— Ranking Top 10 · AI Overview —
Who controls Google's AI Overview for Premium Education US West Coast, San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles?
reddit.com holds the strongest AI opening share on the Premium Education US West Coast market across the 7-run window September 7–13, 2026, recording 13.35% of all AI answer openings observed over the period.
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- Market
- Premium Education US West Coast
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles
- Observed period
- September 7–13, 2026
- Run type
- Period run · 7 comparable runs
- Queries
- 105 queries per run
- Search engine
- Device
- Desktop
- Source location
- United States
- Reading
- Ranking Top 10 · AI Overview
“On Premium Education US West Coast, AI reaches for platforms first — and no specialist institution controls the opening.”
Quick answer
youtube.com follows at 13.06%, just 0.30 percentage points behind.
Key reading
Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · September 7–13, 2026
reddit.com holds the rank-1 position on the AI Overview opening-control rail for this market across the 7-run window, at 13.35%. youtube.com sits 0.30 percentage points behind reddit.com on AI opening share on this market, making the gap between the top two actors the narrowest on the panel. The top 3 actors together hold less than the remaining 7 combined, and the 9 sources behind reddit.com range from 13.06% down to 3.26% — a spread of 10.09 percentage points from top to bottom. The surface is notably dispersed: no single actor accumulated a commanding share of AI answer openings over the period, and the opening-control rail splits across platforms, focused sources, and niche domains without concentrating around any one name.
Core metric
AIO opening control — top 10 · Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · September 7–13, 2026
Observed metric
AIO opening control — top 10
| Actor | Rank | AIO opening share | Presence |
|---|---|---|---|
| reddit.com | #1 | 13.35% AI opening share | opening in 7/7 runs |
| youtube.com | #2 | 13.06% AI opening share | opening in 7/7 runs |
| boardingschoolreview.com | #3 | 10.68% AI opening share | opening in 7/7 runs |
| facebook.com | #4 | 9% AI opening share | opening in 7/7 runs |
| quora.com | #5 | 8.31% AI opening share | opening in 7/7 runs |
| usnews.com | #6 | 8.01% AI opening share | opening in 7/7 runs |
| executive.berkeley.edu | #7 | 6.53% AI opening share | opening in 7/7 runs |
| niche.com | #8 | 6.53% AI opening share | opening in 7/7 runs |
| privateschoolreview.com | #9 | 4.45% AI opening share | opening in 6/7 runs |
| topuniversities.com | #10 | 3.26% AI opening share | opening in 6/7 runs |
How the actors read on the surface
Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · September 7–13, 2026
reddit.com holds the strongest AI opening share on this market in this card scope, at 13.35%. A general-purpose platform, it opened AI answers on 7 of 7 comparable runs, accumulating the highest opening volume over the period across 105 observed queries.
youtube.com records 13.06% AI opening share on this market and sits 0.30 percentage points behind reddit.com on AI opening share on this market. It opened AI answers on 7 of 7 comparable runs, placing a second social platform at the very top of the opening-control rail.
boardingschoolreview.com records 10.68% AI opening share on this market, the highest share held by a focused source on this panel. It sits 2.67 percentage points behind reddit.com on AI opening share on this market and opened AI answers on 7 of 7 comparable runs.
facebook.com records 9.50% AI opening share on this market and sits 3.86 percentage points behind reddit.com. Another social platform in the top four, it opened AI answers on 7 of 7 comparable runs.
quora.com records 8.31% AI opening share on this market, making it the fourth platform in the governed top-10 panel. It sits 5.04 percentage points behind reddit.com on AI opening share on this market and opened AI answers on 7 of 7 comparable runs.
usnews.com records 8.01% AI opening share on this market and sits 5.34 percentage points behind reddit.com. A focused source rather than a platform, it opened AI answers on 7 of 7 comparable runs.
executive.berkeley.edu records 6.53% AI opening share on this market, the only .edu subdomain on the governed panel. It sits 6.82 percentage points behind reddit.com on AI opening share on this market and opened AI answers on 7 of 7 comparable runs.
niche.com records 6.53% AI opening share on this market, matching executive.berkeley.edu on the primary metric while occupying a distinct governed rank. It sits 6.82 percentage points behind reddit.com and opened AI answers on 7 of 7 comparable runs.
privateschoolreview.com records 4.45% AI opening share on this market and sits 8.90 percentage points behind reddit.com. It opened AI answers on 6 of 7 comparable runs, one of the two actors on the panel with fewer than full-window presence.
topuniversities.com records 3.26% AI opening share on this market, the lowest on the governed panel. It sits 10.09 percentage points behind reddit.com and opened AI answers on 6 of 7 comparable runs.
