Last year, I applied to a prestigious PhD program in International Economics. Unfortunately, I did not get accepted, but I have continued independent research on my general thesis. My goal was to dig deeper into and integrate a few of the key themes that have been percolating in my brain for the last 30 years.
From Search Friction to Digital Inclusion – Designing My Dream Job Read More »
The Thought I Can’t Shake Since my last rant, “The New Gold Rush – What AI Search is SO Easy to Game,” about how easy it’s become to game AI search, my inbox hasn’t slowed down.Every day, I get another pitch: “We can make your content top the AI results!” Half sound like hustlers from
The Question That’s Been Bugging Me Lately, I’ve been inundated with emails, three to ten a week, from self-proclaimed “GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AI SEO” firms promising their tools will generate magical content and listicles that “instantly rank” at the top of generative search results. It’s baffling. These people sound precisely like the content
The Promise of Martech—and the Reality Check I’ll admit it — I love it when McKinsey validates my “crazy” ideas. For years, I’ve been saying that most marketing technology underperforms not because the tools are bad, but because the ownership model is broken.Now, McKinsey’s latest research, “Rewiring Martech: From Cost Center to Growth Engine,” spells
Because the web isn’t a marketing channel anymore — it’s a capital allocation exercise. Please read the article before screaming at me on social media about the insane statement that you need a fancy piece of paper for a position. You will read later that I clearly state I don’t need an actual MBA. Still,
Why an MBA Should Manage Your Web Effectiveness Team Read More »
In Epiphany 7: The Importance of Fundamentals and Root Causes, I wrote that almost every problem—whether technical, organizational, or strategic—can be traced back to a neglected fundamental or an untreated root cause. We don’t fail because we lack ideas or ambition; we fail because we abandon the basics that make progress repeatable. That idea came
Epiphany 33: The Discipline of Fundamentals Read More »
Companies frequently discuss digital transformation, automation, AI, and “streamlined operations.” But most can’t get the basics right. You want me to pay you faster? Make it easier for me to give you my money. Stop hiding phone numbers, using the wrong terminology, building dead-end forms, and shipping chatbots that can’t handle the top five things
Stop Adding Friction: Make It Easy for Me to Give You Money Read More »
For decades, the web has relied on a fragile courtesy system called robots.txt. It was never law, never binding, and never secure — but it worked well enough because major search engines like Google and Bing chose to respect it. Now, Cloudflare wants to extend this convention with a new directive called Content Signals. The
Cloudflare’s Content Signals: A Courtesy Rule Becomes an AI Compliance Weapon Read More »
On September 12, 2025, Penske Media Corporation (PMC) filed suit against Google in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Penske Media Corp. v. Google LLC, Case No. 1:25-cv-03192). The complaint alleges that Google has unlawfully abused its dominance in general search to appropriate publishers’ content, divert referral traffic, and undermine the economic
PMC v. Google: When your Business is Built on Borrowed Traffic Read More »
From Skepticism to Stress Test If you’ve been following the AI search chatter lately, you’ve heard the mantra: “You need to build your brand,” and one of the top tactics is to ensure your brand is listing and promoting it everywhere. I’ve never been against brand-building, but I’ve been wary of this recent advice to
The Brand Gate in AI Search: What Vodka Taught Me About Eligibility Read More »