Google’s AI Pivot: The Enclosure of the Open Web
634
Google is using AI to create a controlled layer over the internet that exploits creators and monopolizes information access.
Open Web
Advocacy and discourse around maintaining the web as an open, user-controlled platform, including resistance to corporate gatekeeping, defense of open standards like RSS and XSLT, browser neutrality, and the tension between proprietary application platforms and the document-centric web.
Reading List
Google Search Reimagined: From Links to AI Agents
116
Google is transforming Search into an interactive, agentic AI ecosystem that prioritizes automated task execution and synthesized answers over traditional website links.
The Rise of the AI-Generated Sloppy Copy
AI-powered bots are now instantly cloning and monetizing niche hobby projects, creating a swamp of low-effort scams that threaten the creative spirit of the internet.
The Case for Human Blogging in an AI World
416
In an era of AI-generated mediocrity, blogging and sharing authentic human insights is the most powerful way to reclaim the web.
The Cognitive Dark Forest: Why AI is Killing the Open Internet
556
AI and platform consolidation have turned the internet into a 'cognitive dark forest' where sharing ideas invites immediate absorption by the systems that feed on them.
The Case for Digital Autonomy: Why You Need a Website
938
Businesses and creators should prioritize independent websites over social media to ensure ownership, accessibility, and protection from platform volatility.
The Surprising Scale of the Small Web
546
The non-commercial 'small web' is surprisingly vast and active, proving that personal, ad-free digital spaces are flourishing despite corporate dominance of the internet.
Do Not Comply: Resisting Google’s XSLT Deprecation and the Corporate Capture of the Web
418
Refuse Google’s XSLT deprecation, keep using open formats, and push back against a corporate-controlled web that’s sidelining the user agent.
Join Me for No Socials November
133
Join a low-pressure No Socials November: log off, try blogging instead, and share your experience via email.
Wikipedia: AI Answers and Social Video Drive 8% Drop in Human Visits
445
Wikipedia’s traffic is slipping as AI answers and social video bypass source clicks, prompting Wikimedia to demand better attribution and traffic from platforms and more support from users.
Make Your Site the Source in the AI Slop Era
In an AI-saturated, trust-poor feed economy, reclaim your work by making your website the canonical source and syndicating elsewhere.
Open Social: Users Own Data, Apps Aggregate
991
Put social data back on the open web—users own it, apps aggregate it.
From Search to Answers: Paying Creators in the AI Era
217
As AI answer engines disrupt traffic-based monetization, Cloudflare champions a new model where AI companies pay creators for the unique content that improves their models.
Ravenous AI Crawlers Are Breaking the Web—and Driving It Behind Paywalls
213
AI crawlers’ ravenous, non-reciprocal scraping is breaking websites and pushing the open web toward paywalled fragmentation.
No Clicks, No Content: How AI Search Cannibalizes Its Own Fuel
139
By replacing links with AI answers, tech firms are eroding the web’s incentive to produce content—and ultimately starving their own AI.