What is web search for an AI agent?
Web search, in an AI product, lets the model look up pages on the public internet and use them in an answer. It is not a search of your private files. Those are retrieval. Browsing is the same family of feature.
Also called: browsing
In plain English
The tool queries the web, reads some pages, and writes. It can still cite the wrong business with a similar name, or a page that is out of date. If the answer matters, open the citation. For your own prices, do not search the web. Paste your price. Turn it on for questions about the outside world, and off for questions about your customer. A search can drag in a business with a similar name and a different town. Require the link, open it, and notice the date. Searching does not give the assistant permission to browse your private drives. Those are different doors. Save the query and the link you accepted. Next time the same rumor appears, you already know which page settled it.
How an owner would use it
Turn web search on for public facts you will verify, such as a park's posted hour. Turn it off for customer emails about your work. Ground those in the job file.
Common mistakes
Leaving web search on for every draft mixes strangers' blogs into your customer mail. A browsing agent that can also type into websites is computer use, which is a bigger permission. Do not treat a searched answer as your policy. Do not scrape sites because search failed. Scraping has its own rules and is not this feature.
A worked example
A local tour operator
The park hour is opened, not trusted
This is an illustration, not a customer result. The guide asks the assistant whether a trailhead lot is open on Mondays. The draft cites a parks page. The guide opens it, sees the date on the notice, and only then tells the guest. A conflicting blog is ignored.
Related terms
Prompts and guides
Questions owners ask
What is web search in an AI app?
It is a tool that fetches public pages so the model can answer from them instead of only from training memory.
How should an owner use web search?
Use it for public facts, open the source, and keep it off when the source of truth is your own file.
Does web search see my Google Drive?
No. Private files need a connector or an upload. Web search sees what the product's search tool can reach on the public web, which is not your books.
Product guides are on AI apps for business.