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Customers ask AI first. What should a small business do? A Japanese inn owner tested it for 220 days and wrote a free, four-language book you can use commercially

Customers ask AI first. What should a small business do? A Japanese inn owner tested it for 220 days and wrote a free, four-language book you can use commercially

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"IDAEO: Market Strategy for the AI Era" checks its conclusions against 105.5 million requests to the author's websites, is revised monthly, and is licensed CC BY 4.0, so you can teach with it, remix it and use it commercially with credit

October 26, 2026 | Japan | Washin Co., Ltd. (IDAEO)

More and more customers ask AI before they pick a place to go. Many businesses assume that keeping their search ranking is enough. Whether AI reads you, names you and describes you correctly is a different matter.

TK Lin (林毅祥) runs Washin Cat Village, a small inn in Chiba, Japan. For 220 days he put all the AEO, GEO, SEO, LLMO and AIO knowledge and literature he could find to the test on his own website, and turned the results into "IDAEO: Market Strategy for the AI Era". Starting today, the book is free in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English and Japanese.

Highlights

  • Free book: four languages; web edition, PDF, mobile PDF (A5) and EPUB, all free to download. 1
  • Commercial use allowed: CC BY 4.0. Credit the source and you can share, teach, adapt and use it commercially. No request needed, and it does not expire. Register your use for free by December 31, 2026 to be told when a new edition comes out.
  • First-hand data: requests to the author's website grew from 53 on day one (March 3, 2026) to 635,000 by the end of March, 21.4 million by the end of June, 99.15 million by the end of September and 105.5 million cumulative by October 8 (including AI, search engines and automated bots). 23 The book's conclusions are checked against this data.
  • Revised monthly: first edition October 11, 2026; 1st edition, 11th revision as of October 25. It will keep being updated each month with new data. 5

Who it is for

  • Shop owners who want to know what to do first now that customers ask AI.
  • Marketers who want one method that runs from audiences and the customer journey to measurement and assessment.
  • Researchers who want the sources, scope and units of the data and the theoretical basis.
  • Beginners with no marketing or website background, who can read it one stop at a time.

The book maps a reading path for each of these four readers. Nine chapters and 36 figures; each chapter answers one question, and every claim comes with its reason.

Not for: anyone looking for a trick to get AI to recommend them. The book is about getting AI to understand you, trust you and describe you correctly, and then checking the results with numbers. There is no secret that guarantees a ranking.

Why he wrote it, and why it is free

In the preface, the author writes: "This is the story of a small inn in Japan, Washin Cat Village, trying to use AI to make itself known around the world, amid the anxiety of the AI era. I am also sharing these 220 days of hands-on experience with every small and medium-sized business working hard to make its own way."

Along the way he also built an AEO checker (aeo.washinmura.jp, now aeo.idaeo.ai). The old and new checkers have tested more than 20,000 websites. 4 In the preface he thanks the small and medium-sized businesses in Taiwan and Japan that used these tools, and says they are the reason he decided to put everything he learned into a book.

Where the numbers come from, and their limits

  • The 105.5 million figure is the request count recorded by Cloudflare (the CDN in front of the websites), not the author's own estimate. The Cloudflare dashboard is not public, so outsiders cannot check it directly.
  • These are platform-scale figures and cannot be compared directly with a single merchant's website.
  • Requests before August 24 may include duplicates.
  • 2.82 million of them were made by the site's own Cloudflare AI Search; the book says these will be deducted in the next monthly update.
  • A visit by AI to read content does not mean it has been used for training or indexed.

The book states these limits. Chapter 3, "Measurement Sources and the AI Black Box", lists the source, scope and unit of each number.

Press images (CC BY 4.0; credit the source)

  • Main image: the cover and the "free book" announcement image
  • Overview figure: on the book page

Media and partnerships

  • Interviews with the author are welcome: how AI search is changing marketing for small businesses, the 220-day test, and publishing free in four languages.
  • Courses, teaching materials and remixes based on the book are welcome. CC BY 4.0; just credit the source.

Read and download for free

  • English: https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=en

(繁體中文: https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook / 日本語: https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=ja / 简体中文: https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=zh-Hans)

  • Register your use for free (remix, teaching, commercial): https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/participate?lang=en#pt-license

How to credit: TK Lin, "IDAEO: Market Strategy for the AI Era", CC BY 4.0, https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=en

About the author

TK Lin (林毅祥) is a serial entrepreneur. In 2008, he founded ADPartner Asia Pacific Digital Advertising Group, a social media advertising agency. In 2016, he founded Botpartner, an AI chatbot company, in Paris. In 2020, he founded Washinmura in Chiba, Japan. In 2026, he founded IDAEO. (From the author profile in the book.)

