The series The Future of the Web is a detailed look at where the open Internet can end up in several years. Throughout the five posts, there’s a common thread of recycled terms that are helpful to deeply understand. I’ve extracted each of the primary terms and concepts into this glossary to help anchor concepts to words.
Core Concepts
Term
Definition
Notes
Entity
A real-world thing with interests and identity – a person, business, organization, or concept. Exists independent of the web.
The thing being represented, not the representation itself. Automattic is an entity. James is an entity. “Ergonomic chairs” as a concept is an entity.
Presence
An entity’s digital home. A website, but could also be a social profile or app. An entity can have multiple presences.
Automattic.com is Automattic’s presence. J.CV is James’s presence. A presence is owned by an entity.
Surface
A single addressable location within a presence. A page, an endpoint, a specific URL.
The atomic unit of the graph. A blog post is a surface. A product page is a surface.
Content
The actual information – text, media, structured data, products. Lives within surfaces.
What gets consumed, synthesized, presented.
Agents & Actors
Term
Definition
Notes
Agent
An AI system that can take actions, not just respond. Has goals, can traverse, can execute.
Generic term for any AI with agency. Includes both user delegates and site delegates.
Delegate
An agent acting on behalf of a principal (person or entity). Has defined interests it serves.
A delegate always has a principal. The principal sets guidelines and constraints.
User Delegate
A delegate acting on behalf of a person. Receives delegated tasks, pursues goals, returns results.
“Book me a flight” → user delegate goes and does it. The user is the principal.
Site Delegate
A delegate that represents a presence. Answers queries, presents content, negotiates, defends the entity’s interests.
The entity (or presence owner) is the principal. This is what a website would expose.
Intermediary
An AI layer between user and content that synthesizes but doesn’t act. This is what actually exists in production in early 2026.
Perplexity, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT with browsing. User still makes decisions and takes action.
Interactions
Term
Definition
Notes
Traversal
Moving through the graph – following links, searching, discovering surfaces across presences.
What agents do to find information.
Synthesis
Combining content from multiple surfaces into an answer or understanding.
What intermediaries do. What user delegates do before acting.
Negotiation
Back-and-forth between delegates to reach an outcome.
User delegate and site delegate negotiate on price, terms, fit.
Conversion
The goal state – answered question, completed purchase, booked appointment.
The atomic unit of value on the web.
Attribution
The record that content was accessed, used for compensation.
Logged when an intermediary or agent accesses full content.
The Shifting Models
Term
Definition
Notes
Consumption Model
How content gets to the user.
Legacy: user reads directly. Emerging: AI synthesizes, user receives answer.
Discovery Model
How surfaces get found.
Legacy: search rankings, user clicks. Emerging: agents traverse autonomously.