For journalists, researchers and anyone who wants to quote the research. The fastest route is contact@jacobwhitmore.com.
Who I am
I’m Jacob Whitmore. I’ve spent around 12 years working in SEO across agency, freelance and in-house roles. I research how AI is changing search and publish the data behind every result. More about me.
Findings you can quote
| Finding | Read | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The UK’s ten biggest newsbrands block 99 of 150 site and AI crawler pairs in robots.txt. Nine of the ten block at least one. | 2 Nov 2026 | Study and data |
| None of the UK’s ten biggest supermarkets blocks any of the same 15 AI crawlers. | 10 Nov 2026 | Study and data |
| Four of the UK’s ten most-visited retail sites block at least one AI crawler. Amazon blocks 12 of the 15, eBay 9, Vinted 5 and Temu 1. | 12 Nov 2026 | Study and data |
Each figure is one reading on the date shown. Please quote the date with the number.
What I can help with
- Which AI crawlers UK sites block, by sector, and how that changes month to month.
- Whether AI answers date their figures and keep up when a fact changes.
- Whether a widely quoted AI search statistic traces back to a real source.
- How AI visibility is measured and where the numbers are weak.
Using the data
- Every dataset is on the data page as a CSV with its date.
- It is free to reuse with a link to the study page.
- Each study has a “Cite this study” line you can copy.
- The method is on Method and the scripts are on Reproduce the figures.
Standards
How claims are checked and corrected is set out in the editorial policy.