02 — DATA SOURCES · «DOES THE SYSTEM DEPEND ON A BROWSER?»
2 / 11 BOARDSThe browser is the pilot's workaround. The product never opens one.
Four sources are read by hand in their apps during the pilots. Each has an API or a paid data vendor. That is what the software would call, on a schedule.
4 of 10 sources need a person in a browser, in the pilot Trends Explore, the ChatGPT app, the Gemini app, a Google search for AI Overviews. By design.
0 of 10 need a browser in the product Each of the four has an API or a paid data vendor. No page opened, no app automated.
2 steps stay human on purpose Picking the signal that becomes a brief, and writing the action.
Ten sources, two lanes
a person in a browser an API or vendor, unattended a feed or file, already automatableGoogle Trends, Explore rising questions, by country
Opened each morning for the head terms. No official API.
A Trends data vendor, or Google's Trends API once open to all.
vendor · cents a requestGoogle Trending Now 10 trending topics a day, per country
A public feed. A 07:30 scheduled task can already fetch it.
Same feed, fetched on a schedule, matched to the head terms.
freeOfficial sources government, embassy, visa-centre pages
Pages listed at onboarding, opened by hand; the task can fetch and compare them.
Fetch and compare daily; a changed page becomes a signal.
near zeroSearch Console the client's own queries and pages
One export from the client at onboarding, opened once.
The Search Console API, after the client consents once.
freeThe client's pages the 20 watched URLs
Opened by hand to judge: cited, not cited, outdated, no page.
A crawl records changes; «outdated» judged by a model, confirmed by a person.
near zeroChatGPT the answer customers get, and its sources
Asked in the app. Its terms do not allow automation; the app is what customers see.
The OpenAI API with web search; each observation labelled «API».
cents an answerClaude same: answer and sources
Already through its API in the pilot, labelled «API (Claude only)».
The Claude API with web search, on a schedule.
about $0.04 an answerGemini same: answer and sources
Asked in the Gemini app, by hand, for the same reasons.
The Gemini API with Google Search grounding; labelled «API».
cents an answerGoogle AI Overviews Google's own AI answer and whom it cites
A Google search in the browser. No API from Google; its terms forbid automated searches.
A search-results vendor that returns the AI Overview block by query and country.
vendor · cents a searchDelivery to the client the four briefs and urgent corrections
Email, written and sent by hand.
The Brief screen plus a system email; the client ticks what was done.
near zeroWhy the pilot uses the apps, what the product does instead, and the honest gap
WHY THE PILOT USES THE APPS The app answer is the one that sells. Customers type into ChatGPT, Gemini and Google, not into an API. «Gemini tells your customers the wrong file size» is checked in Gemini, by a person, and the client can repeat it in a minute.
WHAT THE PRODUCT DOES INSTEAD Every engine through its API. Every search through a vendor. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google all sell programmatic answers with web search. AI Overviews come from a search-results vendor. The software asks on a schedule, stores the answer and the cited sites, and shows the method on each one.
THE HONEST GAP API answers are not the app's answers. Different prompts, personalisation and memory mean the API can cite different sites. The product labels each observation and never claims the app's answer. How often they differ is not known today; measure it with Claude before any build.
Two steps stay human on purpose
Collecting is a machine's job. Judging is kept with a person until the pilots show a model does it as well.1Which signal becomes a brief. Of 10–20 rows a week, at most three reach the editor.
2Writing the action. A model can draft it; a person signs it, because the client acts on it.
For the radar trial now: the Trending Now feed and the official pages can be collected by a 07:30 Riyadh scheduled task; Trends Explore and Search Console stay by hand until a vendor or API replaces them.