Podcast Summary: Voices of Search — "The End of the Directory Era"

Host: Jordan Cooney
Guest: John Levesque, Founder and CEO of Seek
Date: November 10, 2025

Overview

This episode of the Voices of Search podcast investigates the seismic shift from traditional online directories to new "experience networks" in the context of travel, content, and search marketing. Host Jordan Cooney sits down with John Levesque, who discusses how social media and AI are enabling a creator-driven, trust-based ecosystem and why legacy directory platforms like Yelp and TripAdvisor are losing relevance. The conversation highlights actionable opportunities for creators and marketers in the evolving digital landscape.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Corporate to Creator: John’s Journey

• [02:32] John Levesque recounts leaving his corporate roles at Microsoft and DocuSign to start Seek, motivated by the desire to solve meaningful problems he personally experienced.
  • "It actually started with a decision that I wanted to leave corporate life ... I wanted to create something because I saw so many folks ... find their path to independence and wealth." — John Levesque ([02:32])
• John identified two core issues:
  1. Frustration with impersonal, pay-to-play directories (like Yelp)
  2. The fragmented and difficult process of planning travel.

2. The Directory Model: Its Rise and Decline

• [08:09] Traditional directories (Yelp, TripAdvisor) are analogs to old-school file cabinets—organizing information in static, tabular formats.
• [11:44] The core problem today: trust and utility have plummeted in anonymous online reviews due to fake content and pay-for-placement bias.
  • "I don't think the anonymous faceless review holds any value any longer. ... Google Local killed it. Like 2023, they removed 480 million fake reviews." — John Levesque ([11:44])
• Directories now primarily serve those who pay for placement rather than users seeking genuine advice.

3. The Trust Economy & The Rise of Experience Networks

• [09:16] John posits that humanity is moving back toward interpersonal, trusted recommendations, facilitated by social media and influencer culture.
  • "This, I believe, is how we actually are meant to search and to find ... humanity traded information one to one, face to face ... This influencer movement, this trust economy is our attempt to go back to this." — John Levesque ([10:25])
• [15:26] Experience networks bridge the gap between inspiration and action—allowing users to go from discovering a creator’s content to directly booking or purchasing the experience.
  • "The Experience Network brings those two things together ... inspiration and action are very disconnected. And so the Experience Network, I think, brings those two things together." — John Levesque ([15:26])
• Example: Seek uses AI to turn travel influencer content into bookable itineraries.

4. Monetization and Economics — New Models for Creators

• [18:08] Traditional directories rely on billions in advertising; creators typically see little to no compensation for inspiring consumer action.
• [20:01] Experience networks empower creators by associating affiliate partnerships, providing creators with a substantial share (up to 70%) of the revenue generated when audiences act (e.g., book trips, buy products).
  • "We have given this tool set to creators in this way where now when somebody books that trip ... you get paid." — John Levesque ([22:34])
• Affiliate partnerships for hotels, airlines, and other services mean that when an audience acts after being inspired, the creator is credited and compensated.

5. Solving Discovery: SEO and the Broken Click Economy

• [23:19] Jordan notes that the old internet compact—creators supply content, platforms drive traffic in return—is broken by AI and algorithmic shifts reducing actual clicks to creator sites.
• [25:11] Seek addresses this by enabling creators to own their audiences and get direct attribution, bypassing restrictive qualification thresholds and opaque algorithms.
  • "These people are not allowed to build a business, right? They are content engines for the platforms to vacuum up the value from. ... we have OAUTH to all the other platforms ... you get to own your audience." — John Levesque ([25:11], paraphrased)
• [29:10] Seek automatically generates SEO-optimized webpages from creators' social media content, bridging social and traditional search for enhanced organic reach.
  • "When you take a video from TikTok and run it through the Seek AI, what happens is we create you a beautiful SEO optimized ... webpage." — John Levesque ([29:10])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the value of community-led growth:
  "If you listen to a community and if you actually build the things they're telling you, they buy more from you. Amazingly right. It's wonderful how that worked out." — John Levesque ([04:31])

• On the decline of directory reviews:
  "TripAdvisor ... its utility peaked in like 2012 or 2015 tops. And, and now we've just been living in these. They're de facto. But it's not because we trust them ... it's because it's what we have." — John Levesque ([12:27])

• On the broken incentives of directories:
  "The consumer ... wants a certain experience and is getting blasted with bullshit because people paid to get in front of them." — John Levesque ([14:02])

• On creators owning their audiences:
  "... if you booked from me, right, I would get your name and email address so that I could then contact you further ... And now I, as a travel creator, am not only able to monetize, but I'm able to build a business on my terms." — John Levesque ([25:11])

• On the future of AI and Search:
  "I think ... a lot of people are, oh, my God, AI is killing search. I think, like, if we're realistic, it took like, like 12, 12% of the search. Like 12% search reduction versus AI. Like, it wasn't massive. ... People want choice." — John Levesque ([29:10]–[31:01])

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:43] — The episode’s set-up: Why influencer recommendations matter more than classic directories
• [02:32] — John’s backstory: Corporate life to startup founder
• [08:09] — Why directories are “dying”: File cabinet to AI-laced algorithms
• [11:44] — The failure of reviews and trust crisis in directories
• [15:26] — Defining “experience networks” and their economic advantages
• [19:57] — How experience networks directly reward creators
• [23:19] — The broken traffic-for-content paradigm, and the promise of Seek for creators
• [29:10] — Seek’s SEO tools: Giving social creators organic reach and audience data

Conclusion & How to Engage

Takeaways:

• The era of large, impersonal, pay-to-play directories is ending.
• Trust-based, creator-driven experience networks are establishing new digital pathways, leveraging AI for actionable, bookable content.
• For marketers and SEO professionals, this shift means new opportunities—and imperatives—for supporting creators, leveraging affiliate models, and ensuring direct relationships with audiences.

Where to Learn More or Get Involved:

• Visit Seek: seq.ing (Try tools, onboarding is currently 1:1)
• Read John’s Substack: seqing.substack.com for updates on Seek’s journey and the “State of Seek.”
• Connect via LinkedIn: Link available in show notes or on voicesofsearch.com.

This summary captures the critical themes and discussions of the episode, providing clear insights into the decline of directory platforms and the rise of creator-centric, experience-powered networks in SEO and content marketing.