Do You Still Need a Website in 2026?

0:10Hello and welcome to a new episode of Search of the Record. I have no idea what episode is this or what number it is, but I'm sure it's going to be great because I'm joined by my teammate, Martin, who is on the same team as me, obviously. We are from search relations, and we tend to talk a lot about search and search-related technologies. Martin. Gary. Hello. Thank you. I didn't have to prompt you to say hello. How are you? I'm doing fine. How are you? Had a good start to the new year? Yeah, I broke my arm. Good job. Thank you. That's an achievement. Yes. Groundbreaking, so to speak. You probably slipped on the snow or something.

0:58No, the ground is still intact. My arm isn't, but it's fine. I'm breaking. Yeah. I was wondering, Martin, we go to the office every now and then. And when we chat during lunch and coffee breaks and every now and then it comes up. What? Actually, this is a recurring topic. It comes up that you might not need websites anymore. Oh, that one. Oh, God. But it's not a new thing. No. As in it comes up every, not every year, but every two years or every three years. Someone will mention that you don't even need a website anymore. And I'm wondering whether you still need a website in 2026. And I thought we should chat about that.

1:47Okay. Yeah. I've had these conversations before as well. We had these conversations together, and I think it's a good time to think about it out loud, basically. That's what this podcast is for anyway. So, okay. All right. Good topic. I think we might even have an episode about this, like a previous episode. Not sure. We have to look it up. And if we do, then we are going to link to it in the description of the podcast. But I think the starting point to this discussion is always the question whether the web is dead. This has been declared so many times. I think when the iPhone came out and apps happened, then people were like, oh, the web is dead.

2:31And it periodically comes up again and again, I think. So is it dead? Is it a zombie? What is happening? Have you read the dark press theory of the web? Is it that it's basically bots talking to bots or something? Yeah, something like that. And to some extent, that's true. And with AI, probably it's even more true because now agents are talking to websites who might also have some agents doing stuff. So we might end up in this really peculiar loop. But to me, the web is not dead. Like I still go to the websites that I used to go and I still consume content and buy stuff from online retailers. And I go on social media and every now and then I would watch a video from Blackpink doing dance moves or whatnot.

3:29So to me, the web is not dead in the sense that people claim it to be dead. Does that make sense? It makes sense, yeah. So what do you think? I think this is interesting. I had a conversation years ago in a previous job with my manager back then where he was trying to convince me that apps are the new web. And he's like, oh, you know, the web isn't dead. It's just not websites anymore. And I said, interesting point. but I'm skeptical. And I think this happened again when we got voice assistants. They were like, well, the web isn't dead, but people are interacting with it not through a visual interface, but through a speech interface.

4:11And I think we are now in the third wave of that where it's chatbots and LLMs and stuff. But fundamentally, these get their information from websites. So the other thing is, what is a website might have changed and might continue to change because I know that some quote-unquote mobile apps have been basically just wrappers around the website. So you are using the website without necessarily knowing that you are just using the website in a package. And I think it is dead in a way that not as many people are using personal websites and personal blogs and their personal spaces online as a way to express themselves or offer them their services or their products.

4:59I think that has shifted and we're seeing that in various platforms and also in the way that people are using, I would call them agents or proxies, whatever you want to call them, like through something. But I don't think it's dead as in like we have moved on to something else. I think the web is still alive and kicking. It just has changed and it will continue to change. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned the LLMs and the AI chatbots and whatnots. Do you think those are just a different interface to access content on the web or is it more than that? I think at least at this moment, it is just that. What I'm not so sure is if that evolves, because basically what we have right now, all the knowledge and all the information that you get from an LLM is mostly trained on web data.

5:51I guess also books and stuff, but it's like the large breadth of the information is web content. What I'm not so sure is if the information, it will be fed through conversations with users, is going to flow back into web content or if it's going to be locked up in the models. And if it's going to be locked up in the models, then that's unfortunate because then I could see that diverging from the web. But then we also have to think that not everyone will have access or want to have access to LLMs. That is true. Or AI chatbots. And then for those, you would still need to have some interface where they can get their content from.

6:34So a website or a social network or something where they can acquire the content that they need for news or for whatever. No? True, true, true. And the other thing I believe is that the easiest way to share information with a larger group of people is not through a chatbot, because that would need them to ask the right questions. And even then, it's quite a non-deterministic. So you might get something completely different or slightly different, or it might not make the point you want it to make. So I think people will probably learn something or synthesize something inside the chatbot, but then probably put it out as a website or a book or whatever, but they will put it out into some sort of quick reference format.

