3 Things I Learned Last Week #68 – Notion’s New Feature, Google’s Algorithm Leak, and Microsoft’s AI

Welcome to the 68th edition of “3 Things I Learned Last Week”! 🌟

Join me on my journey of discovery as I delve into various sources of knowledge each week. This newsletter is a blend of insights and key takeaways from my recent explorations. I’m thrilled to share these gems with you and hope they inspire and inform as much as they have me. Feel free to share the love and spread this newsletter to friends who might enjoy it!

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

1. Notion’s new Home feature: Everything you need to know!
2. Google’s secret algorithm exposed via leak to GitHub…
3. Testing Microsoft’s New VLM – Phi-3 Vision

Let’s dive in!

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🏡 Notion’s new Home feature: Everything you need to know!

Link: Watch Here

Notion’s latest “Home” feature is like getting a personal assistant that never takes a coffee break. Imagine your workspace transformed into a sleek, centralized hub where everything you need is just a click away.

Here’s the scoop:

• Widgets Galore: Think of “Pages” for quick access, “Calendar” to keep your life in check, and “My Tasks” which combines all your tasks from different databases into one handy view. It’s like having a magical to-do list that updates itself.

• Customization Heaven: You can embed views from other databases, change the start page, hide widgets, and add filters and sorts. Your workspace, your rules.

• Productivity Powerhouse: The “Home” feature is a game-changer. With everything centralized, workflows become smoother than a jazz sax solo. Plus, the integrated learning resources mean you’ll never be left scratching your head.

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🔍 Google’s secret algorithm exposed via leak to GitHub…

Link: Watch Here

Imagine if Google’s search algorithm was a secret recipe—think Colonel Sanders’ chicken, but for the internet. Well, someone spilled the beans. And it’s juicier than a reality TV show reveal.

Here’s the lowdown:

• Content is King: Google’s ranking algorithm has evolved. Quality content now wears the crown, but site authority, user clicks, and Chrome data play major roles too. This might explain why your homemade blog about knitting isn’t out-ranking Wikipedia…yet.

• Big Players Dominate: Site authority metrics favor the big guys. It’s like David vs. Goliath, but Goliath is also holding a magnifying glass. This bias raises questions about the fairness of search results.

• Human Touch: Yes, real humans are involved in rating and whitelisting content. This blend of human and machine input adds a layer of complexity, making SEO feel like solving a Rubik’s Cube in the dark.

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🖼️ Testing Microsoft’s New VLM – Phi-3 Vision

Link: Watch Here

Microsoft’s Phi-3 Vision Model is like the Swiss Army knife of AI—versatile, powerful, and ready for anything. Unveiled at the Build conference, this model is a beast with 4.2 billion parameters and a knack for edge computing.

Highlights include:

• Multimodal Marvel: It processes both text and images, handling up to 128,000 tokens. Trained on a whopping 500 billion tokens, it’s like a brainiac on steroids.

• Flash Attention: This feature means it processes data faster than you can say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” It excels in tasks like image interpretation and visual question-answering.

• Fine-Tuning Fun: It’s great for optical character recognition (OCR) and other precise tasks. However, it’s not perfect at counting objects yet—so maybe hold off on asking it to count your collection of rubber ducks.

That’s all for this edition of “3 Things I Learned Last Week.” I hope these insights add value to your personal and professional growth. Stay curious and keep exploring!

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Wishing you a week full of learning, growth, and opportunities!

Warm regards,

~ Nathan