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Comprehension debt is the new technical debt

Arvid nails the dangers of vibin’ with AI

when we don’t comprehend what the system does anymore. We don’t understand it because we never built the understanding in the first place.

What happens when you need to adjust your strategy or codebase? If the answer is going back to your AI, then that’s where the value is created.

Don’t use AI as a replacement (at least for your value-add activities), use it as an accelerant.

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I like these 6 searcher archetypes from Yext:

  • The Creator: Uses AI for ideation and content generation.
  • The Explorer: Relies on AI to go deep, discover, and expand.
  • The Price Shopper: Seeks deals, comparisons, and quick decisions.
  • The Social Proof Seeker: Prioritizes reviews and recommendations.
  • The Traditionalist: Trusts conventional engines for structured, factual answers.
  • The Accidental Searcher: Starts from social or passive browsing, then acts.

The Traditionalist is older while the Accidental Searcher is younger.

How does your audience discover?

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Vibecession tea leave reading

Economists say:

median forecasts for economic growth for 2025 and 2026 have been revised upward…still expect tariffs to be a drag on activity

&

look for the Federal Reserve to lower its interest rate target by another quarter of a percentage point by year-end, followed by three-quarters of a percentage-point reduction in 2026

&

[inflation] forecasted to be 3.0% from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the fourth quarter of 2025…projected to cool to 2.5% by the end of 2026

People are spending, but don’t feel good about it

via NABE

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Search keeps splintering and everything is omnichannel

Just 11% of U.S. consumers trust the first tool they use when searching online.

double-check or expand their search elsewhere “because they don’t trust the first answer”

The funnel is dead.
Linear journey? Who dat?
Own your brand. Stay aligned.

via Search Engine Land

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Forgot one in my earlier post

Big G has tweaked how search ads appear now:

  • All ads will appear under one larger “Sponsored Results” header (like the “People Also Ask” section)
  • “At the bottom of the section you’ll see a button to hide sponsored results”

via The Verge

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Fistful of Google Ads Bits

Google is continuing its transformation to Meta Ads:

The agents are coming: Open Source Google Ads API MCP Server

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is the open standard that allows Large Language Models (LLMs), like Google Gemini, to connect with and act upon external data sources and applications. By releasing an MCP Server specifically for the Google Ads API, we are making it possible for any MCP-compatible AI application to understand and analyze advertising campaigns through natural language.

(If you don’t know what any of that means, you’re fine.)

Old news at this point, but Google is trying to toss some pennies at the publishers that took a traffic hit after its AI glow up with Offerwall:

Offerwall lets publishers give their sites’ readers a variety of ways to access their content, including through options like micropayments, taking surveys, watching ads, and more.

Getting a lot of spam from PMax?
Block app placements: tools > content suitability > excluded placements

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Sometimes the best change is the one you don’t make.

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Do that which doesn’t scale.

Not: what’s your edge.

But instead: what do you do that no reasonable person would choose to do?

via Matt Webb

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If you’re Coca-Cola, people aren’t looking for New Coke.
If you’re Jones Soda, people aren’t looking for a Coke clone.

Ohio State is a story when it doesn’t win, not when it lives up to all the advanced billing. The Buckeyes chug along, replacing bastions of NFL talent with a fresh cast, year after year.

Indiana is still a story because we couldn’t have seen this coming. Indiana is a surprise. Indiana is new.

It’s important to remember what your customers want from you.

Attention can be a trap. Especially if people want comfort and familiarity.

via ESPN

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Turn the bottleneck into a moment of delight.

If your product must do something then don’t be shy about it. Make a feature out of it. Make the constraint the point of it all.

Friction cannot be dropped to 0.
Instantaneous everything is impossible (for now?).

Instead of trying to hide, downplay, or ignore negatives in your product. How can you add a layer of fun or weird or reflection or absurdity to both acknowledge the friction moment and transform it into something the customer remembers for a positive reason?

via Matt Webb