Edge features at the boundary between proxy and renderer are what turn Google AI Mode traffic into usable intelligence rather than a pile of HTML snapshots, and three stand out as essential: reliable AI summary capture, meticulous source citation tracking and side-by-side comparison with traditional SERP elements. AI summary capture focuses on extracting the text and structure of the AI Overview itself—headline, paragraphs, bullet points, inline references and follow-up suggestions—while preserving ordering and layout cues that influence how users read the answer. The proxy’s rendering layer identifies the relevant containers, normalises whitespace, strips purely decorative elements and tags segments with semantic roles so that downstream models can analyse tone, coverage depth and mention prominence without guessing where one idea ends and another begins. Source citation tracking then binds that synthesis back to the underlying web: each cited site, snippet card or inline link is captured with URL, domain, brand name, anchor text and its visual position within the AI block, making it possible to reconstruct which entities the overview implicitly endorses and how often your own pages appear as sources versus competitors. Traditional SERP comparison completes the picture by simultaneously recording organic rankings, ads, shopping units and other modules for the same query and viewport, letting analysts correlate AI visibility with classic SEO performance rather than treating them as separate worlds. Because all three data streams—AI summary, citations and legacy SERP elements—are captured in a single, time-stamped render per query, the resulting dataset supports nuanced questions about cannibalisation, incremental reach and how changes in content or technical SEO influence both generative and non-generative surfaces over time.