Machine learning in Google Sheets, and other tech stories you may have missed

January 4, 2023 9:00 AM

ML capabilities without having to code, early wage access, the secret to SEO success, and seven other things that happened in technology this past month and how they'll impact your clients and your firm.

1. A new machine learning add-on for Google Sheets

Alexandr Vasilyev - stock.adobe.

Google introduced an add-on for Google Sheets — known as Simple ML for Sheets — that enables users to take advantage of machine learning capabilities without having any prior experience with coding. The add-on is currently in beta with the goal to help everyone leverage the benefits of machine learning. (Source: MarkTech Post)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Google expert Abner Li of 9TO5Google writes that Simple Ml will better help business owners make predictions based on their data. For example, "If you're a car repair shop owner who keeps records of past repairs with data points like car make, repair type, and mileage, you can use Simple ML to predict the number of hours necessary to fix a car."

2. 24% of banks plan to offer early wage access

JohnKwan - stock.adobe.com

According to recently released data, 24% of banks plan to provide programs that allow early access to wages. With 70% of banks already offering this benefit, employers are trying to find ways to retain employees, and early access to wages has been a proven method for employers to help improve the financial well-being of employees. Reports also show that 76% of financially stressed consumers would prefer to work for an employer who cared about their financial health. (Source: Pymnts)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: This is an employee benefit that you should seriously consider. According to some studies as many as three in five people are living paycheck to paycheck. Offering employees the ability to get advance access to their pay could be the differentiator between finding and keeping good people or losing them to another company that does provide this kind of benefit.

3. Apple's seven best productivity improvements in 2022

Customers shops in an Apple Inc. store in Sydney, Australia.

Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg

Computer World shared its picks for the seven best productivity improvements that Apple introduced this past year. They include Lockdown Mode, which helps protect against various cyber attacks, project planning and brainstorming tool FreeForm, improvements to the Focus function, the new Reminder function in mail, and more. Read about all of the top picks here. (Computer World)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: There are even more, I'm sure. The problem is that we buy these devices and never get fully trained on them. This is a great piece that you should share with your Apple users, because the more productive they are, the more profitable you are.

4. Google shares the secret to SEO success

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

According to Google, if the most important page on your website is not top-notch quality, then it's unlikely the site as a whole will rank well. Pages with low-quality content can pull down the performance of the entire domain, although experts at Google did not specify an exact percentage or figure. (Source: Digital Information World)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: "Here's an example: If a site's most important page (say homepage) is 'terrible' (in the sense of any algorithm), that's a pretty big deal. If the same site has a random archived page that's 'terrible,' no big deal," John Mueller, a senior search analyst at Google wrote on Mastodon. "There's no absolute 'page-percentage' number for this, I'd see it more as 'What would the average user think when they went through / saw your site.'" By the way, if you'd like 57 other great pieces of advice from Mueller on improving your site's search, check out this summary here.

5. Pros and cons of free VPN services for remote workers

Those using free VPN services when working from home should be aware of the pros and cons, according to online technology publication MUO. Some of the pros include decent security and data privacy, the ability to use free apps instead of VPNs provided by your company, and the option to bypass geo-restrictions and firewalls. Cons of free VPN services include the requirement to watch ads, the possibility of having data sold to third parties, weak encryption, and slow internet speed. (Source: MUO)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Regardless of whether you pay or get the service for free, you and every one of your employees has to be using a VPN, particularly if you're traveling or connecting to public routers. VPNs encrypt data. They won't really protect you against malware. But they will help to ensure that hackers won't steal your login information.

6. This portable touchscreen monitor is a must for remote workers

Entrepreneur Magazine named the Desklab Portable Touchscreen Monitor as a must-have for anybody still working remotely. The touchscreen monitor can easily fit into a backpack and its 4K screen enables users to have flexibility similar to a tablet. The monitor can be connected via 3.5mm auxiliary ports, HDMI, or USB-C and used with tablets, game consoles, phones, desktops, or laptops. (Source: Entrepreneur)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: I've heard from a few clients that use this monitor remotely and love it.

7. Microsoft to add screen recording to Snipping

Microsoft announced that it will add screen recording capabilities to its Snipping tool in Windows 11. With the new feature, users will no longer need to use a third-party app in order to capture videos of their desktop. Users will simply have to open the app and select the option to record. (Source: Bleeping Computer)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: This is a big deal to me, personally, as I use Microsoft's "snip" feature frequently (just type "snip" in the search bar) to grab anything from my screen. With the ability to record so quickly and easily, this will help our business share more information about how to use our products with our client base.

8. Robco brings modular robotics to industrial small biz

Mopic/Mopic - Fotolia

Robotics startup Robco developed a platform to design inexpensive modular robots for industrial midszied and small businesses. Founders of the Munich-based startup intend to use recent funding to add more clients and expand what the existing modules are capable of. Currently, there are three components that make up the offering, including palletizing, laser engraving, and lathe turning. (Source: Tech Crunch)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Robco's robots will help SMB manufacturers better automate palletizing, laser engraving and lathe turning. What's important to note here is that the company's price point for its products are in a very affordable range for smaller companies, which means that SMBs can have access to robotics technology that has to date only been enjoyed by larger organizations.

9. What is the AI chatbot phenomenon ChatGPT?

scanrail/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Dialog-based AI chatbot prototype ChatGPT has the ability to comprehend natural spoken language and create accurate written text similar to that of a human. The system is trained by machine learning and AI, can answer questions, and supplies information through its "conversational interface." The newest AI chatbot comes from OpenAI, an independent research foundation founded by Elon Musk. (Source: The Guardian)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: As AI-powered chatbots improve, businesses will be using these applications to create written content that will be as good as if an actual human wrote it. Compared to my stuff, probably better.

10. Legal tech startup uses GPT-3 to help lawyers

Speaking of conversational AI, Lexion — a Seattle-based legal tech startup — began using the language model GPT-3 from conversational AI nonprofit OpenAI. The software that Lexion developed assists lawyers in understanding contracts and now — with the help of GPT-3 — it will be able to provide possible edits and compose full summaries. GPT-3 will also help Lexion to suggest contract edits or to efficiently provide clause-language summaries. (Source: GeekWire)

Why this is important for your firm and clients: Given all the hype around ChatGPT, I'm going to pay special attention over the next few years to specific businesses of conversation AI tools like it. You should too.