url (inline reference) reference/url

What it is

A content_reference with type: "url" marks a link placed directly in the answer text, such as the name of a shop or company linking to its site. The reference points to a search hit (turn0search2) or a safe_url. Measured 22 Aug 2026: url references in 10 of 19 searching standard runs, one to three per answer. For K8-01 (Telekom customer service) on 21 Aug a url reference was the only reference, without any search, from model knowledge.

External evidence

• RESONEO (Olivier de Segonzac), teardown February 2026: in-text citations as a separate visibility tier.

For visibility

A link in the text gets clicked; a footnote rarely does. For navigational and local queries the url reference is the form in which a brand actually receives traffic from ChatGPT. That it can arise without a search (K8-01, 21 Aug) shows the model sets known URLs from memory, guarded by safe_urls.

External sources

segonzac-2026-02-01

Change history

No event has touched this object yet.

Open

• Which answers get url references instead of a footnote? Observed for local, entity, comparison and navigational questions (K1, K6, K7, K8, K11-01), not for product and news questions.

Related

sources_footnote grouped_webpages / search_result_groups entity (entity markup)