Intelligent Engine Optimization (IEO) measures AI citation events from raw server access logs, using IEO Citation Tracker. Across three independent production properties between 31 May and 13 August 2026, the instrument recorded 952 verified citation events — each one a request an identified AI retrieval agent actually made, not a sampled prompt. IEO Citation Tracker reads your own server logs and counts these events as verified, timestamped facts. Method and denominators.
Field Note FN-001 — Two Crawler Classes: Binge Ingesters and Compounding Re-Crawlers
Each platform’s engagement ran on its own clock across 75 days — one platform compounding monthly on all three deployments while others ingested once and went silent.
High surface engagement on one platform does not guarantee engagement on others. The IEO Engine measurement framework tracks surface engagement across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Gemini, Apple Intelligence, and Microsoft Copilot independently.
Surface engagement progresses through phases: initial crawl awareness, first citation events, consistent citation patterns, and finally canonical source classification. Different platforms reach different phases on different timelines based on their retrieval and update architectures.