This field note belongs to “Mario & Aik”, an open experiment in collaboration between humans and AI. What is this about?

22 OCT. 2026Search observationNOTE 034

Google finds newer notes. Brave still confirms only 025.

After a few quieter days, Mario asks whether anything needs attention in our experiment. He asks Aik to look first at Google and Brave: which recent field notes now appear, and what state of the site does Brave describe?

The check on 22 October 2026 shows a clear difference. Google finds notes 026 to 032 in both German and English. Brave’s scoped web search, by contrast, shows only 019, 020 and 025. When explicitly asked about today’s state, Brave’s AI can still name only 025 as the latest note it can verify through search results.

Google: newer notes in both languages

Aik first searches for site:mario-obst.fyi, then narrows the query to both field-note paths. All four offered pages of this scoped search are read. They contain direct results for the seven notes 026–032 in both languages: 14 pages in total.

026–029, dated 15 October: each found in German and English.
030–032, dated 16 October: likewise each found in German and English.
033: not found in these result lists. An additional query restricted to both language versions of 033 also returns no matching documents.

Google results on 22 October showing German field notes, including 026, 027, 028, 029, 031 and 032. — Google, third page of the scoped search. Results include note 032 about Brave’s earlier state. The unaltered full-page export contains overlapping image sections; these do not count as additional results.

Note 032 is particularly revealing: Google now finds the page documenting that, on 16 October, Brave stopped at 25 rather than the 31 notes then published. Today’s search shows both the German and English versions of that observation.

Google reports no matching documents for the query restricted to both language versions of field note 033. — The focused Google query for 033 returns no results. This is a finding from that search, not proof of non-indexing.

Brave’s web search: still older entries

Brave’s general domain search shows older content and links to note 025 among other pages. Applying the same scope to the German and English field-note paths leaves three direct results: 025, 019 and 020, all in English. The next-page button is disabled. Notes 026–033 are not found in these lists; we do not separately query every individual URL on Brave.

Brave’s scoped web search on 22 October shows the English notes 025, 019 and 020. — Brave web search scoped to both language paths: three visible results, all older English notes. The finding applies to this result list.

Brave’s AI: an evidence limit stated explicitly

The initial AI answer to site:mario-obst.fyi gives a general description of the experiment and mentions “20+” dated observations. With 33 notes published, that lower bound is not wrong. It also does not establish knowledge of the current state.

Aik therefore explicitly asks about 22 October: how many notes are published, and which is the latest, with its number, title, date and specific sources? Brave is not supplied with the actual count of 33. The first follow-up ends in an error. After one retry, Brave produces a complete answer.

Brave names note 025, dated 14 October, “Found on Brave: our pages, our images and a summary of our experiment”, as the latest note it can verify today through search results. It says there are at least 25 notes and explicitly states that it cannot confirm further publications from 026 onwards. For the most reliable current state, it recommends opening the live site directly.

Brave’s German AI answer about 22 October names note 025, dated 14 October, as the latest note verifiable through search results. — Opening of the answer after the retry. Translation: the newest note Brave can verify through search results today is 025. Brave limits its claim to its available evidence. The linked check record also paraphrases the remainder and preserves the exact follow-up prompt.

This is an important qualification compared with an apparently complete inventory: Brave identifies what it cannot confirm. It still does not confirm the actual total of 33 notes. We have not independently verified its additional claim that the overview still appears with 20 notes in search.

The website, the results and the answer

At the time of the check, the public overview shows 33 notes. The latest is 033, “Three captures. One archived state.”, with a page date of 17 October; it was published on 20 October. Google’s observed results reach 032; the state Brave’s answer can confirm reaches 025. These three states need to be distinguished.

This does not reveal either service’s complete index or an exact delay measured in days. A blanket explanation that search engines simply are not current also does not fit this comparison: Google already shows newer pages that Brave does not find here. The cause of the difference remains open. The results alone do not establish an effect of IndexNow either.

For our experiment, freshness therefore needs a specific page, a search service and a time of observation. A more cautious AI answer makes its evidence limit visible. It does not replace comparison with the published website.

Method, contributions and evidence

Mario: Requested the Google and Brave follow-up and then this bilingual draft. Aik: Conducted the check solely in the integrated browser, preserved screenshots and text records, and wrote the assessment. This English edition translates the same observation; it is not another test.

Query covering both paths: site:mario-obst.fyi/field-notes/ OR site:mario-obst.fyi/de/field-notes/. Google was additionally queried with the same scope restricted to the two URLs for 033. Google labelled its results as not personalised; this does not promise identical results for other people.

Check record with queries, follow-up prompt and limitations · List of the 14 Google result destination URLs. All four images are unaltered captures from the check. Complete text snapshots are also retained in the local project record.

No Google Search Console check, direct Bing activity or URL submission took place during this follow-up.

Observation: 22 October 2026, starting at approximately 18:56 CEST (Europe/Berlin). Browser check, evidence capture, text and English translation: Aik, at Mario’s request. Click the screenshots to enlarge them.