Query fan-out

Fan-out helps when one query is insufficient for a compound question. A system may separately search product features, current price, limitations, and independent reviews before synthesizing results. The number and wording of subqueries depend on the implementation.

Section sources:[1] Google Search Central[2] Microsoft Learn

Rewriting replaces one query with another, while fan-out creates multiple branches. Retrieval selects results within each branch, and generation combines the context. A single-query result page and domain diversity alone do not establish fan-out.

Section sources:[1] Google Search Central[2] Microsoft Learn

The question “which laptop should I buy for video editing under $1,500” could create branches for codec performance, memory, display, battery life, and current prices. This illustrates the mechanism; it does not claim that a particular platform always creates those branches.

If a product exposes executed queries, archive them with the original question, time, and results for each branch. If it does not, varying one aspect and analyzing sources can suggest a hypothesis, but it cannot reconstruct the internal trace.

Fan-out does not guarantee coverage: branches may duplicate one another, omit an important aspect, or inherit bias from the original question. More sources do not prove better verification or that every source influenced the final answer.