About IDAEO

IDAEO (https://idaeo.ai) is a platform for citation-grade data that AI can cite, with a free website check. The book is published by Washin Co., Ltd. (IDAEO; Japan corporate number 8011401020677). 6

Contact: idaeo@idaeo.ai

Fact ledger (source of each item)

  • 1 The book is free to download in four languages and licensed CC BY 4.0. Source: imprint line on the book page https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=en (read 2026-10-26)
  • 2 The author's website received 105.5 million requests from 2026-03-03 to 2026-10-08 (AI systems, search engines and automated bots), as recorded by Cloudflare; requests before Aug 24 may include duplicates. Source: the book's opening chapter and Chapter 3 https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=en; the Cloudflare dashboard is not public
  • 3 Growth in requests: 53 on day one, 635,000 by end of March, 21.4 million by end of June, 99.15 million by end of September. Source: the book https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=en
  • 4 The old and new checkers have tested more than 20,000 websites. Source: the book's preface (author's statement) https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=en
  • 5 First edition 2026-10-11; 1st edition, 11th revision as of 2026-10-25; updated monthly. Source: imprint line on the book page https://km.idaeo.ai/idaeo/textbook?lang=en
  • 6 Publisher Washin Co., Ltd. (株式会社和心), corporate number 8011401020677, Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo. Source: National Tax Agency corporate number site https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/henkorireki-johoto.html?selHouzinNo=8011401020677 (read 2026-10-26)
  • 7 Washinmura Co., Ltd. (株式会社和心村), corporate number 7040001114326, Futtsu, Chiba, assigned 2020-07-14. Source: National Tax Agency corporate number site https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/henkorireki-johoto.html?selHouzinNo=7040001114326 (read 2026-10-26)

The 105.5 million and 20,000+ figures come from the author's side (the former is Cloudflare's record; its dashboard is not public). The publisher's registration can be checked by anyone on the National Tax Agency site.

FAQ

Is the book really free? Can I use it commercially?
Yes. The web edition, PDF, mobile PDF and EPUB are free in four languages. It is licensed CC BY 4.0: credit the source and you can share, teach, adapt and use it commercially, with no request needed and no expiry.
本当に無料ですか？商用利用できますか？ — 無料です。四言語のウェブ版、PDF、スマホ用 PDF、EPUB をダウンロードできます。ライセンスは CC BY 4.0 で、出典を明記すれば共有・授業・改変・商用利用ができます。申請不要で期限もありません。
Is the book really free? Can I use it commercially? — Yes. The web edition, PDF, mobile PDF and EPUB are free in four languages. It is licensed CC BY 4.0: credit the source and you can share, teach, adapt and use it commercially, with no request needed and no expiry.
What is the registration open until December 31, 2026?
A free use registration: tell us how you plan to use the book and we will let you know about new editions. It is not required; CC BY 4.0 already lets you use the book.
2026年12月31日までの登録とは？ — 無料の利用登録です。本書の使い方を教えていただくと、新しい版が出たときにお知らせします。CC BY 4.0 により利用はもともと自由で、登録は条件ではありません。
What is the registration open until December 31, 2026? — A free use registration: tell us how you plan to use the book and we will let you know about new editions. It is not required; CC BY 4.0 already lets you use the book.
Where does the 105.5 million figure come from?
It is the request count to the author's website recorded by Cloudflare (2026-03-03 to 10-08, including AI systems, search engines and bots). It is platform scale, not comparable with a single shop's site; requests before Aug 24 may include duplicates; the dashboard is not public.
1.055 億リクエストはどこから来た数字ですか？ — Cloudflare が記録した著者サイトへのリクエスト数です（2026/3/3–10/8、AI・検索エンジン・自動サービスボットを含む）。プラットフォーム規模で個別店舗とは比べられず、8/24 以前は重複の可能性があり、管理画面は非公開です。
Where does the 105.5 million figure come from? — It is the request count to the author's website recorded by Cloudflare (2026-03-03 to 10-08, including AI systems, search engines and bots). It is platform scale, not comparable with a single shop's site; requests before Aug 24 may include duplicates; the dashboard is not public.
Who is the book for?
Shop owners, marketers, researchers and beginners; the book has a reading path for each. It is not for anyone looking for a trick to get AI to recommend them.
誰向けの本ですか？ — 店のオーナー、マーケター、研究者、ゼロから学ぶ方。それぞれの読み方を本の中で案内しています。「AI に推薦される裏ワザ」を探す方には向きません。
Who is the book for? — Shop owners, marketers, researchers and beginners; the book has a reading path for each. It is not for anyone looking for a trick to get AI to recommend them.

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Cite this article

TK Lin・《Customers ask AI first. What should a small business do? A Japanese inn owner tested it for 220 days and wrote a free, four-language book you can use commercially》・IDAEO 知識庫・2026-10-26・https://km.idaeo.ai/post/idaeo/book-free-release

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