A comparison table for your next decision, with a link behind every cell

Choosing a supplier, a piece of software, a venue or a course usually goes the same way. You open twenty tabs, read review sites that copy each other, and a week later you remember which website looked best and very little about the price. An AI assistant that searches the web collects the facts in minutes, and it can just as quickly hand you a confident table with last year’s price in it.

The fix is a rule: no cell without a link and a date. You set the criteria, the assistant fills the table under that rule, and you open every link and mark each cell. It works the same in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot.

By the end of today you’ll have a comparison table for one real decision, with every cell checked against its source and a short email asking the suppliers what the web couldn’t tell you.

Pick a decision that’s due this month

Choose something real, with a deadline, where most of the facts are public. For example, an office manager choosing a room booking system, an event organizer comparing venues for a training day, an engineer comparing sensors for a prototype, or a shop owner picking an invoicing app. Write it as one sentence with a date: “By October 31, choose a scheduling tool for our volunteer shifts.”

Set the criteria before you see any options

Criteria written after you’ve seen the options tend to describe the one you already like. Write them first, and let the assistant ask the questions:

I need to choose [WHAT] for [WHO: size, type of organization, country].
The decision is due by [DATE]. Budget: [AMOUNT, or "not set"].

Don't suggest any options yet. First help me set the criteria.
1. Ask me up to five questions about how we will use it, one at a time,
   and wait for each answer.
2. Then list criteria in two groups:
   Must-have: an option that fails one of these is out.
   Nice-to-have: helps choose between the options that pass.
3. For each criterion, say whether a public page can answer it
   (pricing, help article, specification sheet) or it needs a call or a trial.

Then cut. A must-have rules an option out on its own; if you’d still consider an option without it, move it down. Four or five must-haves and two or three nice-to-haves make a table you can check in one sitting. The assistant needs your requirements, not your internal files; if you want to paste in a current contract or quote, read Before you upload a client document first.

Ask for a table with a source in every cell

The free versions of Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot can all search the web and show the pages behind an answer. If your table comes back without links, the assistant didn’t search: begin your message with “Search the web and”, or switch search on with the steps for each assistant in Prepare a one-page brief before meeting someone new.

In the same conversation, paste:

Now search the web for options that meet these criteria.

- Up to [4] options available today. If you leave one out because it was
  discontinued, renamed or merged into another product, say so.
- Table: one row per criterion, one column per option.
- In every cell: the answer in a few words, the link to the page that says it,
  and the date shown on that page ("no date" if there is none).
- Prefer the supplier's own pages over reviews. If a cell comes from a review,
  write "review" in it.
- If you can't find a source, write "unknown". Never fill a cell from memory,
  and never link a page that doesn't say what the cell says.
- Give prices exactly as the page states them: currency, per user or not,
  monthly or yearly billing.

“Unknown” is a useful answer. It shows where the public information runs out, which is often where the decision gets made.

Open every link and mark every cell

This is the step that makes the table yours. Search answers still link to pages that don’t say what the cell claims, or pair last year’s price with this year’s features. Checking goes faster than it sounds, because one pricing page often settles several cells at once.

Copy the table into a spreadsheet, write today’s date at the top, and go cell by cell. Open the link, search the page for the key word (Ctrl+F, or Cmd+F on a Mac), and add one of three marks:

• Confirmed: the page says it, and it’s current.
• Not found: the link is broken, leads elsewhere, or the page doesn’t say it.
• Outdated: the page says something different now. Write the new value next to the old one.

Pricing pages need the most care: check whether the price assumes yearly billing, whether it’s per user, and which currency the page shows from where you are.

For cells marked “not found”, ask once: “These cells weren’t supported by their links: [list]. Search again and give me a page that says it, or write unknown.” Check the new links the same way. If the second try fails, the question goes to the supplier.

Ask what you missed

Look at the table again, as someone who has made this kind of decision before.
1. Which options would [WHO] usually consider that aren't here?
   Up to three, with a link each.
2. Which criteria do people often regret ignoring with this kind of choice
   (for example setup effort, contract length, getting our data out if we leave)?

Add only what would change your decision, with a link and a mark for each new cell.

A worked example (made up)

A community sports league with ten staff and forty volunteer coaches needs a tool for booking training slots on its fields, on a budget of $60 a month. The league, the tools and every figure below are invented.

Criterion	Tool A	Tool B	Tool C
Coaches book from a link, no account	Yes. Confirmed	Yes. Confirmed	Yes. Not found: the page is about another plan
Email reminders	Yes. Confirmed	Yes. Confirmed	Yes. Confirmed
Monthly cost for 10 staff	$45. Outdated: $70 today	$50. Confirmed	Unknown: “contact sales”
Spanish interface for coaches	Unknown	Yes. Confirmed	Yes. Confirmed
Nonprofit discount (nice-to-have)	Not found	Unknown	Yes. Confirmed

Before the check, Tool A looked cheapest. Its price came from an old review, and today’s pricing page puts it over budget. Tool C’s booking claim linked to a page about its enterprise plan. Tool B passes every must-have with confirmed cells. Tool C could still win on the discount, but its price isn’t published and its booking claim is unproven. So the next step is an email to Tool C with those two questions, and a trial of Tool B.

When to stop researching and call

Stop searching when two options pass every must-have and only a nice-to-have separates them, or when the deciding cell is something suppliers rarely publish, such as your actual price or a delivery date. From there, an email or a call to each finalist will tell you more than another hour of tabs. The assistant can draft the email from your unknown cells:

Write a short email to [SUPPLIER] asking only these questions: [UNKNOWN CELLS].
Say who we are in one sentence and the date we need to decide by.
Under 120 words, plain and polite.

Some decisions don’t need the assistant at all. If you already know both candidates well, fill in the table yourself. And no web page can tell you how a venue sounds when it’s full or whether a tool feels clumsy on a phone; a visit or a one-week trial can.

Try it today

Set aside an hour and pick one decision you have to make this month:

1. Write it as one sentence with a date and a budget.
2. Run the criteria prompt and cut the list to what would rule an option out.
3. Run the table prompt and copy the result into a spreadsheet.
4. Open every link and mark every cell. Leave “unknown” where it is.
5. Under the table, write which option leads and the one unknown that could change your mind.
6. Run the email prompt for each supplier with cells still marked unknown, and send the emails.

You’re done when no cell is left unmarked and your questions are in the suppliers’ inboxes.

Where to go next

Once you’ve chosen, there’s usually a date to be ready by. Plan backwards from the date works back from it to what this week needs. If your next step is a meeting with the supplier you picked, Prepare a one-page brief before meeting someone new applies the same rule, a link behind every fact, to a person or an organization. And if answering one question at a time made the criteria easier, Why your AI drafts sound generic uses that same interview to draft whole documents.