A workbench of small, curious experiments I've been working on

On September 1, 2026 I asked ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity the same 18 questions a real traveller might ask — things like “best small-group trekking operators for the Dolomites?” — and recorded every company each one recommended.

What stood out

• Across the three tools there were 212 recommendations covering 127 different companies. Claude named the most (90), well ahead of Perplexity (62) and ChatGPT (60) — so the tool you ask changes who you hear about.
• Almost every mention was the AI's own suggestion: 205 of the 212 mentions were companies the question never named.
• Just over half the mentions came with a link (122 of 212). A link isn't proof — it only shows the AI pointed somewhere.
• The AIs called 145 mentions a strong match for the traveller's request. That's their claim, reviewed separately, not verified here.

This is a snapshot of one week, not a ranking. The other tabs show the exact questions, every company mentioned, and how the three tools compared question by question.