Grounding

In this observatory, grounding means verifiable support for an answer in supplied context or retrieved sources. Source availability is not enough; the semantic relationship matters, so a reviewer should be able to show which evidence passage supports which claim.

Section sources:[1] Google Search Central[2] Google Gemini Help

Retrieval selects context, attribution displays sources to the user, and grounding concerns whether the answer follows that context. An answer may show tidy links yet make a stronger conclusion than the sources permit; attribution exists, but grounding is weak.

Section sources:[1] Google Search Central[2] Google Gemini Help

A source says a feature is available to some users, while the AI says it is available to everyone. The link points to the right page, but the quantifier changed. The answer is not fully grounded even though the domain and topic match.

Split the answer into checkable claims, open the final URLs, and code each claim as fully supported, partially supported, contradicted, or unsupported. Preserve the supporting passage and date because the source page may change after the answer.

Even a fully grounded answer may be incomplete, use a stale corpus, or omit an important source. A grounding assessment proves neither retrieval quality, coverage, neutrality of selection, nor future repeatability.