How Does Spotify’s Recommendation System Work?
Every Monday morning, Spotify hands me a playlist of thirty songs it thinks I’ll love — and it’s right often enough that…
Editor's Spotlight Dispatches
How Does YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Work?
YouTube’s recommendation system is responsible for more than 70% of watch time on the platform. Read that again: the majority of what…
How Does Netflix’s Recommendation Algorithm Work?
Here’s a party trick I sometimes do: I ask someone to open Netflix on their phone while I open it on mine,…
What Is Google AI Mode? A Plain-English Guide
The first time Google put an AI-written paragraph at the top of my search results, I had two reactions in quick succession:…
Best AI Search Engines for Research in 2026
I test AI search tools the way some people test restaurants — obsessively, comparatively, and with strong opinions I’m happy to share…
How Does AI Search Cite Sources? The Full Explanation
The little numbered links in AI answers — [1], [2], [3] — are the most important interface element in modern search, and…
Pros and Cons of AI Search: An Honest Breakdown
I have a confession that will surprise no one who knows me: I barely use traditional search anymore for the first pass…
AI Search vs Chatbots: What’s the Real Difference?
A friend recently asked me, with complete sincerity, whether ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode were “basically the same thing now.” I understood…
How to Optimize for AI Search: The Practical Guide
A client called me last spring with a strange complaint. His site ranked on page one of Google for a dozen solid…
Is AI Search Accurate? What I Learned Fact-Checking It for a Month
Last month I did something slightly unhinged: every time I used AI search for anything factual — a date, a statistic, a…