Search engines have always worked like a mall directory. They showed you where all seven sneaker stores were and how to get there. Today’s answer engines are more like genies. You need sneakers? They just hand you the sneakers. No listings. No browsing. No shopping. No visits. No clicks. This is worse news for publishers Continue reading "Be careful what you wish for"
Cloudflare just segmented AI traffic into three types: Search, Agents, and Training, and they re letting their customers turn access on or off for each type. That’s better than a single on/off switch for bots, but for a high-end website that isn t enough control. The real control businesses need is for each service within those categories. Continue reading "One size doesn t fit all"
I did 3 hours of back-to-back Zoom calls from my local Starbucks this morning. There were a few moments where I felt like I was making people suffer through some background noise to indulge me and my caffeine addiction, but it could have been crazier, right?
For decades, ranking on Google was survival. Now ADWEEK reports that some of the biggest media businesses are not-so-quietly making plans to disappear from it. This isn t just one angry newspaper. The Wall Street Journal lists USA Today, Reuters, Politico, The Economist and People Inc. among the publishers who are considering cutting off Google. And Continue reading "Antifragile rocks"
AI isn t replacing websites. But it IS changing what they re used for. For years, websites have been the destination. Today, they re your system of record that powers AI interactions everywhere else. I got to join Lauren Goerz on The Dialogue Architects Podcast to explore all the ways that AI is reshaping enterprise content management, digital Continue reading "AI isn t killing websites, but their…
Our big “Future of the Web” research report says that people hate sites that are robotic. They hate digital experiences, things that feel synthetic. Does it really need to be like this? The first sites I built in the ‘90s were all by hand. There were no CMSes. Then we hooked up databases to websites. Continue reading "I ve seen things you people wouldn t believe…"
Your developers are completely AI-pilled. They live in Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf. But your security model doesn’t. That’s why Secure MCP matters for WordPress VIP. Your agents run as a signed-in VIP Dashboard user. They can only do what you allow them to do. Trying to perform sensitive operations or accessing high-risk resources only happens Continue reading "AI-native developers vs. legacy…
Are you old enough* to remember Google s I m Feeling Lucky button? Originally, you had two choices with Google search. You could get a page with 10 links or if you were feeling lucky, you would just be taken to the top result. But there is no single top search result for a query anymore. Google Continue reading "I m not feeling lucky anymore"
Every marketing team I talk to is both terrified and excited by AI. Honestly, both reactions are justified. I get it. There’s no template to work from. This is an unprecedented disruption. WordPress VIP asked 2000 people to tell us who they think is doing AI well in their brand messaging. The resounding answer was: Continue reading "2,000 people surveyed say nobody does AI messaging well"
Every team I talk to has the same instinct for their content: go where the audience is. Chase them on search. Chase them on social. Now they’re chasing them on AI answer engines. Whether you think that’s lazy or not, it can be valuable in the short term. But long term, it’s a trap. Your Continue reading "Portability is survival"