7:19And that might just be a website. Yeah. That's also an interesting point that you made, the exploration part. If you think about the large social networks and also search engines, they tend to invent a way to discover content in a different way, in a more exploratory way, instead of prompting the thing to give you something. like if you think about Google Discover it's not you don't prompt it to give you content it tries to figure out what you would like to see like topic categories and then it would give you basically results to websites that talk about those topics if you look on TikTok they also have an exploration feed where stuff that you might like or that is popular I don't know how how that works.

8:16So basically, these big platforms tend to give people a way to discover new stuff that is not necessarily something that they prompted for. I mean, I see that in my own usage. When I want to learn something new, I don't even know where to go. So things that I have some understanding of, I don't know, like if I want to learn a new web standard that has just come to the browsers, I don't know, view transitions or something, then I know what I want and what I specifically look for. So I just go to a website where I have a high chance of finding the information I'm looking for, CSS tricks or MDN or whatever, it doesn't matter.

8:55But then you have things where you have like no idea. I recently, through a conversation with Lizzie from our team, discovered Rezo printing. And I'm like, what is, I don't even know. I don't even know where to start. I don't know where to I don't know where to find information. And then I... What is it? It's a weird way of... It's not weird. It's a specific way of printing that is relatively cheap and has these very poppy colors. And it's an interesting technique. I will have to learn how to do that. I have still no idea how to do that. But print on paper or... Yeah, you print on paper. Or textile.

9:30I think you can also print on textiles. But it's like an analog printing technique, which is interesting. Anyway, and I didn't know where to start. And so I went to Google and I searched for it. And I got an AI overview that had like a few terminology bits and pieces and a few pointers. And I'm like, ooh. So I basically like started from there and then clicked through a bunch of things to discover stuff that was guided by AI effectively. And I'm like, huh, that was nice. And I have been quite skeptic about AI and the chatbot kind of interaction model. but that worked surprisingly well. So yeah.

10:06But in the end, I landed on websites. Yeah. And I imagine that with websites, you also have more freedom to do what you wish to do, right? Yeah. Like you choose the way you monetize the stuff. Yeah. Like you can have affiliate links or whatever. You have ads. You can post perhaps more stuff there because platforms usually try to regulate what kind of content can go in the feed. And if that's preventing you from doing something, then you might want the website, I guess. Services, you cannot do services on most platforms. That's true. Or at least you have to give a cut to the platform, which you might not want to do for whatever reason.

10:53Well, I'm thinking about services like a calculator. Ah, okay, I know. True. At least not on the platforms that we use. I don't know how that works with these funky app platforms in Asian countries. I know China has a few platforms that have basically apps inside them, and I'm not sure if they are centrally created or if you... No, you still have to create the thing. Yeah. Like in a weird HTML-like thing. I think it's closer to web components. and then you create the thing, you host it somewhere, and then you package it as an app. Going back to that point, it was also interesting that I was writing a simulation game.

11:39Basically, you are this kind of person and then you have to achieve something by buying stuff and setting up stuff and whatever. If you ever played the game Uplink, it's something similar. And then I prompted Gemini asking, if I actually wanted to finish this game, I don't because it's too much hassle and you have to deal with people, which is not something that I want. But if I wanted to package this game up and put it on App Store, what would I do? Because it's a TypeScript game. So there's just HTML and some funky JavaScript-like thing that is packaged into basically a website, right? Yep. And if I wanted this on App Store, then what would I do?

12:28And, well, you can just make it a PWA. And technically, that would work. Like, it's likely that the people who are approving the apps wouldn't like it very much because they need to conform to some design specifications that they have for apps on App Store. but technically it could be just an HTML packaged into an app. True, true. So, yeah. And there are like a few solutions for this. This used to be called PhoneGap and I think then it was called Cordova or the other way around. And then I think you can probably use something like Electron or I don't know how to do it these days. But there are ways to kind of package web content into an app and it's still relatively popular to do that because it's cheaper and easier.

13:16Do you think if you have a website, you might appear more legitimate to your users? That's a tricky one. So I think so, but you can also build websites in a way that make you less trustworthy. But if you have like a reasonable website that looks good enough and has a reasonable domain name, then I think it gives your business or your representation a bit more trustworthiness. Yeah, I would say so. So are you suggesting that spammyguy.com is not a good domain name? No, I mean, that's quite concise and fits the brand. I think that's a great domain name. Thank you. What I don't think is a great domain name is like jonesbarbecueandfootmassage.com.

