneksmith.bsky.social · last yr.

A 50% tariff on Europe?! 🧀🍝🍷 How Trump uses pro-wrestling theatrics to run the economy. The latest ep of #EverybodysBusiness is out! @chafkin.bsky.social and I talk kayfabe w/ @kyla.bsky.social Then @sarahfrier.bsky.social joins to talk AI & jobs 🤖 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e...

Everybody's Business

Business News Podcast · Updated weekly · Bloomberg Businessweek brings you a smart and fun chat show about all things...business. Hosted by award-winning business and economics journalists Max Chafkin...

podcasts.apple.com

Max Chafkin@chafkin.bsky.social · last yr.

hey hey, me and @svaneksmith.bsky.social made a new podcast for @bloomberg.com. it's about business. its smart. its fun. we'll tell you stuff you don't know but should. it comes out each week and we NEED you to subscribe and tell your friends. link.podtrac.com/rzj316uq

Everybody's Business

A smart and fun chat show about all things business. Hosted by award-winning business and economics journalists Max Chafkin (author of The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power...

link.podtrac.com

Cecilia D'Anastasio@cecianasta.bsky.social · last yr.

New: Political commentator Hasan Piker says he was briefly detained by US Customs and Border Protection, questioned about his views on Hamas and Trump. First reported by @taylorlorenz.bsky.social. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Political Pundit Hasan Piker Questioned by US Customs at Airport

Hasan Piker, an online political commentator, was stopped and questioned by US Customs and Border Protection agents after returning to the country from France, he said his Twitch livestream Monday.

bloomberg.com

Julia Love@julialove.bsky.social · last yr.

Scoop on the Google beat: Google has begun showing advertising within the flow of conversations with chatbots, starting with AI search startups like iAsk and Liner. This means that even if Google's share of the search market dwindles, it still stands to profit. bloom.bg/436FhkR

Google Places Ads Inside Chatbot Conversations With AI Startups

Google’s ad network has begun showing advertising within the flow of conversations with chatbots — part of Alphabet Inc.’s efforts to keep its edge in digital advertising as generative artificial inte...

bloom.bg

Davey Alba@davey.bsky.social · last yr.

New from me: Here's a fun lil earnings scoop 🚨 There was an $8 billion increase in profit in Alphabet's latest report that was just nagging and nagging at me. The accounting didn't make sense. Finally got to the bottom of it: the boost came from unrealized gains from a 2015 investment in SpaceX.

Bild
Sarah Frier@sarahfrier.bsky.social · last yr.

This is absolutely wild to see come out on record in federal court after reporting it in my book 5 years ago (Systrom has been silent on the acquisition and aftermath in that time). Details he is sharing took me months to report out and confirm.

Kurt Wagner@kurtwagner.bsky.social · last yr.

Back in DC today for week two of the Meta-FTC antitrust trial. On the stand this morning: Kevin Systrom, IG Co-Founder, who was just sworn in and is expected to be questioned all day

Davey Alba@davey.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: Spoke to 25 small publishers about the kind of impact Google's AI changes to search has had on their businesses. Things don't look good—not for the publishers, and not for the quality of information out on the open web, which ironically Google itself relies on. Gift link: bloom.bg/43Jmzk3

In March 2024, website owner Morgan McBride was posing for photos in her half-renovated kitchen for a Google ad celebrating the ways the search giant had helped her family’s business grow. But by the time the ad ran about a month later, traffic from Google had fallen more than 70%, McBride said. Charleston Crafted, which features guides on do-it-yourself home improvement projects, had weathered algorithm changes and updates in the past; this time, it didn’t recover. McBride suspected people were getting more of their renovation advice from the artificial intelligence answers at the top of Google search. The now-ubiquitous AI-generated answers — and the way Google has changed its search algorithm to support them — have caused traffic to independent websites to plummet, according to Bloomberg interviews with 25 publishers and people who work with them. That’s disrupting a delicate symbiotic relationship that’s existed for years: if businesses create good content, Google sends them traffic.
Julia Love@julialove.bsky.social · last yr.

Google says AI Overviews drive more traffic to a diverse mix of publishers. But it has never shared data to back up that claim. @daveyalba & I spoke to 25 creators who painted a different picture. Several are out of business. One is on food stamps. Our latest: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Google AI Search Shift Leaves Website Makers Feeling ‘Betrayed’

In March 2024, website owner Morgan McBride was posing for photos in her half-renovated kitchen for a Google ad celebrating the ways the search giant had helped her family’s business grow.

bloomberg.com

Davey Alba@davey.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 NEW: Google Search has ruled the web for >20 yrs. But in recent years, a chorus of discontent has been building among the web-going public. Google is drastically remaking search with gen AI just as people are complaining that the service is slowly degrading—and degrading the web. bloom.bg/41W2wwl

Google Is Searching for an Answer to ChatGPT

Big changes are underway for the internet’s most popular product, and Google (and the web) may never be the same.

bloom.bg

Julia Love@julialove.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨NEW: Google has spent the past 2+ years trying to remake search with generative AI. The results? Mixed. Check out my cover story with @davey.bsky.social on missed opportunities, Google's attempts to right the ship & the price being paid across the web. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Google Is Searching for an Answer to ChatGPT

Big changes are underway for the internet’s most popular product, and Google (and the web) may never be the same.

bloomberg.com