July 11, 2025 • 8 mins
In this episode of Hashtag Trending, host Jim Love discusses a major Microsoft outage that disrupted Outlook and Hotmail services globally, the rise of two AI-powered browsers challenging Google's dominance, and YouTube's new policies to combat low-quality AI-generated content. Stay informed on these critical tech developments and their potential implications.
00:00 Microsoft Outage Disrupts Global Email Access
02:14 AI-Powered Browsers Challenge Google's Dominance
05:35 YouTube Cracks Down on AI-Generated Content
08:14 Conclusion and Upcoming Shows
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
A major Microsoft outagedisrupts global email access.
Two new AI powered browsers are attackingGoogle's dominance in the browser market,
and YouTube is cracking down on AI slop.
Welcome to Hashtag Trending.
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Let's get into it.
Millions of users worldwide werelocked out of their Microsoft Outlook
(00:21):
and Hotmail accounts in a massiveoutage that began Wednesday evening
and stretched into Thursday morningmarking the latest in a series of
email disruptions for the tech giant.
The outage began about 6:20 PM Easterntime on July 9th, and stretched for more
than 11 hours affecting users across NorthAmerica, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
(00:43):
The main problems included loginfailures, invalid credential errors,
and completely inaccessible email acrossweb, desktop, and mobile platforms.
Microsoft confirmed the issue onits service status page stating that
users may be unable to access theirmailbox using any connection methods
and later identified the problem isrelated to an authentication component
(01:06):
in the mailbox infrastructure.
By Thursday morning at 1:30 AM EasternTime, Microsoft said it was further
assessing the impact scenario to helpinform our next steps to resolve impact.
The company deployed a fix, but warnedthe restoration process would be lengthy.
The outage was isolated to Outlookand Hotmail services, other Microsoft
(01:27):
365 applications, including teams,OneDrive and Skype remained functional
throughout the disruption, but asanybody who does it support knows
when email goes down, it's a bad day.
This is only the latest in a seriesof Microsoft Cloud service failures,
which is calling into question just howrobust Microsoft's infrastructure is and
(01:50):
their overall quality control processes.
With its dominance in the market,Microsoft is probably not gonna lose
customers over these outages yet,but there's no doubt that Microsoft
is getting a reputation for mistakesand unreliability, and to the extent
that this calls their infrastructureinto question, it's not a good thing.
(02:14):
The browser landscape is facing itsbiggest disruption in decades as two
AI powerhouses prepared to challengeGoogle Chrome's massive market
dominance and potentially threaten thesearch giant's core revenue stream.
Google Chrome currently commands over 68%of the browser market with Safari holding
16% and Microsoft Edge trailing at 5%.
(02:38):
The rest of the field struggles to reacheven 2% market share, but artificial
intelligence is changing everythingabout how we search and interact with
the web, and that may be creating anopening for credible new competitors.
Perplexity, the search engine has justlaunched Comet, a browser built from
(02:58):
the ground up with AI at its foundation.
The company's AI driven search engine hasalready gained traction for its research
focused approach, and now Comet bringsthat power directly to your desktop.
The browser includes an AI agent thatcan manage tabs, summarize emails and
calendar events, help book meetings,and even assist with purchases.
(03:21):
What makes this significance isdata persistence, because Perplexity
embeds its search engine directlyin the browser, it can remember user
preferences and store informationlocally reportedly, without using
that data to train their main AI model
the possibilities are enormous.
Currently, comet is available forWindows and Mac with mobile versions in
(03:43):
development, but access is limited toPerplexity Max subscribers with a wait
list, although broader availabilityis promised later this summer.
And OpenAI isn't far behindpreparing to launch its own
browser in the coming weeks.
Built with artificial intelligence atits core, it features chat GT's familiar
(04:05):
conversational interface, integrateddirectly into the browser window.
The offering reportedly includes an AIagent, code named Operator, which is
designed to automate repetitive web tasks.
Both of these offerings bringsome competitive positioning to
the market Perplexity targetingpower users and researchers.
(04:25):
While OpenAI aims to make web browsingfeel conversational for everyone.
Automating mundane tasks whilekeeping the interface simple.
But there is a real threat to Google andit extends far beyond its market share.
As we pointed out in the past threequarters of Google's revenue comes from
advertising, primarily pay per click ads.
(04:48):
AI search has already proven to reduceclick-through rates significantly.
Some studies show a 30% decline, andwhile Google is trying to adapt to this
by placing ads near its AI summaries, amass migration to chat GPT and perplexity
could seriously impact Google's revenue.