14:04It's like, hmm, that's weird. And especially if that's a website about like, I don't know, a shipping business or something. I can get 50 % behind that, though. Okay. Well, is it the foot massage or the barbecue? I don't want to answer that. And then if you have a website, then I guess you also have more freedom with what you do with the content in the sense that, like, for example, if you want to have a sweepstake or something like that, like a promotion, then you would advertise that promotion probably in your social network and then people would sign up not on the social network because typically social networks don't provide that functionality.

14:49Maybe they should. I don't know. And you own the house. They can't take it away from you. The people who are coming to your website for something specifically, I recently started actually, wild I know, reading a printed magazine and I'm really happy that they have a website as well where you can get the issues as PDFs as well. and I just go there to find news and articles and interesting stories. Right. And the algorithm doesn't hide it from me. I know that I haven't seen a few people I actually care about on Instagram, on the other social networks, because algorithms decided, oh, there's not as much interaction.

15:25But sometimes I'm not in it for interaction. Sometimes I just want to look at your pictures or know where you are in the world traveling right now or your thoughts or whatever. But then the algorithm is like, no, no, no, Let me show you this guy who's speaking about some big political issue right now, because people will be clicking like and comment on it and whatnot. And on a website, that doesn't happen. On a website, you get to decide which content goes where and how visible something is. Like you can pick your featured articles, you can pick your featured products, whatever. You make the decisions, not someone else makes them for you.

16:00I think that's an important point. Sure. But then social networks are really good at broadcasting stuff. That's true. That is true. Like going back to my sweepstakes stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for reach and visibility, it makes sense. But then eventually you want to have an audience that you connect with directly, I guess, which might be tricky, though. But then, so let's say that I have a Facebook account, like a Facebook business account. And I put up everyday stuff there related to the business. And I don't actually have a website. I want to have a sweepstake. So I create a Microsoft Office form where people can sign up for my newsletter or stuff or the sweepstake.

16:46And then I don't actually need the website. That's true. I guess it depends on what you're doing. I know that I have a few community groups in WhatsApp, for instance, because that's where the people I want to reach are. And I can reach them reliably through there. I could set up a website, but I never even considered because why? To do what? Yeah. Basically, what we are saying is it depends. Yeah. Oh, God, yes. That was a really long-winded way of going, it depends. I just remembered that we ran a user study in Indonesia, I think 2015, 2016. And many people were using social networks as their business platform.

17:35Like they didn't have website whatsoever. And that made me think that they do run successful businesses. Like they had incredible sales, incredible user journeys and retention. and then it made me think quite a bit about whether you need a website. But then if you think about it, at least back then, there was not such great reach in search engines for social networks. Like social networks were not optimized for search. And that didn't bother people because they were still getting the traffic that they needed through Facebook, through WhatsApp, through whatever. basically just through their business feed or business pages that they had.

18:24But then social networks also started optimizing for search, basically doing their SEO stuff, and they started gaining visibility in search. So perhaps that divide, like regional divide, is not that relevant anymore, maybe? The other thing is the social shops on social platforms are effectively websites. I can use a browser to access them. I don't need one, but I can use them. And I think the dichotomy that you say like, oh, it's a social network shop or a website is blurred there because I mean like my Instagram profile is a website if I want it or not. It is hidden behind a login, I think now.

19:10I believe you need to like have an account. But the thing that I really find interesting is also the barrier of entry, right? So if you know all your audience, all the people who want to buy from your shop are on Facebook, then what's the point of not making it on Facebook? You could create an Etsy shop, but what for? All my customers are on Facebook to begin with. But if you are new into the market, let's say I start a new social network for people who like to collect HTTP status codes like Pokemon, I don't know. then I have to make a very strong, appealing argument for you to download my app, I believe.

19:48Yeah. And if I make it an Android app, then you'll be like, well, screw you, because I have an iPhone. And I'm like, oh. But if I give you a link, there's a high chance that you click on it, I guess. Well, if you can sell it. Yeah, okay, fair enough. So I need a distribution medium to bring the link to you, but once you have a web address, and I say, this is a really cool game, I think you would like that. Then there's a very low barrier of entry. And even if I make you sign up, I think it feels like creating an account on a website is a low commitment versus putting another app on my phone and creating an account.

20:30So I think the web isn't dead because it is quite a low barrier way of disseminating information and doing whatever you want to do on your website. But I don't think the web exclusively works without some measure of distribution network where your audience is. I'm going to challenge you on that because some of the most popular games that happened the past five years don't have a website. And the way they grab users or scoop up users is through traditional marketing, which is basically just running ads. Huh, interesting. And they are, or some of them are billion dollar businesses. Like for example, that Robert the King game.

