This week's best things

A shorter one this week as I’m on holiday in the icy north of Sweden.

The Internet Is About to Get Weird Again

(h/t to Hugh Wallace on this one) Anil Dash writes for Rolling Stone on his view that we are on the verge of a sea change around many of the dynamics that inform the state of the web in early 2024, and the many parallels with the year 2000.

“amidst it all, the human web, the one made by regular people, is resurgent. We are about to see the biggest reshuffling of power on the internet in 25 years, in a way that most of the internet’s current users have never seen before”

What are people doing on your product pages?

An interesting post from personalisation expert, David Mannheim:

“Our evidence from over 1bn interactions: 62% of all users on a PDP are still browsing or refining, not evaluating that product.

We need to stop assuming that people are on a product page to learn more about the product. The persuasive tactics to add to cart. The demonstration of urgency at every level. Highlighting scarcity here, there and everywhere.

If the majority (62%) of users are still learning about your brand, your products and comparing products, identify them and cater for them.”

Alter Social Media

I meant to share this one a few weeks ago, but this is a thoughtful piece from Marie Dollé on new, shifting, and emerging dynamics on social media, from BeReal to Linkedin and Amo (no? me either).

“What's the key takeaway from all this? For brands, the new challenge might lie in their comment section and in implementing more collaborative strategies. It's no longer just about responding or moderating, but rather about valuing each interaction, co-creating, remixing.”

14 Predications for 2024

Casey Newton and Zoë Schiffer make some predictions for the year ahead.

“Over the next year, I expect to see both trends accelerating: on one hand, a once-in-a-generation realignment in text-based social networking that will further entrench Meta as the biggest player in the space; and on the other, the proliferation of generative AI into every digital surface that we touch, and much of the infrastructure that powers it. The trends will have their highest-profile collision to date in the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election, where platform policies and enforcement mechanisms could once again prove hugely consequential — for American democracy, and for the platforms themselves.”

A Portishead cover for you

A beautiful cover of Roads by Lisa Hannigan.

Here’s last week’s round-up