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The silence is deafening: Google’s “agentic” future leaves the WordPress economy behind
Google just announced a massive shift in how the internet shops, and the biggest platform on the web wasn’t even in the room. If you haven’t seen it yet, Google recently dropped a bombshell announcement regarding the future of online retail. They are rolling out a new “Universal Commerce Protocol” (UCP) and a suite of…
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The Tailwind paradox: the high price of “enough”
The news hit the developer community like a cold bucket of water. Adam Wathan, the creator of Tailwind CSS, recently announced that he had to lay off 75% of his engineering team, cutting the staff from four engineers down to just one. The numbers he shared were staggering. Despite Tailwind being more popular than ever…
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From installation to integration: Making plugins “agent-ready”
In my last post, I discussed why a design system is the “visual rail” AI needs. But the “Architect” I’ve been describing doesn’t just care about how a site looks; they care about how it functions. The problem today is that even the smartest AI is often a “clueless” collaborator. You ask a coding assistant…
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Vibe coding is a trap: why WordPress needs a design system NOW
In my last post, I argued that WordPress needs to become a “Base AI”: a structured foundation that AI can understand and build upon. Before that, I wrote about The Rise of the Architect, the person who will shift from writing code to orchestrating systems. But there is a massive obstacle standing in the way…
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The generalization tax: why WordPress is still the smart architectural base
In my previous post, I discussed the demise of code copyright and mentioned what Dries referred to as the generalization tax. This had me thinking more about what that means for WordPress and investing in its ecosystem. For twenty years, the winning strategy in software was to build the “base layer”. WordPress won this race by becoming…
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The death of Code Copyright (and the rise of the Architect)
We are witnessing a strange paradox in software development. Thanks to AI code generation, more open source code is being created today than ever before. Yet, simultaneously, the value of a single line of code has never been lower. The commons (the vast library of open source projects that allowed AI models to learn how…
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A new path forward for WordPress, and for the open web
In December, I wrote about the state of leadership in the WordPress ecosystem. I shared how too much power rests with one person, and how the lack of transparent governance puts contributors and businesses alike in difficult positions. That post ended with a call: we need to lead. That wasn’t rhetorical. It was a pivot.…
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Innovation in WordPress: a look at plugin development
Introduction Recent observations have highlighted a significant surge in new plugin submissions to the WordPress repository, as noted in this post. We also know that Automattic recently “unpaused” their contributions, leading to some pretty critical articles like this one from Roger Montti. The increase in plugin submissions got Marieke and me wondering about the relationship…
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The unintended consequences of making SEO “for everyone”
At Yoast, we had one mission: make SEO easier. For a long time, SEO for everyone was Yoast’s tagline, and we meant it. We helped millions of people optimize their content. We made technical SEO more accessible. We gave small businesses, bloggers, and creators a real chance to be found online. And we were successful.…
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Build websites like it’s 2005 (and win in 2025)
Last week was a whirlwind, first diving deep into AI and WordPress while working with the WP CLI as MCP host team at Cloudfest, then heading off to SMX Munich for non-stop conversations about SEO, AI, and the future of search. Two very different settings, one clear takeaway: The web has come full circle. Despite…
Hi, I’m Joost de Valk
You might know me as the founder of Yoast, where my wife Marieke and I turned a hobby project into one of the most successful businesses in the WordPress ecosystem. I am an internet entrepreneur, who started as a developer, SEO, and digital marketer, all three things I still love doing. But above all, I am an advocate for the open web.
I invest through Emilia Capital and build new things through its project arm Emilia Projects. I’m on the board of various companies, including Patchstack and Atarim, as well as my local football club, AWC.
This blog is my personal outlet. Here, I write about the intersection of technology and business, the state of CMS platforms, and my experiences as an entrepreneur and investor. It is where I explore what comes next for the internet, and how we can keep it open and accessible for everyone.
