I like this Linkedin post: “Wir sind alle palliativ.”
A reminder to live today.
To relish the moment.
To watch the waves in the sun.
To watch plants grow and flower.
The Ancient Poetry version is:
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12
I took part in a bicycle tour yesterday by Open House Basel. My snapshots can be viewed in this Flickr album. We cycled around Basel, viewing beton brut buildings.
Route
Buildings we looked at :
I walked up the bell tower at Antoniuskirche.
I love browsing thru my Flickr photos. Here’s one i stumbled across:
I don’t edit my photos. This isn’t a layered photo with different opacity levels. This is a real-life reflection that I managed to capture.
I used Lovable to build my own Flickr screensaver.
I uploaded over 40K photos on Flickr and love to see my own photos pan thru randomly.
I watched Loriot sketches in a small theatre in Riehen last night.
The sketches still work well today. I was amazed how modern and up-to-date the sketches are. Loriot studied human behaviour.
Over the years I collected text passages from ancient literature. I shared the texts with a friend on Flickr and on Instagram. In the past couple of weeks, I collected the texts and added them to a self-made Lovable app. Yesterday I deployed the app to a sub-folder here. Have a look. Tell me what you think.
It’s my fourth AI app. I am learning lots about AI coding, Lovable, GitHub, Terminal, Antigravity, VS Code, React, JavaScript, data structuring.
From idea to architecture to building to debugging to deployment. Here’s a summary for my AI skills portfolio:
AI-Assisted App Development
Built the web app Ancient Poetry, a mobile-first scripture reflection app.
Skills demonstrated:
Most of us wear sports shoes.
Might we support European brands going forward?
This list is based on a discussion in r/BuyFromEU.
Most brands produce some models in Europe, but not all. Always check the product label or description.
Note to check before buying:
“Made in Europe” is not always consistent across collections.
If origin matters to you, verify each model before buying.
i went to see the Cezanne show.
Another Beyeler show that will draw lots of visitors.
I like the show.
9 paintings of Mont Sainte Victoire.
Cezanne spent years on individual paintings.
I’ve been playing with Lovable.ai. I generated a mobile-first SPA for low-bandwidth use, including hreflang, Schema and all the other Tech SEO features that I want as a Digital Marketer.
Exciting. Reached the end of my Lovable credits for the month and I need to subscribe now….
What can I say? I like it. It’s exciting. Great way to build prototypes.
Granted: You do need knowledge of web development and web servers.
I also tried blink. But the trial is way more restrictive. And i don’t have access to a Git repository of my generated code like i do with Lovable.
Your thoughts?
If you are changing the domain of your WordPress site, keep in mind you also need to change domain names within your WordPress instance. Thanks, Cyon.ch.
Some notes as a reminder for myself:
Change WordPress site URL settings
In the WordPress admin, go to Settings > General.
Edit the two fields:
Set both to your new domain (e.g. https://newdomain.com)
Save changes.
If you lose access or the site breaks, you can override via wp-config.php or directly in the database (see next steps).
Many internal links, images, etc. still point to the old domain. You should replace those. Options:
Use a plugin like Better Search Replace to search old domain > new domain.
During my recent visit to Blantyre, there was no local coffee in the shelves.
I’ve never experienced a coffee shortage in Blantyre.
I assume there’s not one reason but multiple reasons.
First, it’s not the season for new beans. Off season.
Secondly, I believe because of the lower coffee harvest in Brazil and higher prices, more coffee beans went into export.
If you know more, let me know in the comments.
Addis ground staff is the best. Our flight was delayed due to bad weather in Chileka. We arrived at 23:45 and our connection was scheduled to leave at 0:05. In any other airport, we would have been alone and would have missed the flight. Addis ground staff did magic and we reached our connection. And even our suitcases arrived. Thank you.
It meets all the criteria.
Quick snapshot.
No editing.
No filters.
And So Boring.
I asked ChatGPT to write a blog post about search.
Here’s the generated text for your perusal:
Search in 2025 is no longer about keywords and blue links. It’s about working with AI agents that think through your query, read the web, and return something far more useful than a list of URLs.
Whether you’re researching for work, writing content, or just trying to understand a complex topic, here’s how search works best right now—from my perspective as a long-time blogger and web explorer.
This combo is my go-to.
“Act as a B2B SaaS growth strategist. Think step-by-step: 1) grab the 10 best articles on buyer psychology 2) cluster their learnings into three themes; 3) craft one copy angle per theme that sells a $49 HR upskilling course. After thinking, output a single 70-word post that blends the strongest angle with a CTA—no emojis, no fluff.”
It’s like giving an intern a research brief—but they return in 30 seconds with something halfway ready to publish.
Yes, Grok—the AI chatbot integrated into X (formerly Twitter)—has quietly become a powerful search tool for real-time trends.
