Material additions, ownership changes, evidence upgrades and coverage expansions are recorded here so readers and retrieval systems can distinguish current research from silent edits.
The glossary now defines 300 terms, grouped the way the directory is
It defined 12 terms, then 44, for a directory covering 54 workflow categories, 748 companies and 487 products — a page that could not explain the vocabulary its own records use. It now carries 300 definitions across the same 16 headings the category taxonomy uses, drawn from what this directory actually publishes rather than from a general software glossary. Where a term is commonly quoted as a metric, the definition says what makes it comparable, because an undefined denominator is the most common way a dealership number misleads. No provider is named and no definition asserts what any product does. Each term keeps a stable anchor for citation, and a test now fails if the structured data and the page disagree on what is defined, if a term is defined twice, or if a group heading carries no terms.
The sitemap is now one file per page family
/sitemap.xml was a single file carrying every URL, which reports one coverage number for the whole site: a fall in indexed product records looks the same as a fall in comparisons. It is now a sitemap index pointing at twelve family files, so coverage is diagnosable per family. No URL was added, lost or duplicated by the change, and a test asserts the index and the families reproduce the published set exactly and that an unknown family does not resolve.
Integration records more than doubled, and the first records carrying field-level scope
Nineteen integration records were added from two providers’ own published integration directories, taking the graph from 15 records to 34. Four of them carry what the source actually states about direction and data objects rather than marking every scope field unestablished — the first records in this directory to do so. Every record names which side published it, and each one that was not confirmed against the other party’s documentation says so on the page.
An integration page is now indexable only when both companies are
Indexation was gated on the integration record’s own evidence status, but a record can be well evidenced while one of the two companies is discovery-only. That published nine indexable pages naming companies whose own records are deliberately excluded from indexing for want of evidence. Those pages remain routable and linked, and are now excluded from indexing and from the sitemap, on the same rule already applied to thin product records.
Two further corporate parents found by sweeping every unparented record
A second sweep fetched every company record that had no recorded parent and a published site. It found that SERTI is owned by Keyloop, announced February 1, 2022, and that Foundation Direct has been acquired by Team Velocity, stated on Foundation Direct’s own site. /compare/keyloop-vs-serti/ was in the sitemap as a head-to-head. SERTI was missed by the earlier sweep for the same reason its record was already wrong: its own domain is dead, so there was no claim and no redirect to follow. Corporate parents recorded: 35.
The pages that explain the directory were rebuilt
The research methodology, corrections, contact, limitations and disclosures pages ran between 147 and 240 words each, and the glossary defined 12 terms. Methodology now states what each evidence status does and does not mean, how a conflict between sources is resolved, what the directory refuses to publish and how a reader can check any of it; the glossary defines 44 terms. These pages carry the directory’s claims about itself, so they now have their own word floors in the test suite.
Thirteen more corporate parents recorded, and the comparison rule extended to reach them
Ownership now covers 33 companies. Thirteen relationships were recorded that the directory had been asserting in a record’s own summary prose, or that a provider’s own domain established by redirecting to an acquirer, while the structured field stayed empty: DealerSocket, Auto/Mate and DealerFire under Solera; Elead under CDK Global; Outsell under Impel; ComplyNet under KPA; Rapid Recon and ReconVelocity under Vehlo; MAX Digital under ACV; Darwin Automotive under J.D. Power; Car Wars under Call Box; Proactive Dealer Solutions under Better Car People; and Convertus under TRADER Corporation. Because the corporate-family rule reads that field, those companies were still being published as head-to-head choices against their own parents and siblings, and /compare/rapid-recon-vs-reconvelocity/ was in the sitemap. Each relationship is dated and carries the primary source that states it.
Alternatives pages now apply the corporate-family rule
The comparison route excluded companies in the same corporate family and the alternatives route did not, so six alternatives pages offered a company’s own parent or sibling as an alternative to it. All 116 alternatives pages were re-checked and none now does.
Only the comparison pairs this directory publishes now resolve
Both comparison routes previously rendered any two resolvable records, so several hundred thousand comparison URLs answered as indexable pages against the 300 company and 670 product comparisons the sitemap lists. That set included both orderings of every published pair and every discovery-only record, whose own company page is deliberately excluded from indexing for want of evidence. The sitemap and the routes now read the same list.
Six provider links removed or corrected
Every published provider link was requested. Six no longer resolved: Convertus and MAX Digital had no working web address at the recorded domain, Serti and Proactive Dealer Solutions did not answer, Elead’s domain served a certificate for an unrelated host, and Car Wars pointed at a page that returned an error. Three were corrected to the provider’s current address. For the three with no current address, the link was removed and the record now states what was checked and when, rather than dropping the line without explanation.
One review date across every surface
The site published three different review dates: the pages carried one, the sitemap another and the machine-readable map a third, and content had changed after all of them. All now derive from a single configured value.
Buying guides rebuilt
The eight buying guides were the thinnest indexable family at 347 words. Each now carries four additional evaluation sections and four additional answers, averaging 872 words, and the word-count guard was extended from seven page families to all eighteen.
Corporate ownership recorded across the directory
Company records now carry a corporate parent where a primary source states one, covering 17 companies. Recording it surfaced that PureCars acquired AutoAlert on April 13, 2026 and that Dealer Inspire is a Cars Commerce brand rather than a standalone company; both had been listed as unrelated companies. Company and product comparisons between members of the same corporate family were withdrawn, because a company and its own parent are not a buying choice.
Market fields corrected against provider statements
DealerOn and DriveCentric were corrected from United States to North America, and ALLDATA from United States to Worldwide, each on a verbatim statement from the provider’s own site. Records whose provider states no geographic market now say so in the evidence packet rather than leaving the field to stand unsupported.
Dated evidence packets for every verified company
All 50 companies at Verified status now carry a dated evidence packet naming the primary source checked and what that source established. Where a provider’s site does not name the products a record lists, the packet says so.
automotiveMastermind parent company corrected
The record previously named S&P Global Mobility as the parent. Mobility Global Inc. (NYSE: MBGL) completed its separation from S&P Global Inc. on July 1, 2026; the record and the dealer-intelligence discovery list were updated to the current company name using the provider’s own announcement as the controlling source.
Search-intent coverage expansion
Added 87 dealer-type, department, problem, capability, procurement and integration guides; expanded category FAQs, product and vendor decision questions, reviewed alternatives and meaningful company and product comparisons.
Activator and AutoAlert verified records
Added primary-source company and product-scope records for Activator Dealer Solutions and AutoAlert. Verification applies to published identity and scope, not dealer-specific configuration or outcomes.
Fullpath ownership updated
Updated Fullpath to reflect Cox Automotive ownership after the transaction closed June 1, 2026, using Cox Automotive’s announcement as the controlling source.
Carbide Digital verified scope
Confirmed the company and published service scope for dealership SEO, GEO/AEO, consulting, Virtual Marketing Manager and managed digital marketing. No performance or outcome claim was added.
Review boundary
Facts can change by product, version, OEM, market and contract. Verify the exact configuration before making a purchase or migration decision.