# Answer engine

> A search product that returns a written answer instead of a list of links.

## What it means in practice

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews all compose prose and attach a set of sources. The distinction that matters for measurement is that the answer text and the source list are separate signals: a brand can be named in the prose without being cited, and cited without being named. Ranking has no single position to report, because the answer is one block rather than ten results.

## Category

Concept in Answer surfaces.
This definition is editorial category vocabulary, not a metric refd computes.