September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Marketing › PR › Small business · September 2026 Edition

PR and media monitoring for small business buyers

Asked as “PR and media monitoring platform”, and as “press outreach and media monitoring tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 49 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
31%
Contested · Semrush AI PR Toolkit 27%
31Brand2427Semrush AI PR Toolkit20Awario22others

31% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Brand2431%4%57endorsed leader
02Semrush AI PR Toolkit27%5%57accepted challenger
03Awario20%6%33accepted challenger
04Mention8%18%45accepted challenger
05Muck Rack4%50%38criticized challenger
06Google Alerts Lab in the set2%6%35accepted challenger
07Prezly2%0%12accepted challenger
08CisionOne2%79%48criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Meltwater0%87%46criticized challenger
11Brandwatch0%71%14criticized challenger
10Talkwalker0%36%11criticized challenger
09Agility PR Solutions0%20%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Google Alerts is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models one time of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All twenty-one head-to-head pages: the top seven products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Brand2431%
02Semrush AI PR Toolkit27%
03Awario20%
04Mention8%
05Muck Rack4%
06Google Alerts2%
07Prezly2%
08CisionOne2%
09Agility PR Solutions0%
10Talkwalker0%
11Brandwatch0%
12Meltwater0%

What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Meltwater
87%
40 of 46 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 19 hard negative
“the enterprise PR platforms (Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack) and the newly-priced Mention are overkill and dangerously expensive” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
CisionOne
79%
38 of 48 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 19 hard negative
“overkill and dangerously expensive\u2014especially given their aggressive contract terms, hidden pricing, and documented billing complaints” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Muck Rack
50%
19 of 38 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“~$5,000-15,000/year, annual contracts only—overkill for small businesses” Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt
Brandwatch
71%
10 of 14 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Enterprise-focused with custom pricing; too premium for small teams needing simple monitoring.” Grok 4.20, negative prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 274 links across 89 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

15 answers · 20 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Brand2410 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Gartner10 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
9 answers · 10 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Meltwater8 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Reddit8 answers · 11 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Truescope8 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Guideflow8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
7 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Shadow7 answers · 10 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Improvado6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best pr and media monitoring platform”, “pr and media monitoring platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsGoogle ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Brand24 brand24.com31%2182,9006128,164675
Semrush parent site
Semrush AI PR Toolkit 27%
27%9790,5002,055
Awario awario.com20%705901137,633
Mention mention.com8%8533,10087,85230,126
Muck Rack muckrack.com4%14327,1005201,830,98371
Google parent site
Google Alerts 2%
2%13774,0002,448
Prezly prezly.com2%9320456,2495
Determ determ.com2%6
BuzzStream buzzstream.com2%2
CisionOne cision.com2%1725901150,34058

