Foundations

Four acronyms, mostly the same thing — and a few clear distinctions worth keeping. We pulled the original definitions, checked who uses which term, and argue which one should win.

An LLM that browses the web in 2026 still answers from a training anchor months — sometimes a year or more — in the past. Knowing which knowledge comes from where, and how the two interact, is the prerequisite for any GEO strategy.

Every method GEO practitioners use to surface in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and AI Overviews — grouped into five families and rated by evidence quality. A synthesis of the published literature, vendor docs, and our own audits. The map of the discipline as of June 2026.

An honest taxonomy of the discipline that is reshaping how the web is read — by both humans and machines.