Pattern on the observed surface
Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · September 7–13, 2026
The panel is dispersed rather than concentrated
The panel is dispersed rather than concentrated. The top 2 actors together hold less than the remaining 8 combined, and the top 3 actors together hold less than the remaining 7 combined. Platforms — reddit.com, youtube.com, facebook.com, and quora.com — occupy four of the top five positions, giving user-generated and discussion sources a pronounced structural presence on the opening-control rail. The remaining positions are filled by focused sources and niche domains. The spread from top to bottom is 10.09 percentage points, and 8 of the 10 actors on the panel opened AI answers in all 7 comparable runs, with 2 opening AI answers in fewer runs.
Why this reading matters
Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · September 7–13, 2026
reddit.com holds the rank-1 position on this AI Overview opening-control rail, yet the gap to the rank-2 actor is only 0.30 percentage points — the narrowest leader margin on the panel. The structural weight of platforms at the top of this education market's opening rail is striking: AI answers on premium education queries in the United States are opened overwhelmingly by domains that aggregate user discussion rather than by the institutions whose programs the queries concern.
Market implication
Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · September 7–13, 2026
The AI Overview opening-control surface for Premium Education US West Coast is dispersed across the 7-run window, with no single actor accumulating a commanding share of AI answer openings over the period. The opening rail draws from platforms and focused sources in roughly equal structural weight, which means that monitoring AI opening behavior on this market requires tracking a broad set of domains rather than a single reference source. The top 3 actors together hold less than the remaining 7 combined, underscoring the absence of concentrated opening authority on this observed surface across the window.
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Observatory Reading — Citable Proof Capsule
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- Scope:
- Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles
- Surface:
- AI Overview · Google · Desktop
- Observed:
- September 7–13, 2026
- Published:
- September 15, 2026
Method: How readings are scoped · Run metadata · Source protocol · Corrections and right of reply
Observed by The Observatory. Not an endorsement, recommendation, market-share claim or commercial ranking.
Free reuse, including commercial republication, under The Observatory’s Terms. Retain attribution, source link, scope and date. Terms · Citation guide
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The complete citation record · revision 8bcedd1a142b55b6
Who controls Google's AI Overview for Premium Education US West Coast, San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles? Source: https://theobservatory.io/articles/premium-education-san-francisco-bay-area-los-angeles-ai-overview-control-september-7-13-2026 Scope: Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · Google · Desktop Family: Ranking Top 10 Observed: September 7–13, 2026 (2026-09-07/2026-09-13) Published: September 15, 2026 Method — How readings are scoped: https://theobservatory.io/method#standards Method — Run metadata: https://theobservatory.io/method/panel#run-metadata Method — Source protocol: https://theobservatory.io/method#source-protocol Method — Corrections and right of reply: https://theobservatory.io/method#corrections Public table: https://theobservatory.io/articles/premium-education-san-francisco-bay-area-los-angeles-ai-overview-control-september-7-13-2026/data.csv Citation text: https://theobservatory.io/articles/premium-education-san-francisco-bay-area-los-angeles-ai-overview-control-september-7-13-2026/citation.txt Reuse terms: https://theobservatory.io/terms reddit.com holds the strongest AI opening share on the Premium Education US West Coast market across the 7-run window September 7–13, 2026, recording 13.35% of all AI answer openings observed over the period. Key facts: • reddit.com: 13% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs • youtube.com: 13% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs • boardingschoolreview.com: 11% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs Published table — AIO opening control — top 10 (September 7–13, 2026 · 105 queries per run · 7 comparable runs): Rank · Actor · AIO opening control 1. reddit.com — 13.35% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs — #1 2. youtube.com — 13.06% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs — #2 3. boardingschoolreview.com — 10.68% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs — #3 4. facebook.com — 9% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs — #4 5. quora.com — 8.31% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs — #5 6. usnews.com — 8.01% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs — #6 7. executive.berkeley.edu — 6.53% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs — #7 8. niche.com — 6.53% AI opening share · opening in 7/7 runs — #8 9. privateschoolreview.com — 4.45% AI opening share · opening in 6/7 runs — #9 10. topuniversities.com — 3.26% AI opening share · opening in 6/7 runs — #10 Reading basis: This card observes the AI Overview opening-control rail for Premium Education US West Coast in the United States on Google desktop across 7 comparable scheduled runs in the observation period September 7–13, 2026. The panel ranks the top-10 actors by AI opening share on this market, aggregated from 105 observed queries. Per-actor values reflect cumulative opening volume over the period with one single period-wide denominator. AI Overview opening-control evidence was available on 7 of 7 runs in the comparable window. Limitations and non-claims: — Observes the observed AI answer surface only; within a defined scope and window. — A period aggregate (7 comparable runs) — not a claim about bookings, revenue, or market share. — Scoped to Premium Education US West Coast San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles, September 2026; not generalisable beyond this market and window. — The Observatory · Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · Google · Desktop · September 7–13, 2026 Based on governed AAI Kernel evidence. Capture identifier: pr_1791405733081_ns7cqe. Cite freely with attribution. Published by The Observatory. Source footnote: Sourced from a published AAI MIB card. The Observatory publishes this card’s public findings; values are as observed on the search surface, not business-market claims. Attribution: Published by The Observatory · Based on an AAI Kernel capture · governed by The Observatory editorial system Cite: According to The Observatory (September 15, 2026), Who controls Google's AI Overview for Premium Education US West Coast, San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles?. https://theobservatory.io/articles/premium-education-san-francisco-bay-area-los-angeles-ai-overview-control-september-7-13-2026 This record is the published reading and its public table/slice as served on the card — not the complete underlying capture or provider dataset. Observed by The Observatory. Not an endorsement, recommendation, market-share claim or commercial ranking. Free reuse, including commercial republication, under The Observatory’s Terms. Retain attribution, source link, scope and date. Revision: 8bcedd1a142b55b6
This record is the published reading and its public table/slice as served on the card — not the complete underlying capture or provider dataset.