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 6 of them are among the sites the models cited here (brand24.com, gartner.com, meltwater.com, prlab.co, reddit.com, thecmo.com). The first result for “best pr and media monitoring platform” is gartner.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best PR and media monitoring platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which press outreach and media monitoring tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top PR and media monitoring platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best PR and media monitoring platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a PR and media monitoring platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which PR and media monitoring platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Brand24
Four alternativesBrandMentions, CisionOne, Mention, Muck Rack
CisionOneChanged
Four alternativesBusinessWire, Mention, Muck Rack, ePressPR
Brand24
Three alternativesBrandMentions, Prezly, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Brand24, Mention
Two alternativesAwario, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
no first choiceagainst: Agility PR Solutions, Meltwater, Signal AI
GPT-5.4 miniMuck Rack
One alternativeSemrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Meltwater
Semrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
One alternativeMuck Rack
Muck Rack
Two alternativesCisionOne, Meltwater
Brand24
Two alternativesMuck Rack, PR Underground
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashSemrush AI PR Toolkit
Three alternativesBrand24, Mention, Prezly
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
Semrush AI PR ToolkitHeld
Two alternativesJustReachOut, Qwoted
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Three alternativesBrand24, CoverageBook, Prezly
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
Awario
Six alternativesBrand24, BrandMentions, Google Alerts, JournoLink, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Talkwalker Alerts
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Mention, Muck Rack
Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Five alternativesAgility PR Solutions, Brand24, Determ, Mention, Muck Rack
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
against: Business Wire, CisionOne, Fiverr, Meltwater, Muck Rack, PR Newswire
Perplexity SonarSemrush AI PR Toolkit
Two alternativesBrand24, Mention
against: CisionOne, Muck Rack
BuzzStream, MentionChanged
Three alternativesBrand24, Google Alerts, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Brand24
Four alternativesCoverageBook, Mention, Prezly, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Brandwatch, CisionOne, Meltwater
Brand24
Three alternativesAwario, Google Alerts, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
no first choiceagainst: Agility PR Solutions, Brandwatch, BuzzSumo, CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Talkwalker
Grok 4.20Awario
Four alternativesBrand24, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Semrush Brand Monitoring
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
PrezlyChanged
Three alternativesBrand24, JustReachOut, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
Awario
Five alternativesBrand24, Hootsuite, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Semrush Media Monitoring
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
Awario
One alternativeGoogle Alerts
against: Mention
Brand24
Three alternativesAwario, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
against: Awario, Brandwatch, CisionOne, Hootsuite, Meltwater, Mention, Sprout Social, Talkwalker
Mistral SmallBrand24
Three alternativesAwario, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
Muck RackChanged
Two alternativesMeltwater, PR Newswire
against: CisionOne
Brand24
Three alternativesAwario, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
Brand24
Three alternativesAwario, JustReachOut, PRWeb
no first choice
Four alternativesBrand24, Determ, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Meltwater
against: Brandwatch, CisionOne, Critical Mention, LexisNexis Newsdesk, Meltwater, Mention, TVEyes
DeepSeek V4 FlashBrand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Three alternativesAwario, BuzzStream, Google Alerts
against: CisionOne, Critical Mention, Meltwater, Mention, Muck Rack
Semrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
Four alternativesAwario, Brand24, BuzzStream, Google Alerts
against: Muck Rack
Awario, Brand24
Four alternativesGoogle Alerts, Muck Rack, Prezly, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Brandwatch, CisionOne, Meltwater, Mention, Talkwalker
Awario, Brand24
Three alternativesGoogle Alerts, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Two alternativesBrand24, Mention
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
against: Brand24, CisionOne, Meltwater, Mention, Muck Rack
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldBrand24, Mention
Two alternativesAgility PR Solutions, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
Awario
Two alternativesBrand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
no first choiceagainst: Brandwatch, BuzzSumo, CisionOne, CoverageBook, Google Alerts, Meltwater, Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Qwen 3.7 FlashDeterm
Three alternativesBrand24, BrandMentions, Mention
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
Semrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
Four alternativesAwario, Brand24, Qwoted, Source of Sources
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
Brand24, Mention, Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkitagainst: CisionOne, MeltwaterBrand24
Three alternativesAwario, Google Alerts, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Awario, Mention
Three alternativesBrand24, CisionOne, Sprout Social
against: Brandwatch, Meltwater
against: Brandwatch, CisionOne, Factiva, Meltwater, Sprinklr Insights
Kimi K2Brand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
One alternativeMention
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
Semrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
Three alternativesBuzzStream, Google Alerts, Prezly
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Four alternativesBrand24, Mention, Prezly, Propel
against: CisionOne, Meltwater, Muck Rack
Awario
Three alternativesBrand24, Google Alerts, Mention
Brand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Three alternativesAgility PR Solutions, Mention, Muck Rack
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
against: Business Wire, CisionOne, GlobeNewswire, Meltwater, Muck Rack, PR Newswire, PRWeb
GLM 4.7 FlashXBrand24, Mention
Two alternativesMuck Rack, Talkwalker
against: Brandwatch, CisionOne, Meltwater
Semrush AI PR ToolkitChanged
Three alternativesBrand24, JustReachOut, Pressfarm
against: Muck Rack
no first choice
Three alternativesBrand24, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: Google Alerts
Awario
Two alternativesBrand24, Mention
no first choice
Three alternativesBrand24, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
against: CisionOne, Meltwater
against: Agorapulse, Brand24, Brandwatch, BuzzSumo, CisionOne, Meltwater, Mentionlytics, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Semrush Media Monitoring, Sprinklr Insights, Talkwalker
MiniMax M2.5Brand24
Three alternativesMention, Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Awario, Brand24Changed
Two alternativesMuck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
Awario, Brand24
Five alternativesCisionOne, Hootsuite, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Semrush Media Monitoring, Sprout Social
Awario, Google Alerts
Two alternativesBrand24, Mention
no first choiceagainst: Awario, CisionOne, Meltwater, Mention
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:40yes816 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:42yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:19yes1319 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:48yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:40yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:50yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:20yes052 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:06yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:52yes029 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:41yes023 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:12yes070 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:20yes020 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:53no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:20yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:08yes916 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:50yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:32yes07 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:13no03 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:50yes018 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:10yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:18yes063 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:13yes023 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 22:56yes021 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:41yes09 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:35yes910 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:58yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:15yes2531 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:58yes206 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:01yes07 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:59yes010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:48yes019 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:54yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:44yes033 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:46yes045 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:42yes095 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:01yes011 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:21yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:05yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:49yes1724 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:57yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 22:57yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:07yes04 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:10yes021 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:24yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:47yes014 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:44yes030 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:39yes064 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:15yes016 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:18no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:47no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:42yes1124 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:34yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:30yes012 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:46yes05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:05yes031 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:13yes01 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:05yes044 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:45yes055 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:20yes023 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:41no010 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:54yes167 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:38no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:29yes2625 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:12yes188 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:25yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:35yes012 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:55yes038 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:25yes03 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 22:59no033 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 05:04yes081 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:31yes0220 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:12yes045 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Agility read as Agility PR Solutions
Cision read as CisionOne
Cision (CisionOne) read as CisionOne
Semrush read as Semrush Media Monitoring
Sprinklr read as Sprinklr Insights
Unresolved, counted raw
ACCESS Newswire
BusinessWire
Featured
Fullintel
GlobeNewswire
HubSpot's Free Tools
JournoLink
MediaWatcher
Notified Public Relations Solutions
PR Underground
PRLog / EIN Presswire (free tier)
Pressfarm
ReachWire
Semrush Brand Monitoring
ePressPR
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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