Hello Reader,

A few weeks ago, I posted a video about the current state of the internet after I had a terrible AI-generated CSS article showing up in my news feed.

I was saddened by how it was getting priority over quality content from sites like Piccalilli, Smashing Magazine, CSS-Tricks, and countless other excellent sources (I’ve put a bunch in the other links around the web section below if you’re looking for more to follow).

At the end of that video, I was feeling pretty bummed out.

I felt like AI was a threat on the web that I know, and I didn’t have any answers. I felt like it was simply the new reality of how Google and big tech in general want the web to look, and not the web I used to know.

Then, I had a conversation with Sara Joy that helped me realize something important: The web is what we make of it.

Yahoo and then Google revolutionized the web by making search a viable way to find websites and resources, but it was a vibrant and exciting place before that, and it will continue to thrive after (or perhaps despite?) them.

Whether it’s through RSS feeds, social platforms that don’t bury off-site links, sites linking to other sites, or even a webring or two, the solution isn’t to wait for someone else to fix discoverability, but to find ways to curate our own version of the web.

We can consume the web however we want.

If AI-generated answers work for you, that’s fantastic.

Maybe you have an extension that strips out the AI stuff of the search engine you use (there are a few of these, but I haven’t tested any so I won’t link to them as I have no idea about their quality).

Maybe you use a different search provider that hasn’t added AI to it (yet).

Maybe you find content in new ways now, or you use a combination of different methods.

The web is ever evolving and changing, but those changes don’t have to define how we use it.

Granted, they will influence things in some ways, and there is nothing we can do about that, especially when mega corporations are pouring billions of dollars into making the parts they control work the way they want.

That helpless feeling was what bummed me out in the first place.

But the beauty of the web, since the very beginning of it, has always been that we have the freedom to use it however we want.

So, I won’t be an old man yelling at the clouds, because the web is not like a neighbourhood being gentrified. No one is coming and knocking old websites down.

Some avenues that we used to find our way around might be a lot harder to navigate now, but when needed, we can find alternative routes because we can choose how we wish to travel it (or surf it, as one might say).

🙋‍♂️ What I’ve been up to this week Normally, I put the Podcast section lower down, but this conversation with Sara is what inspired this entire newsletter, so it gets to go at the top of this section 😊. ​ You can also listen to the audio-only version if you'd prefer. State of CSS in 2025 with Adam Argyle and Kevin Powell ​ Speaking of Podcasts, I was on the PodRocket podcast along with Adam Argyle to nerd out about CSS, talking about a lot of new features that come from pre-processors, like nesting, mixins, and functions, as well as scroll-driven animations, view transitions, and even a bit about Tailwind, among a lot of other things. If you’d prefer the audio-only version, it’s also on Spotify and Apple Music. 2 reasons you should abe using single color gradients in CSS ​ The title of this one says it all… except I also came in with a bonus tip at the end, looking at animating gradients as well! You can find the finished code from that one here.

🏁

Have a fantastic week!
Kevin

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