ChatGPT Ads Launch February. They're Charging Per View, Not Click. OpenAI is launching ads in ChatGPT in early February. The pricing model they've chosen tells you everything you need to know about AI search behaviour.They're charging per impression, not per click.As Glenn Gabe put it: "Pay per view. OMG what does that tell you about clicks from ChatGPT?"It tells you OpenAI knows click-through rates from ChatGPT are low. If clicks were strong, they'd charge per click - that's how you maximise...
17 days ago • 9 min read
They planted fake stories about a fake brand. Every AI repeated them Mateusz Makosiewicz at Ahrefs created a fake luxury brand - "Xarumei" paperweights - then poisoned the internet with misinformation about it. An invented founder. A warehouse. Master artisans. A pricing glitch. Celebrity endorsements. A fabricated investigation. All planted through Reddit posts and Medium articles. Then they asked every major AI what it knew about Xarumei. Perplexity, Grok, Gemini, and Google's AI Mode all...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Google is Putting Gemini 3 in Front of 2 Billion Users This week, Google integrated Gemini 3 directly into Search. It's live now in AI Mode, with changes to AI Overviews rolling out over the next few weeks.Here is the official announcement: Google: A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3 What's changing:Dynamic Interfaces: Your users' queries will trigger instant comparison tables, calculators, interactive simulations, magazine-style layouts directly in Google - all generated on the fly...
3 months ago • 5 min read
What do we do about ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI agents? Last week, I presented at BrightonSEO - the world's largest search marketing conference - where thousands of marketers and business leaders gathered to discuss what's actually working in digital marketing right now. My session: The Agentic Era: How to Optimise for AI Agents, Not Just Humans [access slides here]. As you'd expect, AI dominated most conversations. But here's what surprised me: Nobody was panicking. Instead, conversations...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Everything wrong with optimising for ChatGPT, Claude, AI Mode, Perplexity, AI Overviews… It's occurred to me over the last year that we've talked endlessly about AI - new models and rollouts, updates, features, growth numbers, even the personalities - but we've barely touched on the one question that keeps coming up behind the scenes: "How do you rank higher on LLMs?"ChatGPT? AI Mode? Perplexity? Claude? Should each be optimised differently?These are fair questions.But here's the thing: they...
4 months ago • 4 min read
Everybody Loves Ray-Bans (Hopes Mark Zuckerberg) From the search bar to your customer’s line of sightTen years ago, Google Glass flopped. Too early, too awkward, too gimmicky.This week, Mark Zuckerberg tried again. At Meta Connect, he unveiled the new Ray-Ban Display glasses. And the first reviews are… surprisingly positive.The pitch this time isn’t “cool tech on your face.” It’s AI. Meta is framing Ray-Bans as the gateway to personal superintelligence - an assistant that sees what you see,...
5 months ago • 5 min read
What are people really using ChatGPT for? If you thought ChatGPT was mostly for work - emails, code, reports - think again. The largest study of its kind, from OpenAI and Harvard economists, analysed 1.5 million conversations and found something very different: nearly three-quarters of all usage is now non-work. This shift has big implications. People are turning to AI not just as a productivity tool, but as a life advisor. The data shows three categories dominate: Practical Guidance, Seeking...
5 months ago • 4 min read
Is AI high enough on your agenda? Yesterday, I ran an AI Agent strategy workshop with the senior leadership team of a travel business. Two things stood out. 💡 The potential: They watched an AI Agent log into their custom CMS and complete a task that only three of the twelve people in the room knew how to do. An absolute lightbulb moment. When the agent was asked to repeat the task, it had learned from the first attempt - and finished in a quarter of the time. Suddenly, the room could see how...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Google survives antitrust trial… but has anything actually changed? The biggest tech monopoly trial in decades has just wrapped up. A U.S. court ruled last year that Google had violated antitrust law by illegally maintaining its dominance in search. Yesterday, the judge finally handed down the remedies. And the question is: Google survives the trial… but has anything actually changed?On paper, yes. Google is banned from making billion-dollar exclusive search deals - like paying Apple to be...
5 months ago • 2 min read