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Advanced web search

advanced_web_search
Read-only

Search the web and major platforms and get the content back.

Use whenever an answer needs current material rather than recall — what a page says now, what people posted about something, what a video covers, how a place is rated. One call reaches web results, social platforms, video, places, review sites, app stores and ad libraries at once, so a single tool covers what would otherwise take several.

Best for: finding current information, news, facts, people, companies, opinions and reviews, discussions and comments, what people report from use, company and product ratings, mobile apps, hotels and restaurants, video and places.

Examples:

  • "what's wrong with most standing desks" → discussions and reviews

  • "current pricing and terms for a service" → web results

  • "how did viewers react to that keynote" → video and social

  • "well-rated dentists near Alexanderplatz" → places

  • "what customers complain about in reviews of this company" → company reviews

  • "what users say about this app in the store" → app reviews

Each source's results are saved as a Data record you can read again later. The reply lists those records by id and title; open one with read_collected_records to see the individual hits with their URLs, then pass a URL to advanced_web_fetch to pull the full page behind it. Every relevant result carries mdOrHtmlDownloadUrl — a ready-to-use link that downloads that record as Markdown, no key attached, so it can be passed on as-is. Swap its ?type=md for ?type=html and the same link hands back the page's original HTML exactly as the site served it, markup and all — what an SEO reader needs and what Markdown drops; web-page fetches only.

If status: "running" is returned, poll get_task_results({ taskIds }).

Input Schema

NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
requestsYesOne or more search requests. Each pairs a query with the sources to run it against; requests and sources run in parallel.
isResearchNoDefault true. True means this call is part of an investigation: you will come back to what it collects, weigh it against other sources and cite it, so it is worth preparing the material for repeated use. Set false for a one-off question you are waiting on right now and will answer in this same turn — that trades the preparation for the fastest reply the source allows.
maxWaitSecNoHow long to wait before returning `status: "running"` with a `taskId` to poll via `get_task_results`. Defaults to 50 seconds, which is also the server's ceiling — a larger value is clamped down to it, not honoured. Results stream as they are produced: each completed unit of work appears in `streaming.chunks[]` as soon as it is ready.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

