What we searched
Every sentence in this guide that says "we found no published …" links here. Each record says what we looked for, which pages we opened, when, and what each page said. The fuller notes, with the exact passages, are kept privately.
Citation and mention
Looked for: a definition of "citation" or "mention" in AI answers, published by Google, OpenAI, Perplexity or Anthropic. When: 29 October 2026, about 08:10 to 08:25 UTC. Opened:
| Publisher | Page | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| AI Mode help | Tells users to "click the links for AI sources"; no definition | |
| AI Overviews help | Mentions "links to dig deeper"; no definition | |
| Guide to its generative AI features (updated 10 July 2026) | Mentions "clickable links to relevant web pages"; no definition | |
| Perplexity | How does Perplexity work? | "numbered citations linking to the original sources"; no definition |
| Anthropic | Enable and use web search | "Every response includes citations"; no definition |
| Anthropic | Web search tool (developer docs) | "Citations are always enabled for web search"; no definition |
| OpenAI | Web search guide (developer docs) | Responses "include inline citations"; no definition |
| OpenAI | ChatGPT search help article | Could not be read: the page refused our request (HTTP 403) |
Result: none of the pages we could read defines either term. OpenAI's help article for ChatGPT search could not be read on 29 October; it was read on 3 November (below).
Re-checked 3 November 2026: we read OpenAI's help article in a browser. It now says "Responses that use web search may include citations. Select a citation to open its source." It gives no definition either.
Google-Extended and AI Overviews
Looked for: a Google page that says whether blocking Google-Extended changes whether a site appears in AI Overviews or AI Mode. When: 29 October 2026, about 08:15 to 08:30 UTC. Opened:
| Page (all Google) | Date on page | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Google's common crawlers | updated 15 Oct 2026 | Google-Extended covers Gemini training and grounding in Gemini Apps and Vertex AI, and "does not impact a site's inclusion in Google Search". Does not mention AI Overviews or AI Mode |
| Guide to its generative AI features | updated 10 Jul 2026 | Does not mention Google-Extended |
| AI features and your website | updated 10 Dec 2025 | Points to Google-Extended "to limit AI training and grounding in some of Google's other systems"; for Search, points to Googlebot rules and snippet controls |
| Search generative AI control | rolled out worldwide 31 Aug 2026 | A Search Console switch for AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover. It "doesn't affect AI training; to limit training … use Google-Extended" |
| New controls for website owners | 3 Jun 2026, updated 31 Aug 2026 | Announces the switch; names Google-Extended only as an earlier tool |
| Search generative AI performance reports | 3 Jun 2026 | Does not mention Google-Extended |
| An update on web publisher controls | 28 Sep 2023 | Announces Google-Extended for Bard and Vertex AI; does not mention Search |
| Introduction to robots.txt | updated 10 Dec 2025 | Does not mention Google-Extended |
Result: no page we opened says whether blocking Google-Extended changes a site's inclusion in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Google's page for its new switch says the switch is the control for inclusion, and Google-Extended the control for training.
Re-checked 3 November 2026: Google's common crawlers page now says "Last updated 2026-10-30", and still does not mention AI Overviews or AI Mode. A Google blog post of 30 October 2026, Supporting a shared AI training control for websites, names Google-Extended but not AI Overviews or AI Mode.
The "FAQ schema 112%" figure
Looked for: the original study behind a claim that FAQ markup lifts AI citations by 112%. When: 29 October 2026, about 13:30 to 14:15 UTC. Searched: five phrasings, including "112%" with "FAQ schema", "FAQPage", "AI Overviews" and "citations". Opened, and searched for "112": articles on the subject by Frase, Onely, WP Riders, Stackmatix (two), Averi, The Plus Addons and Untap Web. None contains the figure. Result: we found no published study behind the figure, and no publisher or date for it.
Do AI crawlers read llms.txt?
Looked for: a statement by OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity, on the page describing its crawlers, that a crawler reads llms.txt. When: 29 October 2026, 13:36 UTC (each page downloaded and searched for "llms"). Opened:
| Publisher | Page | What it says about llms.txt |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Overview of OpenAI crawlers | Only "For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt": an index of OpenAI's own docs |
| Anthropic | Anthropic's crawlers | Not mentioned |
| Perplexity | Perplexity crawlers | Only as "the complete documentation index" of Perplexity's own docs |
Result: none of the three pages says its crawlers read a site's llms.txt.
How Copilot picks local businesses
Looked for: a Microsoft page that says how Copilot chooses which local businesses to name. When: 29 October 2026, about 13:30 to 14:00 UTC. Opened:
| Page (all Microsoft) | Date on page | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| Introducing the new Bing Places for Business | 3 Oct 2025 | Bing Places listings appear "in Bing search results and Bing Maps"; Copilot named only as a future plan |
| How Bing delivers search results | Mar 2025 | Business details in Bing search via Bing Places; Copilot named only in passages about testing and safeguards, not for business listings |
Result: neither page says how Copilot picks local businesses. Pages by other companies that claim to know were not used.
How long until AI assistants find a new website
Looked for: any published measurement, with a stated method, of how long ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews or Google AI Mode take to first crawl, first list, or first cite a new website. We kept apart a brand-new website (a new domain) and a new page on a site that already exists. When: 29 October 2026, 13:29 to 13:44 UTC. 26 searches, about 25 pages opened. Found:
| Who published it | What it measured | Kind of site | Method stated? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush, Dec 2025 | First citation, ChatGPT and AI Mode | 81 new pages on its own site | Yes (company blog) |
| MaxAEO, Jul 2026 | First citation, seven AI services | 740 new pages on 132 existing sites | Yes (company blog) |
| Presenc AI, Mar 2026 | First crawler visit | 300 new pages on its own site | Yes (company website) |
| Bili AI, Mar 2026 | First mention, three AI services | One brand-new business (its client) | No: a case study |
| Two developers' server logs on dev.to (one, two) | Crawler visits | Brand-new domains | Logs only, a few days |
None of these says who paid for it; each of the four companies sells AI-visibility or SEO services. We found no independent or peer-reviewed study.
Result: for a new page on an existing site, the company measurements above exist. For a brand-new website, we found no published measurement with a stated method of the time to first citation, for any of the five services; only the single case study and the logs above.
Our test: asking AI assistants for an E-E-A-T score
Not a search, but our own test, kept here with the other records. When: 30 October 2026. Who: Daniel Melter, in each assistant's own app, a new chat each time. Page: https://croftweaver.com/about, the About page of this guide's publisher. Prompt, word for word: "What is the E-E-A-T score of this page from 0 to 100? https://croftweaver.com/about Answer with the number first, then one sentence on why."
| Assistant | Scores | Read or cited the page | Noted that no official score exists |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (5.6 Sol, Pro plan) | 91, 91 | Cited it as a source | No |
| Claude (Opus, medium effort, Max plan) | about 75, 78 | Read it ("Read croftweaver.com") | Yes |
| Perplexity (free account, signed in, setting "Best") | 68, 68 | Cited it as a source | Yes |
Not recorded: the time of each run. On "Best", Perplexity picks the model and doesn't say which. Six answers say nothing about other pages or other days.
Checked on 3 November 2026.