Reading date: the day somebody opened the page
A reading date is the day a vendor page was opened and the claim transcribed. It guarantees that the page said this on that day and nothing else. Language lists move faster than almost any other claim a vendor makes. As of 2026-09-22.
| Statement | Guaranteed by the date |
|---|---|
| The page said this on that day | Yes |
| The page says this today | No |
| The claim was true on that day | No, only that it was published |
| The page has not changed since | No |
Inclusion rule. Claims a reading date supports, paired against claims it is often read as supporting. Both columns concern the record, not the product. Order. The supported claim first.
1Lists grow, and nobody announces it
A vendor adding five languages to a voice inventory does not publish a notice. The list changes, the headline figure often does not, and a reader comparing two vendors has no way to know which page is fresher.
A date on every row turns that from a guess into a fact about the record. It also makes it possible to see a list grow over time rather than only to see its current state.
2It is a claim about the record, not the product
The date says a page was read, not that what it said was accurate. A vendor can publish a list that overstates what its product does, and the register would record the list with the date and be exactly right about the publication.
That is the limit of a method built on published evidence. What it buys is reproducibility: a reader can open the same page and disagree with a specific figure on a specific day.
3Undated coverage tables are the failure mode
A comparison table of language counts with no date on it cannot be re-checked, cannot be corrected, and cannot be distinguished from a table assembled from memory. Most coverage tables on the web are in that state.
So the date is printed in the cell, in the caption above the table, in the data file and in the page furniture. It is repetitive on purpose, because a figure that escapes its date becomes a permanent claim.
A definition, not a measurement: no vendor figure appears here that is not also in the register. Every cell and every exported row carries the day it was read.
Nearby terms: Empty cell, Declaration. The whole vocabulary is at terms; nothing on this page is a claim about a named product.