Glossary · Topic 06 · 8 terms
Search Technology
How AI surfaces and answer engines actually retrieve, rank, and present results.
AI OverviewsGoogle's AI-generated summary above the search results.AI-First IndexingAn emerging pattern where search systems prioritize machine-parseable formats over rendered HTML.Canonical URLThe one address you declare as the real home of a page, for when the same content can be reached at several.Passage-Level RankingWhen AI and search engines rank individual passages within a page rather than the whole page.Search Generative Experience (SGE)Google's earlier name for AI-augmented search results.Semantic SearchSearch that matches by meaning rather than keyword.sitemap.xmlAn XML file listing the pages you want crawlers to find, with the date each one last changed.Zero-Click SearchSearch results that answer the query directly, with no click required.
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