Anthropic has introduced a web search feature for its AI chatbot, Claude, a significant advancement that allows users to access up-to-date information directly from the internet. Currently in preview for paid users in the U.S., the web search function is expected to become available for free users and in other countries soon. Users can enable this feature through the Claude web app’s profile settings. Once activated, Claude will automatically search various websites to gather information when responding to inquiries.
This web search capability operates exclusively with Claude’s latest model, known as Claude 3.7 Sonnet. According to Anthropic’s blog post, when Claude pulls information from the web, it provides direct citations to help users verify sources. Instead of requiring users to sift through search results, Claude presents relevant information in a conversational manner, significantly enhancing its knowledge with real-time insights and more current responses.
In early tests of the web search feature, it was noted that Claude did not always activate for questions related to current events. However, when it did, it successfully provided answers with inline citations from a variety of sources, including social media platforms like X and reputable news organizations such as NPR and Reuters.
This new capability places Claude on par with other AI chatbots, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Previously, Anthropic maintained that Claude was designed to function independently without web access, but market competition likely influenced their decision to revise this stance. There remains a concern that Claude may hallucinate or inaccurately cite sources, an issue affecting similar chatbots.