21:18Why have I never heard of that? I don't remember what the name is called, but there's a king in there and the king is called Robert. I don't know why I remember that. And then it's basically Candy Crush style game where you have to make a set somehow And then Robert is saved or something like that. Oh, those. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen an ad for that. That's true. OK. Yeah. And that is at least a multimillion dollar business. Bananas. And the way they do it is they don't have a website. Or if they have, they have it for the terms of service or something like that. And it is a highly addictive game.

21:58They don't need a website, essentially. I imagine that if they wanted to, they could put the terms of service within the app or the privacy policy or something like that. So yeah, I think it goes back to the, it depends, like what are you doing and why are you doing it? Because it might be that whatever you are trying to achieve doesn't really need a website. And with some traditional marketing, you can achieve anything that you like with that particular niche. But then for other things, you might need, I don't know, a 24-hour salesperson, as in your website, that guides people through, I don't know, a checkout process or something.

22:38So what are we saying? We are saying it depends. I think it depends. I think a website is fundamentally, it ends up being a tool. And you have to decide if you need it or don't. but I think if you want to make information available to as many people as possible or make your services available or visible to as many people as possible, I guess a website still is the way to go in 2026. It's my opinion. What if we break it down? So from data sovereignty perspective, you are probably better off with a website because on your website, you can do whatever you like in the limits of whatever your hoster allows, but that's usually wider than whatever social networks allow, right?

23:29True, yeah. You have control over monetization on your website. You can do affiliate links, you can do ads, you can do sweepstakes, you can do whatever. Well, actually, sweepstakes are not monetization. Anyway, wow, I suck at this.

23:50then if you have a service then you might need a website right yeah i would say so because content you can just put up in a linkedin post or a facebook post probably not instagram well it depends on the content if it's a picture then sure or video but then if you want long-form content that you know is not going to be bothered by some moderators which goes back to the data sovereignty point then you would put it up on your website right but then if you are a service you probably cannot put it on a social media platform because well they just don't support i don't know calculators or uh yeah http status code collector game gotta catch them off gotta catch them all i don't know where i stand on legitimacy test honestly i don't know either because i'd rather have a nicely curated social media presence that exudes trustworthiness than a website that is not well done yeah i guess but then it can act as a home base for you yeah Or like a Linktree kind of thing is fine.

25:09That's better than an illegitimate looking website without HTTPS that produces a warning in the browser when I open it. Yeah. I don't know. I think with Linktree, you have to curate it well. Because honestly, I can't recall a single Linktree site. I can recall some of the creators that I follow that are using Linktree as their home base. But that's okay. That's fine. I'm old. That's why. Let's blame my age. And then with a website, you can probably guide easier users to do conversions. So we are not saying that you should definitely have a website. Think about what you're trying to get across and what's the best way to get it in front of the people you want to get in touch with.

26:02And I think a website can still be that, but doesn't have to be. There's other options as well. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I think that's a good conclusion. And I think my take is that you do whatever you like that accomplishes the thing that you need. Yeah. I think that's a good take. Basically, if you need a website, do a website. If you can achieve whatever you need with a social network, do a social network. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. I think that's fine. Okay. Cool. Good talk. Good talking to you, Gary. Yeah. Are you off to lunch now? I'm off to lunch now. Okay. I don't know what I'll have for lunch, but I'm off to lunch now.

26:43Are you ordering in some food? No. I have some food at home, surprisingly. Oh. That you ordered? No, I bought in a supermarket and I will have to prepare. Oh, so you didn't use any service? No, not this time. You didn't use any service. Okay, fine. I did use a website to find the opening hours. For your kitchen? No, for the supermarket. Oh, really? Yeah. Why do I know that my preferred Coop and Mikko are all open until nine on weekdays? I didn't know if they were open, like, the special holidays. Ah, okay. Fair enough. Fine, fine. All right, and then I think I'm going to let you go. Okay, bye.

27:32And don't go too far because we might record a second episode, just because I have more ideas. How about that? And for you, listener, I hope you were having fun, and thank you for joining us. please like and subscribe and if you see Martin on the internet say hi to him not to me goodbye Dankeschön, auf Wiedersehen

28:01We've been having fun with these podcast episodes I hope you, the listener, have found them both entertaining and insightful too Feel free to drop us a note on Twitter at Google Search C or chat with us at one of the next events we go to if you have any thoughts. And of course, don't forget to like and subscribe. Thank you and goodbye.