Joey Adelman and Matthew Huo
/Product
Introducing Citation Decay in Profound
For every cited URL, Profound tracks week over week citation counts to show the full lifetime of a citation.
Blog
News and updates about Profound
Ryan Van
/Company
Profound named as a Representative Vendor in the 2026 Gartner® Market Guide for Answer Engine Visibility Tools
Profound has been named a Representative Vendor in Gartner's first Market Guide for Answer Engine Visibility Tools. Here's why it matters.
Jasman Singh
/Research
Where do AI citations come from?
This is an observational analysis on approximately ~12 billion AI citations. The study works to understand how answer engine citation preferences differ by industry and model across 29 industries and 8 LLMs.
Allen Wu
/Research
Breaking down how ChatGPT Shopping works behind the user experience
For the first time, we piece together how ChatGPT shopping works behind the user experience, piecing components together, from user query to product search to card-offer relationship, to help merchants truly begin to understand how to approach AI shopping. Here's what over 200k shopping prompts revealed.
Josh Blyskal and Layla Baradaran
/Technology
The click had a good run
AI agents are replacing traditional browsing with task execution, making the click and the funnels built around it less relevant. Brands that optimize for machine users will be the ones chosen in this new era.
Federico Minaya and Charles Zhou
/Technology
Bring Profound data directly into your AI workflow with MCP
Query AI visibility reports, bot analytics, and citation data directly from Claude Desktop and other AI tools. New MCP server, TypeScript SDK, and Python SDK make Profound's Agent Analytics instantly accessible in your workflow—no API wrestling required.
Charles Zhou
/Technology
Agents are users: Why the Cloudflare-Perplexity fight misses the point
The recent Cloudflare-Perplexity dispute reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about the future of the web. As AI agents become the primary way users interact with online content, we need to rethink our approach to web infrastructure.
Nick Lafferty
/Technology
AEO vs. GEO: Why they're the same thing (and why we prefer AEO)
Understanding the difference between Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and why they're essentially the same strategy.
Dylan Babbs
/Technology
Introducing next‑aeo: Optimize your Next.js app for AI visibility
We're thrilled to announce next‑aeo, a new NPM package from Profound designed for Next.js developers who care not just about SEO, but AEO (AI Engine Optimization). It builds a bridge between your app and today's answer‑driven LLMs.
Dylan Babbs
/Technology
Profound Agent Analytics is now a one‑click Vercel integration
Today, we're excited to launch the Profound Agent Analytics integration on the Vercel Marketplace — a simple, one-click way to gain powerful insights into how AI systems interact with your site.
Nick Lafferty
/Technology
AI Platform Citation Patterns: How ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity Source Information
New research reveals drastically different citation patterns between major AI platforms. Understand how ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity source their information differently and what it means for AI visibility.
Josh Blyskal
/Technology
Google AI Mode confirms chat is the future of search
Google is finally admitting that chat is the future of search. Bye-bye blue links, hello AI Mode.
Josh Blyskal
/Technology
Claude web search explained
On March 20, 2025, Anthropic released Web Search for Claude.ai, transforming it from a static LLM into an Answer Engine just like ChatGPT with Bing, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews. However, the critical insight is now clear: Claude leverages Brave Search as its primary search backend, confirmed by a statistically significant overlap of 86.7% (13 out of 15 total results) between Claude's cited results and Brave Browser's top non-sponsored results.
Charles Zhou
/Technology
Seeing what customers see: Direct AI search engine monitoring vs. API limitations
Discover why RAG systems outperform API-only approaches for monitoring AI brand visibility. Learn how real-time retrieval provides deeper insights to protect your digital presence across large language models.
Charles Zhou
/Technology
Understanding Grok: A comprehensive guide to Grok WebSearch, Grok DeepSearch
Explore Grok's innovative search mechanisms - Grok Websearch and Grok DeepSearch. Learn how these xAI technologies work together with Profound Agent Analytics to deliver precise, contextually relevant answers.
Josh Blyskal
/Technology
Agent Experience (AX): The AI-first manifesto
Unlock the power of Agent Experience (AX) with our definitive AI-First Manifesto. Discover why savvy platforms are embracing AI agents (beyond chatbots) to streamline sign-ups, simplify workflows, and capture high-value leads. Stay ahead of the competition with actionable insights and expert strategies for an AI-driven future.
Charles Zhou
/Technology
X-Forwarded-For for AI agents
On January 23, 2025, OpenAI introduced Operator, a groundbreaking AI system that can control a web browser to perform tasks on behalf of users. This marks a significant evolution in how AI interacts with the web—moving from passive crawling to active browsing. While this advancement brings exciting possibilities, it also presents a fundamental challenge: How can websites understand and serve the actual user behind the AI agent?
Charles Zhou
/Technology
Tracking DeepSeek R1: First reasoning model to master web search
In a stunning development that's reshaping the AI landscape, DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has recently made waves with their open-source R1 model. Released in January 2025, DeepSeek R1 has garnered attention not just for matching OpenAI's capabilities at a fraction of the cost (90-95% less), but also for being the first to successfully integrate web search into a reasoning-focused language model.
Charles Zhou
/Technology
OpenAI's operator: AI agents and your brand
On January 23 2025, OpenAI released Operator, marking a significant evolution in how AI interacts with the web. At Profound, we've conducted an extensive analysis of this new technology, leveraging our expertise in AI system behavior to uncover crucial insights for brands and businesses.
Charles Zhou
/Technology
What we discovered about AI crawlers via server log analysis
In December 2024, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of AI crawler behavior by processing millions of server requests across various high-traffic websites. Our findings fundamentally challenge conventional wisdom about web analytics and content optimization for AI systems. Here's our deep dive into the methodology, findings, and implications for web architecture.
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