Mention, citation and recommendation
- Mention
- The answer names an entity. It may do so positively, negatively or without an evaluation.
- Citation
- The answer or its source panel links a source. Record the actual destination, not just the displayed domain.
- Recommendation
- The answer presents an entity or option as suitable for the reader’s stated need. Record qualifications and sentiment.
- Support
- The linked source actually substantiates the relevant claim. This requires reading it; the presence of a link is not the check.
These are this wiki’s measurement definitions. Google describes its AI features as providing links to supporting websites and warns that the responses and links can vary between features. Source: Google.
Check what the citation supports
- Save the answer, exact prompt, product, mode and collection time.
- Open the linked source and locate the passage relevant to the answer.
- Compare subject, date, scope and caveats. Watch for a source about one location being applied to a whole company.
- Record the origin and editorial control of the source.
- Mark support as supported, partial, contradicted or unverifiable, with a reason.
This is a manual audit protocol, not a description of an engine’s internal checks. The measurement entry explains how to retain these fields without turning missing data into a negative result.
Example: a linked opening-hours claim
Illustrative example. An answer says a museum is open on Monday and links the museum’s visitor page. The page says it opens Mondays only during a seasonal exhibition. A citation is present, but the answer’s unqualified year-round claim is not supported.
The museum’s official page is an appropriate first-party source for its own hours. It is not independent evidence that the museum is the best attraction in the city. The same URL can be strong evidence for one claim and irrelevant to another.
What a citation cannot establish
A citation does not prove that a reader clicked, converted or became a customer. Nor does it establish independent agreement when multiple links repeat the same originating claim. See entity corroboration.
Google reports traffic from its AI features within the overall Web search type in Search Console. That aggregate is not a transcript of the particular prompts an observer tested. Source: Google. Keep observed citations, measured site visits and commercial outcomes separate.