B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
493 days
493 days -- median age of cited sources for Google Search (automotive) (2026)
The median age of sources cited by Google Search in the automotive category was 492.9 days.
Attribution:
View source
Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
·
How we verify data →
Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
493 days
Unit
Duration Days
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
75
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Comparative AI search study
Primary
Tier B
https://digitalstrategyforce.com/journal/how-far-ahead-do-you-have-to-publish-to-get-cited-by-ai/ ↗
Source Article
How Far Ahead Do You Have to Publish to Get Cited by AI? | Digital Strategy Force
How Far Ahead Do You Have to Publish to Get Cited by AI?
The material AI engines cite has a measurable median age, and it ranges from 62.3 days to 492.9 depending on which engine and which category. That figure is not a curiosity about retrieval. It is a publishing deadline, computed backwards from …
Original Research
Comparative AI search study
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Comparative study of cited-source age by engine and category
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
Google Search (automotive): 493 days median age of cited sources. Source: Comparative AI search study (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/google-cited-source-age-automotive
HTML Embed
<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/google-cited-source-age-automotive" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>493 days</strong> -- median age of cited sources for Google Search (automotive)<br><small>Source: Comparative AI search study (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/google-cited-source-age-automotive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
Share
Related Statistics
Use this data in your work
Copy the citation, embed the widget, or explore thousands more verified marketing statistics -- all free.