Named in most answers, recommended first in none: the gap between mention and recommendation

Weaviate appears in 90% of AI answers about vector databases and is named first in 0%. So is Milvus. Pinecone appears in 94% and is first in 38%. The Memetik Index tracks both numbers because they measure different things: answer share is whether a model knows you belong in the category; named-first share is whether it would pick you.

Which vendors are mentioned everywhere but recommended nowhere?

Twenty vendors were named in at least 70% of their category’s 50 answers and were the first vendor named in 2% or fewer.

Category	Vendor	Answer share	Named first	Leader (named first)
LLM observability	Arize	94%	2%	LangSmith (16%)
Vector databases	Weaviate	90%	0%	pgvector (32%)
Vector databases	Milvus	90%	0%	pgvector (32%)
AI app builders	v0	90%	0%	Lovable (80%)
Newsletter platforms	Kit	88%	0%	Substack (64%)
Paid community platforms	Mighty Networks	88%	2%	Circle (60%)
AI code review	Qodo	86%	2%	CodeRabbit (74%)
Transactional email	SendGrid	86%	2%	Resend (56%)
App hosting	AWS	84%	0%	Vercel (62%)
AI outbound	Instantly	82%	2%	Apollo (64%)
Browser automation	Browserbase	82%	2%	Playwright (42%)
AI outbound	Smartlead	78%	2%	Apollo (64%)
Transactional email	Mailgun	78%	0%	Resend (56%)
AI website builders	Hostinger	76%	2%	Wix (74%)
AI voice	Murf	74%	0%	ElevenLabs (94%)
Authentication	Supabase Auth	74%	0%	Clerk (58%)
AI avatar video	Colossyan	72%	0%	HeyGen (92%)
AI code review	Greptile	72%	0%	CodeRabbit (74%)
Inference hosting	Baseten	72%	0%	Hugging Face (34%)
AI image generation	Ideogram	70%	0%	Adobe Firefly (36%)

Each of these vendors is on the shortlist in most answers and opens almost none of them. AWS is the clearest case: named in 42 of 50 hosting answers, the recommendation in zero.

Where does named-first decide the leader?

Nine categories have a tie on answer share at the top. The Index ranks them by named-first share.

Category	Vendor	Share	First	Vendor	Share	First
AI avatar video	HeyGen	100%	92%	Synthesia	100%	4%
Automation platforms	Zapier	100%	70%	n8n	100%	14%
LLM APIs	OpenAI	100%	66%	Google	100%	4%
CRM for startups	HubSpot	100%	64%	Pipedrive	100%	16%
Link-in-bio tools	Linktree	100%	48%	Beacons	100%	26%
Product analytics	Amplitude	100%	30%	Mixpanel	100%	22%
AI coding agents	Cursor	98%	48%	Claude Code	98%	38%
Vector databases	pgvector	98%	32%	Qdrant	98%	24%
AI image generation	Adobe Firefly	96%	36%	Midjourney	96%	34%

HeyGen and Synthesia are mentioned in every answer. HeyGen opens 46 of them; Synthesia opens 2. Google’s models are in every LLM API answer and open two.

Who is both named and picked?

Sixteen vendors were named first in 60% or more of their category’s answers. The strongest: ElevenLabs (100% share, 94% first), HeyGen (100%, 92%), Gusto (100%, 86%), Lovable (100%, 80%), CodeRabbit (100%, 74%), Wix (96%, 74%), Opus Clip (96%, 72%), Stripe Billing (100%, 72%), Zapier (100%, 70%). These are the vendors a model reaches for before it lists the alternatives.

Why does the gap exist?

Answers open with one recommendation and then list alternatives “depending on your needs”. The opening name is the model’s default. The alternatives are its hedge. A vendor can be on the hedge list in every answer without ever being the default, and a buyer skimming the answer reads the default.

What this means for a vendor

Answer share says the model has you filed in the category. Named-first share says it would pick you, and that is the number a buyer acts on. Every model knows Weaviate; none defaults to it. Coverage across the sources the models read raises answer share. A consistent, specific reason to pick you first, in the sources they cite most, raises named-first share.

Limitations

Named first is measured as the first tracked vendor to appear in the answer text, which is usually but not always the recommendation. Fifty answers per category means one answer moves first share by two points. One edition.