Future of Websites, Review Abstracts, Search Shift, Apple Sues OpenAI
Local Websites in a Sea of Slop
People increasingly feel that the “open web” is over. The web is now dominated by a small number of powerful “gatekeepers.” Beyond this, more paywalls are going up, less traffic is being delivered by Google and AI slop is proliferating. Seemingly imminent AI agents threaten to reduce website visibility even further. Against this backdrop we wanted to explore the future of websites and local marketing with Raj Singh, VP of Product at Mozilla and creator of Solo, an AI-assisted website builder for SMBs. Solo launched in 2023 and has more than 50,000 customers on the platform. Singh argued websites aren’t going away, but their role and function is changing. He said that SMBs told him they saw websites as a growth driver, with instilling trust as a secondary benefit. Those functions have arguably flipped as deception and fraud have exploded. Websites increasingly operate as a “source of truth” and communicate that a business is credible and real. More significantly, where and how website content is discovered and consumed is also changing. Zero-click search has been a fact of life for some time in local with GBP, which many use to make decisions without a site visit. AI search and agents may significantly broaden that trend. Singh is readying Solo for the agentic web. It now generates an llms.txt file for every site to enable AI access. Ultimately, he says, it’s important to support every platform and channel where your customers are. Authenticity is also critical in a world of AI slop and distrust. AI can and should be judiciously deployed for improved SMB workflows, as well as marketing, provided humans remain firmly in the loop. There’s a lot more in the full interview below.
