Everything posted by DSTW
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Formula One
Hard to look past Kimi winning the drivers championship this year! Happy for him, but hope that George or Lewis can at least make it competitive in the 2nd half of the season.
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Giraffe website
You really stuck your neck out with this one. Feels like early 2000s internet, in the best way. Loses a mark because I was very much hoping to learn more giraffe facts, but the link goes to a 404.
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2026 Web Designer Survey Results
A lot of interesting stuff in there, some of it definitely hits home too! I find the AI points fascinating, I think "entry level" design services could definitely be in a lot of trouble, I regularly hear small business owners talk about how they've been quoted X thousand pounds for a project, and then they've gone and created an indistinguishable replica for a fraction of the cost. Beyond that though I am convinced there will always be a market for real, properly strategised, human creativity - in fact it may even become more premium if people begin to crave authenticity. The stat about the number of lead referrals coming from AI really surprised me, I've always been quite sceptical of how much of a lead pipeline it would become, but it seems like it's growing. Looking at GA4 I've actually had a handful myself of enquiries from ChatGPT myself recently. Best crack on with that GEO strategy after all! ๐
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Formula One
Can't wait to see how the new seasons starts with the changes in regulations!
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Web Design Conferences 2026
Useful list, few on there I'd never heard of but will definitely look into further! Love a Brighton conference, been to quite a few there, fun city and a fun crowd of web folks - definitely want to try and get to UX this year.
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Political Views vs. Web Development
I think thereโs a fine line between holding a moral standard and sitting on a high horse. I saw this with a small charity I worked with - genuine people doing great work. When some 'dirt' surfaced regarding a third party theyโd associated with, the social media pile-on started. The team behind the charity eventually gave up because they couldn't deal with it. So the world lost a net positive, due to 1 small negative aspect that people didn't like. Nobody's perfect, and it's important to not make snap decisions based on 1 piece of a larger jigsaw. With that said, similar to @Jogeta316 I definitely have some "red lines" that I won't cross. If my gut instinct is that I find something truly immoral, I'll 100% walk away.
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Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Is it a Fad?
AEO (or GEO, or LLMSEO, or AISEO) are not going to replace SEO, they're just a bit of an evolution of it. AI chat bots are just another way that people search, and earning citations in them will just become a standard part of an SEO's job going forwards. Not to mention that, generally speaking, good SEO will lead to good AI placement anyway.
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What do you use AI for...
I have found quite a bit of use in AI for learning about basic concepts and new topics. EG: I've recently started learning music production, and it's been useful being able to bounce really specific questions about gear or theory off of Gemini - a lot quicker and easier than going back and forth to Google and requiring multiple individual searches. In terms of work, my best use case has been using AI as an "advanced filter" almost. If i have a big sheet with lots of data, and I want to pick out patterns or really specific results which fit criteria W, X, Y and Z, it's really helpful to just feed the info in and ask questions in natural language, rather than needing layer upon layer of regex or formulae. Wouldn't ever trust it with original copy or YMYL topics though!
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Formula One
Well, who would have thought we'd still have a title battle on our hands with 2 races to go - and that Max would be the one with all the momentum! I still think Lando will take it, but I'd love to see Max get there now just for the pure drama. Can't believe how badly Oscar has fallen off after looking to unbelievably cool in the first half of the season.
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National Computer Security Day 2025
There's definitely a bit of "uncanny valley" discomfort when I look at the face of an AI generated human, but they are getting more and more realistic at a pretty rapid pace. You know the world is changing when you have to count the number of fingers someone has to check if they're real! I wonder how long it will be before the pendulum swings the other way, and people are getting accused of being AI when it's actually them in the video?
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Formula One
Terrible weekend for Oscar in Baku, big opportunity missed for Lando to close the gap!
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AI SEO Optimisation?
