Delphic Costs: An Emergent Phenomenon at the Intersection of Search Theory and AI

AI Thoughts / By

Across the broader search community and specifically at SMX Advanced last week, the phrase “Delphic costs ” was mentioned multiple times. But while many are referencing it, few outside of those speakers seem to grasp the strategic implications of this emerging concept fully. Delphic costs refer to the hidden costs incurred when users are shielded from suboptimal options […]

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The Subscription Cancellation Hellscape: A War on Friction We’re Losing

Rants / By

Yesterday, I reviewed my credit card statement and saw eight subscription charges. I opened my handy Evernote tracker, where I log each vendor, renewal date, and notes. Three of the eight had notes to cancel, but none of them were even due yet. Everyone had been renewed early. Buried in my inbox were two emails explaining

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The Illusion of Choice: Bundling, Unbundling, and the Hidden Cost of Convenience

Rants / By

We’ve reached a point where nearly every service, from flights to home internet to home security, is wrapped in fees, packages, and hidden upgrades. Companies have figured out that unbundling things that used to be included lets them charge more while pretending to give us options. $12 Billion in “Options” According to a recent U.S.

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Why Comparing Yourself Only to Named Competitors Is a Faulty SEO Strategy

Best Practices / By

The Trap of Traditional Comparison In business and SEO, we’re often tempted to measure our performance against a familiar set of named competitors—those companies we know, respect, or fear. But this approach is comforting at best, misleading at worst, and ultimately self-limiting. Once, when presenting to a room full of sales and business intelligence executives

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Breaking Through the AI Consensus: How Innovators Can Get Found in a World That Rewards the Status Quo

AI Thoughts / By

AI-powered search engines don’t just find answers—they shape them. Google SGE, Bing Copilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity summarize and synthesize what they determine to be the best answer, often by collapsing multiple viewpoints into a single “consensus.” The more frequently an idea appears across authoritative sources, the more likely it is to be cited. But what

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The Exit Multiplier: What Acquirers Really Pay For (That Most Business Owners Overlook)

Agency Management / By

Most business owners dream of a big exit. But when acquisition talks begin, many are blindsided, not by the offer but by the questions buyers ask. And worse, by what they don’t ask. They’re not buying your clever brand name. They’re buying your systems, your team, and most importantly, your revenue predictability. Often, founders overestimate

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What’s Old Is New Again: Why Search, AI, and the Rise of Intent Demand a Return to Consumer Understanding

Thought Provoking / By

In 1994, I wrote a thesis arguing that search would become the most powerful way to understand and serve consumer interests. Seeing search as a reflection of real human needs felt radical then. Most marketers were still locked into push-based models: interrupt, repeat, blast, convert. I believed then that findability would outpace visibility and that

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Epiphany 20 – Build a Culture of Adaptability – Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Epiphanies / By

Clint Eastwood popularized those three words as the gruff Marine in the movie Heartbreak Ridge, where he was trying to make a group of undisciplined misfits into an elite fighting force capable of any challenge. As a Marine, three words were drilled into me until they became instinctive: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. It wasn’t just a

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