Google AI Adds Friction to 70% of Users

Me: (Types my blog name in the address to open a draft post – how roughly 70% of users of browsers access a site these days. Only 10% to 15% of users actually type in a URL anymore.)

Google AI – now the default for search:

Me: (feeling slightly lovebombed) “Aww.”

Google AI: “ALSO! Did you know there’s a coffee-scented candle with howlite stones embedded in it? Here’s a howlite and coffee bean bracelet link on Etsy (now sold) and… and…. “

It’s all cute, until I realise I opened the browser to do a specific thing – something the pre-ai search would have taken me to immediately- and wound up following links for twenty minutes.

So on one hand, it did boost organic traffic to other sites, something small business owners and small media companies are anxious about, but at the risk of distraction. And by adding delay and friction even in the best case scenario.

Are we going to have to install desktop apps to remove the distraction? Aren’t we fatigued by having to install apps for every tiny thing to work optimally?

There Are Writing Apps that publish directly to WordPress

1. iA writer. This supports self-hosted WordPress and WordPress.com. No extra plugins needed, just authorise with jetpack.
2. Obsidian – this is actually where I store all my links of interest around cognition or health, etc. You need to install the WordPress to Obsidian plugin.

The problem with both of these is that WordPress doesn’t really use markdown, so the formatting isn’t the same. So you are better off publishing as a draft and then still need to access WordPress to format, set metadata and publish the post.

So all we’ve done is add more steps before getting distracted.

So the WordPress desktop app is the only way out of this loop.

Or bookmarking, which I haven’t done in a very long time.