(05:08):
And the irony, both of these new browsersare built on chromium, meaning they can
run the same extensions as Chrome and meetGoogle's own standards, essentially using
Google's framework to compete against it.
We haven't seen a serious challengeto browser leadership since Google
dethroned Microsoft decades ago, butclearly the browser wars are back and
(05:32):
this time the stakes couldn't be higher.
YouTube says it's preparing to tightenits monetization rules as the platform
grapples with an explosion of AI generatedcontent that's flooding the site and
potentially damaging its reputation.
Starting July 15th, YouTube willupdate its partner program policies
(05:54):
with more detailed guidelines aroundwhat constitutes inauthentic content
that can't earn creators money.
While the company frames this as aminor update to existing rules, the
timing coincides with a surge inwhat critics are calling AI slop,
low quality content, mass producedusing artificial intelligence tools.
(06:17):
As a YouTube addict, I can tellyou it is a very real threat.
YouTube head of editorial, ReneRichard downplayed the changes in a
video update saying the policy simplyclarifies longstanding rules against
mass produced and repetitive content.
He emphasized that legitimate contentlike reaction videos or those featuring
(06:38):
clips won't be affected since this updatetargets content that viewers typically
consider as spam, but the reality onthe ground tells a different story.
AI technology has made it dramaticallyeasier to churn out content at scale.
The platform is now flooded withAI generated voices overlaid on
recycled photos and video clips.
(07:00):
Fake news content aboutevents like celebrity trials
and even entirely AI generated series
The problem has reachedYouTube's own leadership.
CEO Neil Mohans likeness was usedin an AI generated phishing scam.
Despite the platform having toolsto report deep fake videos, some
channels are filled with AI generatedcontent and have amassed millions
(07:23):
of subscribers demonstrating howprofitable this approach can be.
And that's exactly what YouTube wants tostop. While YouTube insist creators have
always been required to upload originaland authentic content, the new language
will help identify what inauthenticlooks like In the AI era translation,
the company wants clear policiesthat allow mass removal of AI content
(07:47):
creators from its monetization program.
The stakes are high.
Allowing low quality AI content toproliferate and profit could ultimately
damage YouTube's reputation withboth viewers and advertisers For a
platform built on creator economics,drawing the line between legitimate
AI assisted content and spam becomescrucial for maintaining trust and value.
(08:14):
And that's our show.
Let us know what youthink@technewsday.com Just use the
contact us button on the website.
Catch our Saturday show whereI'll be having an interview
with a unique twist on ai.
And join me again on Mondaymorning for Hashtag Trending.
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Have a fantastic Friday.
A major Microsoft outagedisrupts global email access.
Two new AI powered browsers are attackingGoogle's dominance in the browser market,
and YouTube is cracking down on AI slop.
Welcome to Hashtag Trending.
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Let's get into it.
Millions of users worldwide werelocked out of their Microsoft Outlook
(00:21):
and Hotmail accounts in a massiveoutage that began Wednesday evening
and stretched into Thursday morningmarking the latest in a series of
email disruptions for the tech giant.
The outage began about 6:20 PM Easterntime on July 9th, and stretched for more
than 11 hours affecting users across NorthAmerica, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
(00:43):
The main problems included loginfailures, invalid credential errors,
and completely inaccessible email acrossweb, desktop, and mobile platforms.
Microsoft confirmed the issue onits service status page stating that
users may be unable to access theirmailbox using any connection methods
and later identified the problem isrelated to an authentication component
(01:06):
in the mailbox infrastructure.
By Thursday morning at 1:30 AM EasternTime, Microsoft said it was further
assessing the impact scenario to helpinform our next steps to resolve impact.
The company deployed a fix, but warnedthe restoration process would be lengthy.
The outage was isolated to Outlookand Hotmail services, other Microsoft
(01:27):
365 applications, including teams,OneDrive and Skype remained functional
throughout the disruption, but asanybody who does it support knows
when email goes down, it's a bad day.
This is only the latest in a seriesof Microsoft Cloud service failures,
which is calling into question just howrobust Microsoft's infrastructure is and
(01:50):
their overall quality control processes.
With its dominance in the market,Microsoft is probably not gonna lose
customers over these outages yet,but there's no doubt that Microsoft
is getting a reputation for mistakesand unreliability, and to the extent
that this calls their infrastructureinto question, it's not a good thing.
(02:14):
The browser landscape is facing itsbiggest disruption in decades as two
AI powerhouses prepared to challengeGoogle Chrome's massive market
dominance and potentially threaten thesearch giant's core revenue stream.
