Insights from Nebo

It’s 2026, and talking about search engines suddenly feels passé. Maybe not suddenly, but the transition has felt alarmingly quick for search marketers. Don’t get me wrong, the industry has been in a constant state of iterative evolution forever. LLMs have just made that process even faster and more chaotic, creating both pitfalls and opportunities for the intrepid PPC manager.

As Google de-prioritizes “Search” (the button is still there; it’s just shy), they have confirmed yet another massive shift in a product that changed in smaller, less-noticeable iterations for most of its existence. This points to a larger trend in the speed of Google’s product releases and the difficulty in adapting paid media strategies to an ever-changing landscape of campaign types, ad formats and policies.

YouTube. What began as a humble video-sharing platform where communities could gather around cute dog clips grew into a content giant for entertainment, information and, of course, marketing.

Today, YouTube gives brands an opportunity to market themselves and connect with current and potential customers around the world. But with more than enough content already competing for people’s attention, how can marketers use the platform to build an audience and turn it into one that converts? 

To answer this question, let’s look at one of the most successful movie and TV franchises of the 21st century: Marvel. 

Have you felt it? 

No, not a disturbance in the Force. I’m talking about a different kind of shift. One that’s quietly affected all of our lives. 

It wasn’t a choice we made. It doesn’t even seem all that dramatic. In fact, it's happened so gradually that you may not have noticed it at all. But over the last few years, something fundamental has changed about how we use the internet.

For a long time, choosing a CMS was a largely settled question. WordPress (and to a lesser extent, Drupal) had become ubiquitous for a majority of SMBs. Shopify thoroughly dominated the ecommerce arena, and a few site builders like Webflow and Framer competed in their own space. DXPs offered extended functionality and assurance at scale, covering the needs of larger organizations and the enterprise. But for many, the decision was largely a factor of content models, editor experience and hosting cost. We’ve seen the headless disruption crack and fracture the ecosystem over the last few years, but in a large part, choosing the right CMS had become formulaic.

If our team's recent prompts are any indication, we’re using LLMs for… anything and everything. 

In seemingly no time at all, AI has gone from an interesting new search bar to a brainstorming partner, a travel agent, and even a food safety inspector. And we have a pretty good hunch that the rest of the world is following this trend. 

For the majority of the 2010s, it felt like design was driven largely by a trend toward minimalism. 

Industrial Design celebrated the blank slab of the iPhone and MacBook Air. UI shifted away from skeuomorphism. Architecture awards recognized the sleek, minimalist designs of projects like SAANA’s Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion. And iconic brands such as Starbucks, Burberry and BMW removed the excess and embraced the idea of simplicity in their visual identities and logos.