Claude Chatbot Now Features Web Search Capability

Anthropic's AI chatbot, Claude, has finally added web search capabilities, which were previously missing from its feature set. This new functionality is currently in preview mode for paid users in the U.S., with plans to expand to free users and more countries soon. You can turn on web search in your profile settings on the Claude web app, and it'll automatically scour the internet to enhance certain responses.

Right now, this feature is exclusive to the latest Anthropic model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet. When Claude uses web info in its answers, it'll throw in direct citations so you can double-check the facts. Instead of you having to sift through search results, Claude does the heavy lifting and presents the relevant info in a chatty way. This upgrade beefs up Claude's knowledge base with up-to-the-minute insights, giving you answers based on fresher data.

In my quick tests, web search didn't always kick in for questions about current events. But when it did, Claude came through with answers and neat little citations, pulling from places like social media (think X) and news outlets like NPR and Reuters.

With web search, Claude now matches up with other AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Mistral's Le Chat. Anthropic used to argue that Claude was meant to be a self-contained system, but let's be real—competition probably played a big role in this change of heart.

Of course, there's always the chance that Claude might get things wrong or mess up the citations. It's a common issue with other chatbots too. A recent study from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism found that popular chatbots, including ChatGPT and Gemini, give wrong answers over 60% of the time. And The Guardian reported that ChatGPT's search tool can be tricked into spitting out completely bogus summaries.