  1. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / requests / items / properties / sources / description
      Previous value: -"Which sources to search — several can run at once; pick from where that kind of material actually is. Web and news: `google` (organic results plus related searches), `duckduckgo` (a second index whose first page mostly does not overlap Google's — run both), `web-mentions` (where a phrase turns up across the web, one page per site with the passage around it; reaches far past a first page, strong on subjects and terms, weak on bare brand names), `google-news` (news coverage: headline, publisher and date, no article text). Research and work: `google-scholar` (papers with citation counts; can also list what cites a given paper), `google-patents` (patents; at most 500 per search), `google-jobs` (job openings; nothing anywhere in the EEA). Social and video: `reddit` (posts; one community, an ordering or a period are settings, not terms), `tiktok` (one feed at a time — videos matched on the terms, accounts, or the videos under a single tag; which of the three is a setting, as are an ordering and a period on the video feed), `threads` (up to 10 public posts; takes a topic term of two or three words, not a sentence — an unrecognised term returns nothing), `youtube` (videos; one country's edition at a time, with no way to sort or filter what comes back). Places and travel: `google-maps` (places — the query names a place or a category of place, not a sentence; not a source of product reviews, and reviews of a place come from `advanced_web_fetch` on its link), `business-listings` (every business of a kind in one place — up to 1000 separate addresses with rating, review count, hours and attributes, selected by category, city and rating floor rather than ranked by relevance), `tripadvisor` (hotels, restaurants and things to do in one named place at a time), `google-hotels` (properties priced for the dates named in `searchOptions`, or for a sample stay the results state), `google-flights` (one route on one day, one-way prices, searched by airport). Shopping: `amazon`, `walmart` (US store only) and `google-shopping` (one country's storefront) — product listings, not product pages. Apps and reputation: `google-play`, `app-store` (one national store each), `trustpilot` (companies and their review scores, worldwide). Ad libraries: `facebook-ads`, `linkedin-ads`, `tiktok-ads` and `google-ads` — which ads carry given words, or everything one company advertises — naming the advertiser is a setting, and doing so replaces the word search rather than narrowing it (`google-ads` only lists by advertiser and cannot search wording at all); none of them publishes what an ad cost or who saw it. Most sources read one country or store at a time. A market, an ordering, a period, or narrowing to a single community, account or seller are settings: say them in `searchOptions` and they reach the source through its own controls where it has them, instead of being searched for as words. Four sources answer with something whatever they are given: `google-shopping` returns unrelated products, `google-hotels` an unrelated town and `google-maps` unrelated places rather than nothing, and `tripadvisor` matches a place named only in the query as text inside venue names."New value: +"Which sources to search — several can run at once; pick from where that kind of material actually is. Web and news: `google` (organic results plus related searches), `duckduckgo` (a second index whose first page mostly does not overlap Google's — run both), `web-mentions` (where a phrase turns up across the web, one page per site with the passage around it; reaches far past a first page, strong on subjects and terms, weak on bare brand names), `google-news` (news coverage: headline, publisher and date, no article text). Research and work: `google-scholar` (papers with citation counts; can also list what cites a given paper), `google-patents` (patents; at most 500 per search), `google-jobs` (job openings; the country is a setting, the city stays in the terms). Social and video: `reddit` (posts; one community, an ordering or a period are settings, not terms), `tiktok` (one feed at a time — videos matched on the terms, accounts, or the videos under a single tag; which of the three is a setting, as are an ordering and a period on the video feed), `threads` (up to 10 public posts; takes a topic term of two or three words, not a sentence — an unrecognised term returns nothing), `youtube` (videos; one country's edition at a time, with no way to sort or filter what comes back). Places and travel: `google-maps` (places — the query names a place or a category of place, not a sentence; not a source of product reviews, and reviews of a place come from `advanced_web_fetch` on its link), `business-listings` (every business of a kind in one place — up to 1000 separate addresses with rating, review count, hours and attributes, selected by category, city and rating floor rather than ranked by relevance), `tripadvisor` (hotels, restaurants and things to do in one named place at a time), `google-hotels` (properties priced for the dates named in `searchOptions`, or for a sample stay the results state), `google-flights` (one route on one day, one-way prices, searched by airport). Shopping: `amazon`, `walmart` (US store only) and `google-shopping` (one country's storefront) — product listings, not product pages. Apps and reputation: `google-play`, `app-store` (one national store each), `trustpilot` (companies and their review scores, worldwide). Ad libraries: `facebook-ads`, `linkedin-ads`, `tiktok-ads` and `google-ads` — which ads carry given words, or everything one company advertises — naming the advertiser is a setting, and doing so replaces the word search rather than narrowing it (`google-ads` only lists by advertiser and cannot search wording at all); none of them publishes what an ad cost or who saw it. Most sources read one country or store at a time. A market, an ordering, a period, or narrowing to a single community, account or seller are settings: say them in `searchOptions` and they reach the source through its own controls where it has them, instead of being searched for as words. Four sources answer with something whatever they are given: `google-shopping` returns unrelated products, `google-hotels` an unrelated town and `google-maps` unrelated places rather than nothing, and `tripadvisor` matches a place named only in the query as text inside venue names."
  2. Changed1 schema field changed
    • changedInput schema / properties / requests / items / properties / sources / description
      Previous value: -"Which sources to search — several can run at once; pick from where that kind of material actually is. Web and news: `google` (organic results plus related searches), `duckduckgo` (a second index whose first page mostly does not overlap Google's — run both), `web-mentions` (where a phrase turns up across the web, one page per site with the passage around it; reaches far past a first page, strong on subjects and terms, weak on bare brand names), `google-news` (news coverage: headline, publisher and date, no article text). Research and work: `google-scholar` (papers with citation counts; can also list what cites a given paper), `google-patents` (patents; at most 500 per search), `google-jobs` (job openings; nothing anywhere in the EEA). Social and video: `reddit` (posts; one community, an ordering or a period are settings, not terms), `tiktok` (one feed at a time — videos matched on the terms, accounts, or the videos under a single tag; which of the three is a setting, as are an ordering and a period on the video feed), `threads` (up to 10 public posts; takes a topic term of two or three words, not a sentence — an unrecognised term returns nothing), `youtube` (videos; one country's edition at a time, with no way to sort or filter what comes back). Places and travel: `google-maps` (places — the query names a place or a category of place, not a sentence; not a source of product reviews, and reviews of a place come from `advanced_web_fetch` on its link), `business-listings` (every business of a kind in one place — up to 1000 separate addresses with rating, review count, hours and attributes, selected by category, city and rating floor rather than ranked by relevance), `tripadvisor` (hotels, restaurants and things to do in one named place at a time), `google-hotels` (properties priced for a sample stay the results state), `google-flights` (one route on one day, one-way prices, searched by airport). Shopping: `amazon`, `walmart` (US store only) and `google-shopping` (one country's storefront) — product listings, not product pages. Apps and reputation: `google-play`, `app-store` (one national store each), `trustpilot` (companies and their review scores, worldwide). Ad libraries: `facebook-ads`, `linkedin-ads`, `tiktok-ads` and `google-ads` — which ads carry given words, or everything one company advertises — naming the advertiser is a setting, and doing so replaces the word search rather than narrowing it (`google-ads` only lists by advertiser and cannot search wording at all); none of them publishes what an ad cost or who saw it. Most sources read one country or store at a time. A market, an ordering, a period, or narrowing to a single community, account or seller are settings: say them in `searchOptions` and they reach the source through its own controls where it has them, instead of being searched for as words. Four sources answer with something whatever they are given: `google-shopping` returns unrelated products, `google-hotels` an unrelated town and `google-maps` unrelated places rather than nothing, and `tripadvisor` matches a place named only in the query as text inside venue names."New value: +"Which sources to search — several can run at once; pick from where that kind of material actually is. Web and news: `google` (organic results plus related searches), `duckduckgo` (a second index whose first page mostly does not overlap Google's — run both), `web-mentions` (where a phrase turns up across the web, one page per site with the passage around it; reaches far past a first page, strong on subjects and terms, weak on bare brand names), `google-news` (news coverage: headline, publisher and date, no article text). Research and work: `google-scholar` (papers with citation counts; can also list what cites a given paper), `google-patents` (patents; at most 500 per search), `google-jobs` (job openings; nothing anywhere in the EEA). Social and video: `reddit` (posts; one community, an ordering or a period are settings, not terms), `tiktok` (one feed at a time — videos matched on the terms, accounts, or the videos under a single tag; which of the three is a setting, as are an ordering and a period on the video feed), `threads` (up to 10 public posts; takes a topic term of two or three words, not a sentence — an unrecognised term returns nothing), `youtube` (videos; one country's edition at a time, with no way to sort or filter what comes back). Places and travel: `google-maps` (places — the query names a place or a category of place, not a sentence; not a source of product reviews, and reviews of a place come from `advanced_web_fetch` on its link), `business-listings` (every business of a kind in one place — up to 1000 separate addresses with rating, review count, hours and attributes, selected by category, city and rating floor rather than ranked by relevance), `tripadvisor` (hotels, restaurants and things to do in one named place at a time), `google-hotels` (properties priced for the dates named in `searchOptions`, or for a sample stay the results state), `google-flights` (one route on one day, one-way prices, searched by airport). Shopping: `amazon`, `walmart` (US store only) and `google-shopping` (one country's storefront) — product listings, not product pages. Apps and reputation: `google-play`, `app-store` (one national store each), `trustpilot` (companies and their review scores, worldwide). Ad libraries: `facebook-ads`, `linkedin-ads`, `tiktok-ads` and `google-ads` — which ads carry given words, or everything one company advertises — naming the advertiser is a setting, and doing so replaces the word search rather than narrowing it (`google-ads` only lists by advertiser and cannot search wording at all); none of them publishes what an ad cost or who saw it. Most sources read one country or store at a time. A market, an ordering, a period, or narrowing to a single community, account or seller are settings: say them in `searchOptions` and they reach the source through its own controls where it has them, instead of being searched for as words. Four sources answer with something whatever they are given: `google-shopping` returns unrelated products, `google-hotels` an unrelated town and `google-maps` unrelated places rather than nothing, and `tripadvisor` matches a place named only in the query as text inside venue names."
  3. First observed

