Industry News

Paul Ford writes about vibe coding for the NYT (gift link) and what happens when software suddenly becomes cheap and fast to ship:

There are many arguments against vibe coding through A.I. It is an ecological disaster, with data centers consuming billions of gallons of water for cooling each year; it can generate bad, insecure code; it creates cookie-cutter apps instead of real, thoughtful solutions; the real value is in people, not software. All of these are true and valid. But I’ve...

Isabel Woodford has a research-heavy essay in The Atlantic about why dads and daughters crave closeness but struggle to find it. The research is striking: 28% of American women are estranged from their father, and even where relationships are intact, they tend to be thinner—more transactional, less emotionally honest—than daughters want.

The core diagnosis:

At the root of the modern father-daughter divide seems to be a mismatch in expectations. Fathers, generally speaking, have for...

Geoffrey Huntley wrote about what happens when people finally “get” AI, and it’s a sobering read.

If you’re having trouble sleeping because of all the things that you want to create, congratulations. You’ve made it through to the other side of the chasm, and you are developing skills that employers in 2026 are expecting as a bare minimum.

The only question that remains is whether you are going to be a consumer of these tools or someone who understands them deeply and automates your...

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

For the original iTunes version, click here.

This week...

Google's John Mueller said that he discourages large sites from force indexing its pages to Google Search. He said on a comment on LinkedIn, "I strongly recommend not relying on trying to force indexing."

As I noted in my story yesterday about Google reviews dropping out, Google has updated the Google Business Profiles review policies, the Prohibited & restricted content section.

Google sent out an email to some Google Ads advertisers about changes coming to Google Ads budget pacing for ad scheduling. These changes go into effect on March 1, 2026.

As you know, OpenAI said they would release ads in ChatGPT and then about ten days ago, said the ads went live for a limited number of users. Since then, we have not seen reports of anyone seeing ads in the wild within ChatGPT until now.

Google may be testing a new ad unit named Sponsored Places. I think this is new, I mean, have any of you seen this before in the search results? Instead of it saying "Sponsored results" or a local pack with sponsored listings.