Sources
The external research, platform documentation, and industry analysis we cite across the blog. Every stat we publish traces back to one of these. We favor peer-reviewed work, first-party platform data, and independent research over vendor claims.
Academic and peer-reviewed research
Characterizing Web Search in the Age of Generative AI
arXiv preprint
A study of 4,706 queries measuring how little AI-cited sources overlap with traditional organic rankings.
arxiv.org
GEO: Generative Engine Optimization
ACM SIGKDD 2024
Peer-reviewed study (ACM KDD 2024) benchmarking how a page’s content changes its visibility in AI answers across 10,000 queries. Our source for the finding that adding quotations, statistics, and citations lifts AI visibility.
dl.acm.org
Source Coverage and Citation Bias in LLM-based vs. Traditional Search Engines
arXiv preprint
A study of 55,936 queries finding that AI search engines favor pages that are more readable and more hierarchically structured.
arxiv.org
ChatGPT Referrals to E-Commerce Websites: How Do LLMs Compare Against Traditional Channels?
Marketing Science (INFORMS)
Peer-reviewed analysis (Marketing Science, INFORMS) of ChatGPT referral traffic and conversion across 973 e-commerce sites.
pubsonline.informs.org
Surveys and research firms
Americans and AI 2026
Pew Research Center
Nationally representative survey (n=5,119 US adults) on AI chatbot use and how many people read AI search summaries.
pewresearch.org
Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears
Pew Research Center
A tracked-browsing study (n=900) measuring how AI summaries reduce clicks to traditional search results.
pewresearch.org
Platform and first-party
schema.org
schema.org
The open structured-data vocabulary co-founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex in 2011.
schema.org
Introduction to structured data markup in Google Search
Google Search Central
Google Search Central’s reference for JSON-LD and schema markup.
developers.google.com
Rich Results Test
Google Search Central
Google’s tool for validating structured data on a page.
search.google.com
ChatGPT reaches 900M weekly active users
TechCrunch (reporting OpenAI)
Reporting on OpenAI’s disclosure that ChatGPT reached 900 million weekly active users (February 2026).
techcrunch.com
Google AI Overviews have 2B monthly users
TechCrunch (reporting Alphabet Q2 2025)
Reporting on Alphabet’s Q2 2025 disclosure that Google AI Overviews reached 2 billion monthly users.
techcrunch.com
Industry analysis
Other references
a16z, “How Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Rewrites the Rules of Search”
a16z.com
Bain and Company, “Goodbye Clicks, Hello AI: Zero-Click Search Redefines Marketing”
bain.com
Jaccard index
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Grounding overview
Google Cloud Vertex AI
cloud.google.com
Grounding with Google Search
Google AI for Developers
ai.google.dev
Web search tool
OpenAI Platform
platform.openai.com
Chat Completions API reference
Perplexity
docs.perplexity.ai
Better Business Bureau
BBB
bbb.org
Reddit signs AI content deal with Google
Reuters
reuters.com
How OpenAI is positioning ChatGPT ads at Cannes Lions
Marketing Dive
marketingdive.com