Google Chrome currently commands over 68%of the browser market with Safari holding
16% and Microsoft Edge trailing at 5%.
(02:38):
The rest of the field struggles to reacheven 2% market share, but artificial
intelligence is changing everythingabout how we search and interact with
the web, and that may be creating anopening for credible new competitors.
Perplexity, the search engine has justlaunched Comet, a browser built from
(02:58):
the ground up with AI at its foundation.
The company's AI driven search engine hasalready gained traction for its research
focused approach, and now Comet bringsthat power directly to your desktop.
The browser includes an AI agent thatcan manage tabs, summarize emails and
calendar events, help book meetings,and even assist with purchases.
(03:21):
What makes this significance isdata persistence, because Perplexity
embeds its search engine directlyin the browser, it can remember user
preferences and store informationlocally reportedly, without using
that data to train their main AI model
the possibilities are enormous.
Currently, comet is available forWindows and Mac with mobile versions in
(03:43):
development, but access is limited toPerplexity Max subscribers with a wait
list, although broader availabilityis promised later this summer.
And OpenAI isn't far behindpreparing to launch its own
browser in the coming weeks.
Built with artificial intelligence atits core, it features chat GT's familiar
(04:05):
conversational interface, integrateddirectly into the browser window.
The offering reportedly includes an AIagent, code named Operator, which is
designed to automate repetitive web tasks.
Both of these offerings bringsome competitive positioning to
the market Perplexity targetingpower users and researchers.
(04:25):
While OpenAI aims to make web browsingfeel conversational for everyone.
Automating mundane tasks whilekeeping the interface simple.
But there is a real threat to Google andit extends far beyond its market share.
As we pointed out in the past threequarters of Google's revenue comes from
advertising, primarily pay per click ads.
(04:48):
AI search has already proven to reduceclick-through rates significantly.
Some studies show a 30% decline, andwhile Google is trying to adapt to this
by placing ads near its AI summaries, amass migration to chat GPT and perplexity
could seriously impact Google's revenue.
(05:08):
And the irony, both of these new browsersare built on chromium, meaning they can
run the same extensions as Chrome and meetGoogle's own standards, essentially using
Google's framework to compete against it.
We haven't seen a serious challengeto browser leadership since Google
dethroned Microsoft decades ago, butclearly the browser wars are back and
(05:32):
this time the stakes couldn't be higher.
YouTube says it's preparing to tightenits monetization rules as the platform
grapples with an explosion of AI generatedcontent that's flooding the site and
potentially damaging its reputation.
Starting July 15th, YouTube willupdate its partner program policies
(05:54):
with more detailed guidelines aroundwhat constitutes inauthentic content
that can't earn creators money.
While the company frames this as aminor update to existing rules, the
timing coincides with a surge inwhat critics are calling AI slop,
low quality content, mass producedusing artificial intelligence tools.
(06:17):
As a YouTube addict, I can tellyou it is a very real threat.
YouTube head of editorial, ReneRichard downplayed the changes in a
video update saying the policy simplyclarifies longstanding rules against
mass produced and repetitive content.
He emphasized that legitimate contentlike reaction videos or those featuring
(06:38):
clips won't be affected since this updatetargets content that viewers typically
consider as spam, but the reality onthe ground tells a different story.
AI technology has made it dramaticallyeasier to churn out content at scale.
The platform is now flooded withAI generated voices overlaid on
recycled photos and video clips.
(07:00):
Fake news content aboutevents like celebrity trials
and even entirely AI generated series
The problem has reachedYouTube's own leadership.
CEO Neil Mohans likeness was usedin an AI generated phishing scam.
Despite the platform having toolsto report deep fake videos, some
channels are filled with AI generatedcontent and have amassed millions
(07:23):
of subscribers demonstrating howprofitable this approach can be.
And that's exactly what YouTube wants tostop. While YouTube insist creators have
always been required to upload originaland authentic content, the new language
will help identify what inauthenticlooks like In the AI era translation,
the company wants clear policiesthat allow mass removal of AI content
(07:47):
creators from its monetization program.
The stakes are high.
Allowing low quality AI content toproliferate and profit could ultimately
damage YouTube's reputation withboth viewers and advertisers For a
platform built on creator economics,drawing the line between legitimate
AI assisted content and spam becomescrucial for maintaining trust and value.
(08:14):
And that's our show.
Let us know what youthink@technewsday.com Just use the
contact us button on the website.
Catch our Saturday show whereI'll be having an interview
with a unique twist on ai.
And join me again on Mondaymorning for Hashtag Trending.
I'm your host, Jim Love.
Have a fantastic Friday.
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