What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
CNN’s NewsNight Erupts as Scott Jennings and Adam Mockler Trade Barbs — Meanwhile, Newsmax Tries to Buy Credibility with Greta Van Susteren Podcast
Scott Jennings and Adam Mockler’s heated CNN segment was less debate, more spectacle, while Newsmax bets on Greta Van Susteren’s podcast to boost its credibility. Both moves highlight the media’s ongoing descent into partisan theater.
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The Lazy SEO Agency Playbook: How They Sell You Snake Oil with AI Buzzwords
The “AI-powered SEO revolution” is a scam. Lazy agencies slap GPT-3 outputs on your site and call it strategy. Here’s how they game you — and why you’re paying for digital snake oil.
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Core Web Vitals Worship Is Peak SEO Cargo Cult - Here's the Data
Stop falling for Google's Core Web Vitals snake oil. The obsession with these metrics is the biggest distraction in SEO right now — and the data proves it.
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Skittles and Claire’s Campaigns Prove Creativity Still Beats Algorithmic Garbage
Skittles, Claire’s, and Budweiser’s latest campaigns prove creativity still wins over algorithmic ad factory churn. Here’s why these ads caught our attention.
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USA Today Co.’s AI Licensing: A Rare Win Amidst Programmatic and Traffic Meltdown
USA Today Co. bucks the industry trend with AI licensing deals driving real revenue growth in Q1, even as traffic and programmatic ad sales tank.
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Taboola’s AI Answer Engine: Publisher Engagement or Another Content Monetization Mirage?
Taboola’s new AI answer engine promises to boost publisher engagement but is really just another slick layer of ad-driven content monetization dressed up as innovation.
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YouTube’s Creator Data Gambit: A Half-Baked Gift Wrapped as a Game-Changer
YouTube’s new creator data access is being hailed as a breakthrough, but it’s really a half-measure designed to keep marketers locked in, not truly empowered.
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The AI Visibility Tool Circus: Why Marketers Are Waking Up to Overpriced Snake Oil
Marketers are dumping cash into AI visibility tools that promise clarity in a zero-click world, but inconsistent data and lack of standards expose them as costly gimmicks.
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Baller League Exposes the Myth That Reach Equals Real Fandom — Here’s What Marketers Are Getting Wrong
Baller League’s growth method debunks the lazy marketing myth that reach equals fandom, proving that authentic communities sell franchises—not just clicks.
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Lucky Yatra: How Indian Railways Turned Ticket Fraud Into a Marketing Masterstroke
Indian Railways’ Lucky Yatra lottery proves gamification crushes fare evasion where heavy-handed enforcement fails. It’s time marketing stopped punishing and started rewarding.
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Specsavers Finally Ditches Its Stale 22-Year-Old Tagline—But Did Anyone Ask For This?
Specsavers has tweaked its iconic 22-year-old tagline to reflect a broader range of services, but this rebrand barely scratches the surface of what the brand really needs.
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Pinterest’s New CMO Bets on Storytelling to Mask Mission Drift and Drive Offline Usage
Pinterest’s new CMO, Claudine Cheever, leans hard on storytelling to promote a mission of offline living — but this feels more like a marketing smokescreen than a strategy.
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Chess.com Hits 250 Million Users and Tries to Pawn Off More Ads Without Killing Subscriptions
Chess.com just hit 250 million users and is trying to boost ad revenue without annoying its paying subscribers. This isn’t your typical lazy ad play.
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Possible 2026 Unmasked: Why the Industry’s Favorite Buzzwords Are Still Mostly Hot Air
Possible 2026 trotted out the usual suspects — outcomes-based pricing, agent orchestration, AI discoverability — but beneath the buzzwords, it’s the same tired industry grift. Here’s what really matters.
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Rank Math’s AI Features: Marketing Gimmick or Real Value? The Code Doesn’t Lie
Rank Math’s AI hype is just another layer of lipstick on the same old SEO pig. We dug into the code and found the truth: mostly smoke, zero fire.
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AI Content Detectors in 2026 Are Still a Joke - Stop Wasting Time on Flawed Tech
AI content detectors in 2026 remain glorified guesswork, not the silver bullet agencies and clients want to believe. It’s time to stop the nonsense and face facts.
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Applebot-Extended Visibility: Why This Overlooked Crawler Could Make or Break Your Site
If you think Applebot is just some background noise, you’re playing yourself. Ignoring Apple’s crawler is SEO malpractice in 2024 — and here’s why it’s the real deal.
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The Yoast AI Feature Fiasco: How Lazy SEO Plugins Are Selling You Snake Oil in 2026
Yoast’s so-called “AI feature” is a perfect snapshot of lazy SEO plugin grift—repackaging shallow language models as magic, while actual SEO fundamentals rot on the vine.
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