— The Observatory · Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · Google · Desktop · September 7–13, 2026
Based on governed AAI Kernel evidence. Capture identifier pr_1791405733081_ns7cqe. Cite freely with attribution. Published by The Observatory.
FAQ
- What does AI opening share measure?
- AI opening share captures which actor is cited at the very opening of an AI Overview answer — the source AI reaches for first when constructing its response. It is not general citation share (which counts all citations across the full answer) and it is not organic search ranking.
- How were the values in this card calculated?
- Per-actor values reflect the sum of each actor's AI answer openings across all 7 comparable scheduled runs in the window September 7–13, 2026, divided by one single period-wide denominator. The panel is ranked by cumulative opening volume over the period. This is not a mean or average of daily shares.
- Can this card establish a longer-term trend?
- This panel is based on 7 observation runs — enough to identify the current competitive shape, but not yet sufficient for a definitive structural assessment. This observation does not establish a longer-term trend. AI Overview opening behavior is volatile across queries, models, and dates; future windows may produce different results.
Scope and limitations
Premium Education US West Coast · San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles · AI Overview · September 7–13, 2026 · what this card does not claim
- Observes the observed AI answer surface only; within a defined scope and window.
- A period aggregate (7 comparable runs) — not a claim about bookings, revenue, or market share.
- Scoped to Premium Education US West Coast San Francisco Bay Area / Los Angeles, September 2026; not generalisable beyond this market and window.
Method & source
This card observes the AI Overview opening-control rail for Premium Education US West Coast in the United States on Google desktop across 7 comparable scheduled runs in the observation period September 7–13, 2026. The panel ranks the top-10 actors by AI opening share on this market, aggregated from 105 observed queries. Per-actor values reflect cumulative opening volume over the period with one single period-wide denominator. AI Overview opening-control evidence was available on 7 of 7 runs in the comparable window.
The complete methodology — scope, panels, run conditions and corrections — is set out on the Method page.
Source protocol · How readings are scoped · Run metadata · Corrections
Period observation across 7 comparable scheduled runs (September 7–13, 2026). AI Overview opening-control evidence available on 7 of 7 runs. This observation does not establish a longer-term trend. No claim about general citation share or organic visibility.
A capture from AAI Kernel’s governed intelligence — published by The Observatory. One reading of many; the publication date is distinct from the observed window shown above.Published 2026-09-15 · Governed capture ID · pr_1791405733081_ns7cqe
Sourced from a published AAI MIB card. The Observatory publishes this card’s public findings; values are as observed on the search surface, not business-market claims.
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Governed measurements and verbatim quotations from observed AI models are distinct from The Observatory’s editorial interpretations. Original model statements are preserved as observed, including any inaccuracies they may contain. Learn more about our verification and editorial standards
Submit a statement → right-of-reply@theobservatory.ioHow we read this
Sourced from a published AAI MIB card. The Observatory publishes this card’s public findings; values are as observed on the search surface, not business-market claims.
Method & SourceContinue the reading
The Premium Education US West Coast room places this AI Overview Ranking — Top 10 reading alongside the market’s other published observations.
For the same observation window, September 7–13, 2026, Premium Education US West Coast is also read in the AI Citation Ranking — Top 5 table, the Organic Ranking — Top 5 table and the Query Spotlight table; each keeps its own reading basis.
The Boston / New York reading and Dubai Abu Dhabi reading examine the same AI Overview Ranking — Top 10 for September 7–13, 2026; compare the stated reading bases before drawing a cross-market conclusion.