TDQS

A4.6/5.0
Behavior5/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations cover safety (readOnlyHint, openWorldHint), but the description adds substantial operational detail beyond them: results persisted as Data records with ids, streaming chunks, the running/taskId polling path, the maxWaitSec clamp, and what isResearch trades off. This is rich disclosure an agent needs to invoke and follow up correctly.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Front-loaded with purpose and trigger, then organized into usage, examples, workflow and polling. It is long, and the 'Best for' list plus the examples are partly redundant, but with 26 source enums and routing nuances the length is largely justified.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

No output schema exists, and the description compensates fully: it explains the Data record return shape, the reply listing records by id and title, the mdOrHtmlDownloadUrl variants, and the async polling contract. An agent has everything required to call and consume it correctly.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100% and the schema's field docs are already very detailed (sources routing, objective vs searchQuery vs searchOptions, desiredResultsCount). The description reinforces the settings-vs-terms distinction and adds usage examples, but adds little semantic meaning beyond what the schema already states, so baseline 3 applies.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

Opens with a specific verb and resource ('Search the web and major platforms and get the content back') and clarifies that one call spans web, social, video, places, reviews, app stores and ad libraries. It also differentiates from siblings by naming read_collected_records, advanced_web_fetch and get_task_results and describing how they relate.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines5/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Explicit trigger ('Use whenever an answer needs current material rather than recall'), a 'Best for' enumeration, and six worked examples mapping intent to source type. It also routes follow-up work to the correct siblings (read_collected_records for hits, advanced_web_fetch for full pages).

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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