AI is quietly ending traditional online searches, killing websites, blogs, and countless jobs.
⚠️ AI ate the home page: First, the good news. ChatGPT’s referrals to sites are way up (25x!) from zero. The bad news? Nearly 70% of Google searches now end in zero clicks to sites. It just doesn’t matter if you’re top of Google search results anymore. SEO used to be gold. Spoiler: I predicted this over two years ago and got laughed at.
Nearly 60%
Of Google searches ended without a single click in 2024. AI Overviews now hand you the answer right on the results page, no website needed. Add in ChatGPT hitting 700 million weekly users in August with 2.5 billion prompts daily, and yeah, it’s a full-on behavior shift. People aren’t browsing anymore, they’re asking.
Clear your Facebook search history: We’ve all done a bit of stalking. On your desktop, go to Settings & privacy > Activity log > Logged information > Search > Your search history. Select the three-dot icon next to any term to Delete it, or remove them all at once by clicking Clear Searches in the top right.
Filter Spotlight search on Mac: Next time you search with Command + Space, add the filter kind: followed by a term. For example: kind:mail invoice only shows results in Mail, kind:pdf invoice finds PDFs, or kind:folder invoice searches a specific folder. Smart.
🍏 Clear your iPhone’s browsing data: It’s a quick fix for websites not loading or scrubbing private searches. Go to Settings > Apps > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. Now choose a Timeframe and tap Clear History. FYI: This logs you out of sites, but your autofill info stays.
What those F keys actually do: On Windows, press F11 in most browsers to toggle full-screen mode. F2 renames a selected file or folder, and F3 searches within the open app. Alt + F4 closes your current window, and F5 refreshes a page or document. Pretty handy once you know them.
🖼️ Smarter photo searches on iPhone: The Photos app can now understand natural language. Open the app, tap the blue magnifying glass at the top and type something like “beach walks with dog” or “1 year ago.” You can even search for sounds like “laughing” or “clapping” to find matching videos.
🍏 Turn Spotlight searches into shortcuts: Always using Spotlight on your iPhone to find the same apps? Save yourself the trouble. Just long-press the app in the search results, drag it out and drop it onto your Home Screen. It’s quicker than digging through your App Library every day.
TSA’s planning touchless pat-downs: Yep, they’re working on VR tech that lets agents “feel” you without any actual contact. How? Sensors scan your body shape, then send the data to haptic gloves, creating a virtual version of your contours. And don’t you know all that is going into some database? Speaking of … Did you know that the TSA likes to hire dentists as supervisors? They are already experts in performing cavity searches.
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Got a .com? Set up a free Google Business Profile to show up on Maps and local searches.
18 to 24 months
That’s how long it took people to stop Googling “Twitter login.” Elon Musk did a switcheroo with Twitter’s name and replaced it with “X.” Google searches for “X login” have finally pulled ahead. So yes, brand recognition does come … eventually. Just don’t expect some to stop calling it “Tweeter.”
This leaves a mark: For the first time in over 20 years, Google searches through Apple’s Safari browser have dropped. Not a shocker. More people are using ChatGPT and Perplexity instead. Investors sold on the news, and Alphabet (Google’s parent company) lost around $250 billion in market value in a single day, or about the GDP of Finland or Portugal.
🚨 DeepSeek gets all your deep secrets: I said this when DeepSeek first came out, but maybe you weren’t paying close attention. If you use DeepSeek AI, your login information to various sites, documents, pics, searches, videos and more goes straight to China. They’re not even trying to hide it. PSA: Only use DeepSeek the secure way if you have to at all. Steps here on my site.
1,150% increase
In searches for VPNs after Pornhub was geo-blocked Florida. That was just hours after a new law kicked in requiring porn sites to track users by verifying their age. Friendly reminder: Free VPNs are always shady. I use ExpressVPN. Get four months free with my link.
Facebook doesn’t need to spy on your mic – what it does is scarier
Your searches, purchases, and even doctor visits are tracked by 48,000 companies feeding Facebook. Plus, a widow scammed out of $661K, why athletes are ditching fitness trackers, and the EV trend losing to hybrids.
Confirmed: Google is a monopoly
A federal judge has ruled that Alphabet’s Google created an illegal monopoly by controlling almost all online searches. With around 90% market share, this decision could be a game-changer for Big Tech.
Dirty diaper ruined a family business
Paul and Rachelle Baron own Beau & Belle Littles, a once thriving swim diaper business. But when Amazon resold a returned diaper as “new,” a one-star review flagged by more than 100 buyers left them $600,000 in debt. Plus, CrowdStrike trouble continues, web searches are changing, and a remote worker turned out to be a North Korean spy.
165% surge
In exterminator searches in the U.S., compared to 2023. Across the country, people are waging war with pests. Three times as many Yelp searches for cockroach exterminators have been completed than at this time last year. According to Yelp, California has the biggest rat problem. Bet you thought it was New York.