I think as much as people like to overcomplicate things with terms like AIOSEO, LLMSEO, GEO, or whatever the buzzword is this week, there's a significant overlap between good SEO and what will work with AI. Creating well made, crawlable content that serves a clear purpose and that people actually want to share will always be the most important step. That said, you're right, there are definitely some adaptations to be made, particularly around informational content. I agree with your point about using a blog to answer complex questions, but the truth is, a lot of traffic for those types of terms is going to be gobbled up by AI overviews and LLMs, as most of them are zero-click. Most sites are almost certainly going to see some initial traffic loss to their informational/blog pages. However, that doesn't mean the traffic is all gone. I think we need to change our perspective and broaden our approach to what "traffic from SEO" even means. We need to be looking at things like changes in branded traffic, where someone may see our site in an AI result, not click then and there, but come back later with a direct search. Likewise, referral traffic from heavily referenced sites like YouTube, LinkedIn, or Substack will also factor into the overall picture. Likewise anyone still "building links" in the traditional method, should be pivoting toward more of a digital PR approach and thinking about coverage rather than "link juice". Then again with how fast AI and SEO is changing these days, this will probably all be different in about 3 days ๐
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Formula One
Can't wait for the next set of team orders drama!
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Thinking of cancelling a job with a client
Unfortunately these type of people do exist and walk among us. As others have said, I think a more thorough onboarding process is necessary. I used to be the sort of person to take on any job for any cost ('work is work') but then you come to realise you're probably losing money on the project with all of the back and forth - plus the stress just isn't worth it. Also always keep an email/paper trail, and make sure any calls are quickly summarised in an email or with an AI note taking app straight after. As you mentioned, your client likes to deny conversations have happened, so make sure you keep the proof. Good luck!
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Formula One
Can't wait for the 2nd half of the season, if Lando and Oscar are still this close with 3 or 4 races to go things could get really feisty!
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The 20i FOSS Awards are now open!
Voted in quite a few categories - and also learnt about a lot of open source projects I had no idea even existed! ๐
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Survey results: What IT professionals really think about green technology
Pleasantly surprised to see the level of awareness and concern so high! When I worked agency side we had the odd customer who would query our approach to sustainability, but it was never really a big focus area outside of that. I wonder if it will become a selling point for designers in the future, especially when pitching for tenders.
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Formula One
There's been plenty of rumours about a Mercedes move over the last year or two - and Toto Wolff hasn't exactly been downplaying them. To be honest I could see Max retiring quite young, he's already built legendary status, and in most interviews he just seems quite over the whole F1 circus ๐
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Formula One
Well, that was fast, only 2 races! Pretty brutal. I feel like this Red Bull dynasty is slowly starting to crumble, it seems like nobody knows what the plan is other than hope Max wins.
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Formula One
Not long at this rate! I feel sorry for anyone who gets that 2nd Red Bull seat to be honest. even Max has said the car is a nightmare to drive. Praying Yuki Tsunoda doesn't get called up to RB as his replacement, don't want him wrecking his career!
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Google March 2025 Core Update
Famous last words, but it's been a pretty calm update from our end thus far - saw a bit of volatility in the weeks leading up to it, but not seeing a huge amount of movement otherwise, aside from a handful of welcome improvements.
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Formula One
New season underway and a hell of a fun race to start things off in Melbourne. Hoping this is Lando's year, unless Lewis can get number 8 in red (also wouldn't mind LeClerc getting a WDC). Above all, hope that it gives us a competitive season without any run away winners!
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New 'Resources' page
Good idea, a couple of bits on there I'd never heard of which I'll definitely be checking out. If you're looking to grow the list any further, seoreviewtools.com is a great resource for SEO's, a whole bunch of free tools on there which have helped me out in a pinch many times!
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Survey results: AI use in Web Design
As an SEO I think relying on alt text to always 1) Be present and 2) Actually describe the image is a bit of a stretch ๐
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Survey results: AI use in Web Design
I have a couple of custom GPTs set up to fit certain writing styles and so on, which generally works pretty well. I'd still never rely on it for writing large swathes of text though. That and Claude are my main "go to" if I need help with something more complex - they generally seem to write code a little better and have less ridiculous hallucinations. Never tried Perplexity myself, interested to see how it does, although I'm not sure I need ANOTHER tab open all day ๐