- “Best” is #1. For advice-style questions (“Should I use X?”, “Do you recommend Y?”), ChatGPT injects “best” into 24.3% of fan-outs — nearly every fourth answer. “Which Samsung Galaxy should I get?” becomes “best Samsung Galaxy phones comparison 2026”. This is why listicles built around “10 Best…” match what AI is actually searching — see Why listicles get cited.
- “Reviews” is #3. ChatGPT hunts for review content even when the user never asked for reviews. Review sites — including small ones like Sitejabber — directly shape how AI describes brands; see Review sites in AI search.
- Current year in 5.44% of prompts (Grok adds it even more often). Fresh, dated content is more retrievable — updating the pages already cited by AI beats refreshing a whole site.
Words ChatGPT secretly adds to fan-out searches — best, top, reviews
Peec’s 5M fan-out analysis (Apr 2026) — “best” is the word ChatGPT injects most, in 24.3% of fan-outs for advice questions; “reviews” ranks third, and the current year is added in 5.44% of prompts.
ChatGPT reshapes user questions by injecting words into its hidden fan-out searches. Peec analyzed 5 million query fan-outs collected April 1–21, 2026 (full study); top injected words: best, top, comparison, reviews, tools, software, features.