John Battelle
@battellemedia.com
Wary of "social media" these days. Starting to write more. Founder/CEO of lotsa media/tech/event companies.
Modern problems. www.theverge.com/news/804289/...
Eight Sleep adds ‘outage mode’ to smart beds after AWS problems left them frozen
Eight Sleep became No Sleep
www.theverge.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Modern problems. www.theverge.com/news/804289/...
No Kings had more than 3.5% of the Dukes County population today. Biggest one yet here.
October 18, 2025 at 8:03 PM
No Kings had more than 3.5% of the Dukes County population today. Biggest one yet here.
So, what are you doing to hedge the bet? battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog Is AI In The Trough of Disillusionment Yet?
These two things can be true at the same time: AI is a world changing technological innovation that will ultimately live up to its hype; and AI is an utterly overblown technology that will fail to …
battellemedia.com
September 8, 2025 at 12:57 AM
So, what are you doing to hedge the bet? battellemedia.com/archives/202...
No, everything is fine, FINE.
September 8, 2025 at 12:30 AM
No, everything is fine, FINE.
On what Cloudflare announced today: Tollbooths for AI crawlers: battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog CloudFlare To The AI Industry: Pay Up!
There are precious few companies in the tech world that are willing to stick their necks out and “do the right thing,” and even fewer who both operate at Internet scale and enjoy Wall S…
battellemedia.com
July 1, 2025 at 1:35 PM
On what Cloudflare announced today: Tollbooths for AI crawlers: battellemedia.com/archives/202...
A continuation battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog The Standard, Part 2: “The Internet Weekly”
Fourth in a series. Previous installments: The Standard, Part 1 Get Wired – The Launch One Fateful Phone Call: How I Ended Up At Wired Wednesday, July 9th, 1997. I left Wired for the secon…
battellemedia.com
June 24, 2025 at 7:39 PM
A continuation battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Shout out to @thebenedictevans.bsky.social for this gem:
June 24, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Shout out to @thebenedictevans.bsky.social for this gem:
History rhymes battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog AI Is Breaking The Internet. Can Bill Gross Fix It?
Bill Gross has been here before. Back when the Internet was young, when the dot-com wave broke across the monied shoals of Wall Street opportunism, Gross built a world-changing company, took it pu…
battellemedia.com
June 20, 2025 at 2:21 AM
History rhymes battellemedia.com/archives/202...
On the beginning, and the end, of The Industry Standard (1997-2001). battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog The Standard, Part 1 – The End and The Beginning
Note: Third in a series. First post, second post. The Oak Grove cemetery in Tisbury, Massachusetts encompasses roughly ten acres of rolling woodlands and narrow dirt roads. Its 1,800 or so headston…
battellemedia.com
June 13, 2025 at 2:29 PM
On the beginning, and the end, of The Industry Standard (1997-2001). battellemedia.com/archives/202...
A continuation... battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog Get Wired: The Launch (1992-93)
(continuation of a previous post) If you ever have a hit on your hands, my advice is to take notes. Living in the whirlwind of blinding success is a little like experiencing your own wedding –…
battellemedia.com
June 6, 2025 at 7:44 PM
A continuation... battellemedia.com/archives/202...
A story about how the band got together to make Wired battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog One Fateful Phone Call: How I Ended Up At Wired
Living at the cutting edge of technology in the early ’90s required either a magical token forged of copper and silver, or the capacity to memorize a ridiculously long string of numbers. Eith…
battellemedia.com
May 31, 2025 at 3:17 PM
A story about how the band got together to make Wired battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Have we given up on government and public good? battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog The Trouble With Bees
There’s this throwaway conceit in the current season of Black Mirror that keeps tugging at me, and it’s Friday, so I thought I’d think out loud about it. In Episode 1, “Comm…
battellemedia.com
May 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Have we given up on government and public good? battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Shot and chaser - On shitty AI marketing and "the white collar recession"
Shot: battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Shot: battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog A “White Collar Recession”? It Won’t Be AI’s Fault.
BULLSHIT! That’s what I found myself yelling at a recent board meeting, unimpeded by my usual filters of propriety or self-restraint. But I couldn’t help myself. The board was debating …
battellemedia.com
May 21, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Shot and chaser - On shitty AI marketing and "the white collar recession"
Shot: battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Shot: battellemedia.com/archives/202...