“Example Q: ‘Top AI-policy headline today?’ Example A: ‘? EU weighs export caps on frontier models.’ Now—using DeeperSearch—write exactly 30 fresh X posts (?130 chars each, start with ?) on the biggest AI-founder moves announced today.”
It’s fast, punchy, and tailored to the social-media pulse.
Perplexity was once the “AI of search.” It’s evolved into a lean research assistant for professionals.
“Begin as a skeptical angel investor reviewing 2025 funnel-conversion data on $7 tripwire offers; list three red-flag metrics with live sources. Then switch voice to a CRO-obsessed growth lead; for every red flag propose one AI-driven fix projected to lift CVR ?20%. Footnote every data point with link references.”
It’s like giving GPT a Harvard Business Review hat.
When you need to go deep—not fast.
“Act as a private-equity analyst. Produce a 15-page diligence report on the total addressable market, growth drivers, competitive moats, and acquisition multiples for AI-powered LinkedIn-content tools aimed at SMBs. Use APA citations and close with a one-page investment memo summarizing risk-reward in plain English.”
This is real research, not just regurgitated blog summaries.
In May 2025, search isn’t just search anymore—it’s promptcraft. Knowing how to ask matters just as much as where you ask. And the best queries don’t just request information; they give structure, tone, and context.
— End of AI-generated text
I think one thing is clear. We are reading a ton of AI-generated articles in our daily streams.
Be wary.
Use AI like a productivity tool.
What won’t go away are:
ideas
opinions
insight
the need to create content for your company that describe your service or product in plain language.
the skill to position your service or product.
the need to generate citations and cross-references from 3rd party sites, e.g. press articles, podcasts, Reddit threads, 3rd party events and press coverage.
It seems only 1 out of 4 of the references AI uses are from a brand’s own site.
A few years ago, I wondered what could ever replace Google Search.
It felt dominant.
Fast-forward to 2025.
We’re already searching differently.
Bing / Copilot.
Perplexity.
Claude.
ChatGPT.
Looking at my own behaviour: I often start with one of these instead of Google Search. The change is real.
Google is still well-positioned. Gemini is strong.
Google has added AI Overviews to the top of many SERPs.
If you’re in Europe, take this seriously:
Prepare your website for Google’s AI Overview rollout.
Direct traffic will drop. There will be a rise in zero click search results, which means a fall in visits; CTR (click thru rate) will fall. This also entails a change in how you measure: You’ll need to measure success differently. Again, not a surprise to many of us who’ve seen Google Search evolve.
Here’s what you need to focus on:
Avoid hiding content behind JavaScript.
Make sure navigation and core content are accessible to bots.
Simple structure. Fast load times. Optimized media.
This was always a best practice — now it’s essential.
AI bots use structured data to understand your content and its relationships.
robots.txtWho do you want to access your content?
Search engines? LLMs? Agents?
You can now fine-tune this. Think about how your content is used and who benefits.
llms.txtThis file helps LLMs find and understand the content you want them to read.
It’s also useful for feeding structured content to tools like Claude.
We’ve entered the answer engine era.
Make sure AI understands your content — better than your competitors’.
Make sure your website answers real questions your users have.
Create strong, useful content:
Search has changed.
Let’s make sure our websites keep up.
If you’re into architecture, you may know this already: the new extension being built at Fondation Beyeler is designed by Peter Zumthor.
My own private Zumthor. I’ve been taking snaps as construction progresses.
One good thing is that it will open access to another park that was private up to now.
So happy that Spring is here. Time to take lots of flower snaps.
I took some photos at a market in Hannover.
I uploaded one of my favourite snaps to Redbubble taken at Liwonde National Park in Malawi.
If you should meet an elephant on a summer’s day.
What would you do? What would you say?
I’d say, “Good morning Elephant, how do you do?
I’m glad to meet you elephant, I’d like to dance with you.”
“Start with the W’s to identify buying situations in the category. This can be done as an elicitation survey, or as a brainstorming session with your sales and marketing teams.”
I spent Saturday evening and Sunday chatting about AI and prompting and social media.
Some of my observations:
I see less online chatter about translating the prompt itself.
I write prompts in English, even for German tasks.
There’s still lots of “suspense” on what will emerge and what effect it will have on Content Marketing and Social Media.
I believe a higher volume of articles and more social media posts at mediocre quality will have a detrimental overall effect.
Many managers are at saturation point. Seeing 3 to 4 video posts per week from your social media contacts is too much. People cannot keep up.
Focus on being honest.
Focus on usefulness.
The Boring Flower Snapshot is still ranking highly. Here’s a snap from September 2024.
It is spring in Basel. Lots of flowers to capture for my project “The boring flower snapshot“.
