---
format: "aidr-story-markdown/v1"
id: "b3e7eee395813d61fc13108b00e112dbff4c70ba0f2e133988c1fe57bb736dcd"
canonical_url: "https://aidr.today/b3e7eee3?lang=en"
title: "Three sites made 215,128 \"best software\" pages for AI. Perplexity cites them"
lang: "en"
requested_lang: "en"
available_langs: ["en","vi"]
translation_fallback: null
fallback_fields: []
published_at: "2026-09-02T13:59:59.000Z"
category: "Industry"
topics: ["perplexity","llm","search","data-quality"]
source_urls: ["https://trellner.com/reports/manufactured-sources-behind-ai-recommendations/","https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536375"]
summary: "Across 380 software categories, 59.8% of the sources behind grounded AI recommendations sit outside the 100,000 most-visited websites, and several of the most-cited are sites built to be read by models rather than by people."
---

# Three sites made 215,128 "best software" pages for AI\. Perplexity cites them

> [Open the canonical story](<https://aidr.today/b3e7eee3?lang=en>)

**Published:** 2026-09-02T13:59:59.000Z
**Category:** Industry
**Topics:** perplexity, llm, search, data\-quality

## Summary

Across 380 software categories, 59\.8% of the sources behind grounded AI recommendations sit outside the 100,000 most\-visited websites, and several of the most\-cited are sites built to be read by models rather than by people\.

## Sources

- [Story source](<https://trellner.com/reports/manufactured-sources-behind-ai-recommendations/>)
- [Discussion](<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49536375>)