AI may be the struck match, but the Internet is the fire itself. And we’d be wise to not outsource the power of that fire to a cadre of evangelists bent on convincing us that they alone can save us from the flames.
battellemedia.com/archives/202...
battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog Is AI the “Big Bang” or Merely a “Turning Point”? Much Depends on the Answer
According to scholar Carlota Perez, one of tech’s most revered theorists, society regularly goes through technology-driven “revolutions.” These structural cycles can take fifty ye…
battellemedia.com
May 12, 2025 at 8:04 PM
AI may be the struck match, but the Internet is the fire itself. And we’d be wise to not outsource the power of that fire to a cadre of evangelists bent on convincing us that they alone can save us from the flames.
battellemedia.com/archives/202...
battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Imagine what would change in the world if Google gave the world the keys to its search engine. battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog How Google Can Win the Future
[Second in a series, first post here] This past week, Wall Street caught up with the rest of us and realized that Google has lost its monopoly grip on search. The trigger wasn’t Google losing…
battellemedia.com
May 9, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Imagine what would change in the world if Google gave the world the keys to its search engine. battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Google should embrace the future, not fight with it.
battellemedia.com/archives/202...
battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog Free the Database of Intentions: Could Google Thrive If It Gives Away Its Data?
Over the past 25 or so years, I’ve argued that Google has built a massive database of intentions – the aggregate result of every search ever entered, every page of results ever tendered…
battellemedia.com
May 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Google should embrace the future, not fight with it.
battellemedia.com/archives/202...
battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Reposted by John Battelle
Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.
May 4, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Thinking about devastating cuts to NSF: US gov-funded science has been the engine upon which most of the tech wealth was generated. But the oligarchs (currently hoarding much of that $) think it’s their own brilliance & not the accident of standing close to the scientific engine that made them rich.
An update for pals and colleagues battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog Wait, What’s This DOC Thing You’re Doing?!
An old friend asked me what I was up to the other day, and despite two years having passed since I started getting that question (here’s my first post on the subject), I realized I’ve not made much…
battellemedia.com
May 4, 2025 at 12:12 PM
An update for pals and colleagues battellemedia.com/archives/202...
IDK. DYK? battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog How On Earth Will OpenAI Hit $129 Billion in Four Years?!
I’ve been traveling for the past week, and ignoring the news as best as one can while on the road. But when The Information posted this doozy of a story – OpenAI Forecasts Revenue Toppi…
battellemedia.com
April 29, 2025 at 8:59 PM
IDK. DYK? battellemedia.com/archives/202...
Nice to see Google has already gotten a return on its investment in our sitting President. Wonder if they're also buying memecoins. www.wired.com/story/dhs-yo...
The US Has Spent Over $500,000 on Hyper-Targeted YouTube Ads to Discourage Irregular Migration
A WIRED investigation reveals that the US Department of Homeland Security has deployed at least 30 YouTube ads since April 1 to threaten irregular migrants with deportation and a ban on reentry.
www.wired.com
April 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Nice to see Google has already gotten a return on its investment in our sitting President. Wonder if they're also buying memecoins. www.wired.com/story/dhs-yo...
History is laughing at us.
April 24, 2025 at 12:45 AM
History is laughing at us.
Not really sure I want my identity, AI or otherwise, owned by a tech company. battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog Who Owns Your AI Identity? (Hint: Not You)
As generative AI reaches a fever pitch of investment, product releases, and hype, most of us have ignored a profound flaw as we march relentlessly toward The Next Big Thing. Our most dominant AI pr…
battellemedia.com
April 15, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Not really sure I want my identity, AI or otherwise, owned by a tech company. battellemedia.com/archives/202...
A response to an essay about AI fiction that got under my skin. battellemedia.com/archives/202...
John Battelle's Search Blog Should AI Write Our Fiction?
I’m going to try to write something difficult. I don’t know if I’m going to pull it off, but that’s kind of the point. This is how writers improve: We tackle something we…
battellemedia.com
April 12, 2025 at 11:36 PM
A response to an essay about AI fiction that got under my skin. battellemedia.com/archives/202...
WTAF
April 10, 2025 at 7:17 PM
WTAF