Glossary term 25 of 33
Query fan-out
The decomposition of one user question into many simultaneous sub-queries, each retrieving different content, which the system then synthesises into a single answer.
What does Query fan-out mean?
The decomposition of one user question into many simultaneous sub-queries, each retrieving different content, which the system then synthesises into a single answer. Called query augmentation in Google's patent filings. The reason you compete for a question space rather than for a keyword.
Quoted without alteration from the glossary of ECHO: How to Make AI Recommend Your Brand.
Which ECHO pillar does Query fan-out belong to?
Query fan-out belongs to Hooks, pillar 3 of the ECHO framework. Does it find your content when the question is asked?
The third ECHO pillar. Structured, extractable, self-contained passages that an AI can lift out and attribute without losing meaning. The strongest hooks are ones only you can create: original data, proprietary research, unique analytical framing.
If it trusts you but never surfaces your content for the question being asked, the problem is Hooks. It is built in part 4: hooks, across chapter 7 and chapter 8.
A passage of content retrieved and used on its own, separated from the page it came from.
An explicit source attribution in a generated answer: the link or reference an answer engine shows for a claim.
Anchoring a generated answer in retrieved source material rather than in the model's training data alone.
The third ECHO pillar. Structured, extractable, self-contained passages that an AI can lift out and attribute without losing meaning.
What a document adds beyond what already exists on a topic.
Generating an answer from live retrieved documents rather than from training data alone.
Nearby in the glossary
The glossary runs alphabetically. Output comes before Query fan-out and Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) after it.