GEO glossary
Answer engine
An answer engine is a search or assistant system that returns a single synthesised answer to a query rather than a ranked list of links. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews are answer engines.
Unlike a traditional search engine, an answer engine decides which few sources to synthesise and name. That makes being one of those cited sources, not just ranking, the goal.
Related terms
- Large language model (LLM) — The AI model behind assistants like ChatGPT and Claude.
- Google AI Overviews — AI-generated summaries shown atop Google results.
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — Optimising a brand to be cited inside AI-generated answers.
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