Author Archives: Brian Alvey

Search engines have always worked like a mall directory. They showed you where all seven sneaker stores were and how to get there. Today’s answer engines are more like genies. You need sneakers? They just hand you the sneakers. No listings. No browsing. No shopping. No visits. No clicks. This is worse news for publishersContinue reading “Be careful what you wish for”

Cloudflare just segmented AI traffic into three types: Search, Agents, and Training, and they’re letting their customers turn access on or off for each type. That’s better than a single on/off switch for bots, but for a high-end website that isn’t enough control. The real control businesses need is for each service within those categories.Continue reading “One size doesn’t fit all”

I did 3 hours of back-to-back Zoom calls from my local Starbucks this morning. There were a few moments where I felt like I was making people suffer through some background noise to indulge me and my caffeine addiction, but it could have been crazier, right?

AI isn’t replacing websites. But it IS changing what they’re used for. For years, websites have been the destination. Today, they’re your system of record that powers AI interactions everywhere else. I got to join Lauren Goerz on The Dialogue Architects Podcast to explore all the ways that AI is reshaping enterprise content management, digitalContinue reading “AI isn’t killing websites, but their job is changing”

Our big “Future of the Web” research report says that people hate sites that are robotic. They hate digital experiences, things that feel synthetic. Does it really need to be like this? The first sites I built in the ‘90s were all by hand. There were no CMSes. Then we hooked up databases to websites.Continue reading “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…”

Your developers are completely AI-pilled. They live in Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf. But your security model doesn’t. That’s why Secure MCP matters for WordPress VIP. Your agents run as a signed-in VIP Dashboard user. They can only do what you allow them to do. Trying to perform sensitive operations or accessing high-risk resources only happensContinue reading “AI-native developers vs. legacy security models”

Are you old enough* to remember Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button? Originally, you had two choices with Google search. You could get a page with 10 links or if you were feeling lucky, you would just be taken to the top result. But there is no single top search result for a query anymore. GoogleContinue reading “I’m not feeling lucky anymore”

Every marketing team I talk to is both terrified and excited by AI. Honestly, both reactions are justified. I get it. There’s no template to work from. This is an unprecedented disruption. WordPress VIP asked 2000 people to tell us who they think is doing AI well in their brand messaging. The resounding answer was:Continue reading “2,000 people surveyed say nobody does AI messaging well”