AI told me to eat rocks

rise and shine fellow legends. It's time for your daily dose of all things products, shipping, and building. In today's issue, we're diving into Google's newest AI feature, a tool that makes email testing less hair pulling, and a platform that turns your written content into videos.

Google Search AI Mode is Google's latest attempt to integrate AI directly into search, using its Gemini 2.0 model to generate summaries for complex queries. Instead of sifting through multiple links, users get a quick AI-generated response with sources included for further reading.

🔥 Our take: Google’s first AI search rollout last year had... some moments—from claiming you can eat rocks to giving medical advice that should’ve come with a waiver. AI Mode is a refined take, aiming for accuracy while still keeping things fast. If it delivers, it could make search feel more useful than ever. If not, well, at least we might get some entertaining screenshots.

octal.email makes email testing painless by letting developers, marketers, and QA teams spin up temporary inboxes instantly. No more cluttering your actual email with test signups, password resets, or endless notifications—just quick, disposable addresses that catch everything you need.

🔥 Our take: Few things are more annoying than testing an email flow and realizing your inbox is now a graveyard of “Confirm Your Email” messages. octal.email fixes that by giving you throwaway inboxes that work exactly like real ones. No more refreshing your spam folder or accidentally locking yourself out of your own app. If you’ve ever rage-typed your own email 15 times during testing, this might save you from losing it completely.

Symvol is an AI-powered tool that transforms written content into quick, digestible videos. Whether it’s an article, a newsletter, or just notes, Symvol turns text into structured, animated explainers designed to improve clarity and engagement.

🔥 Our take: Not everyone has the time (or patience) to read long blocks of text, and turning ideas into video usually takes way too much effort. Symvol wants to change that by making video creation as simple as copy-pasting text. The real question is whether AI-generated visuals actually enhance understanding or just add more noise.

Some founders love it, saying it builds trust, brings in early users, and makes the whole startup grind feel less like shouting into the void. Others argue it is mostly founders hyping up other founders while actual customers remain blissfully unaware. Hussein, founder of Graphify, kicked off a debate on the forums about whether building in public is s worth it or just another thing to stress about.

One take? It is a cheat code for building an engaged community and getting feedback before launch day disasters. Another? It is great if you enjoy sharing, but if you are forcing updates just to stay relevant, you are basically running a free reality show for Twitter.

Got your own opinion on building in public?