Concepts
Answer engine
An answer engine responds to a question with a composed answer rather than a list of links. ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode are all answer engines, and they differ enough in how they retrieve and cite that a brand's standing has to be measured on each one separately.
Why we report per engine
Engines disagree with each other. Published analyses put the shared sources between Google AI Overviews and AI Mode at around 14%, and the overlap between ChatGPT and Perplexity lower still. Some engines retrieve live pages and cite them; others answer largely from what the model already holds. A single blended number hides which of those is happening to you.
Assistant or search feature
The term covers both standalone assistants and answer surfaces attached to a search engine. The distinction matters for measurement, because a search-attached surface inherits that engine's index and ranking signals, while a standalone assistant may be working from something quite different.
Related terms
- AI visibility — What we measure across these engines.
- AI Overviews and AI Mode — Two Google surfaces that behave differently enough to track apart.
- Citation — What an engine attributes when it shows its sources — and many do not.
- Query fan-out — What happens inside an engine between the question and the answer.
Last reviewed . Definitions are reviewed quarterly, and whenever the underlying measurement changes.
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