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Claude can now search the web

anthropic.com

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Re: Claude can now search the web

#181

Post by tcdent »

simonw wrote: post #161
magackame wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google search is crap. It seems to be a sentiment among many HNers, but is it really that bad? I mostly use it for programming, so documentation/forums and it works out greatly. For some queries it even returns personal blogs (which people seem to bash google for not happening). Of course there are some queries that return purely AI blogspam, but reformatting the query with a bit more thought usually solves it. I won…

How long have you been using Google search for? It used to be SO much less likely to return junk.

Google search was actually great between the period where pagerank successfully defeated old-school SEO tactics and banner advertising starting earning enough that the "bloggers" could pay cheap writers to pad their articles in convincing ways.

First decade of the 2000's if I had to guess.

Re: Claude can now search the web

#182

Post by cube2222 »

simonw wrote: post #167
hansmayer wrote: post #157

So, referring specifically to the example they show on the front-page, what value does this bring actually? The best example they could come up with is Typescript migration ? Really? Weren't the LLMs supposed to be a superior alternative to searching the web? Why do we need to produce more CO2 to do the same we could have done at the fraction of the cost, of course at the time when the google search was still working…

The CO2 concerns of using LLMs are massively overblown these days (with the exception of o1-pro and GPT-4.5 at least). The energy efficiency of most models has improved by an order of magnitude since the most widely cited CO2 usage papers were published. (It remains frustratingly difficult to get accurate numbers though: at this point I think more transparency would help rather than hurt the big AI labs)

A good recent in-depth article about this: https://andymasley.substack.com/p/individual-ai-use-is-not-b...

Re: Claude can now search the web

#183

Post by danielbln »

ralusek wrote: post #163

Best models for search, in order: OpenAI Deep Research Grok Deep Search Gemini Deep Research Grok + Search Gemini + Search ChatGPT + Search These are just my opinions, but I do use this feature all the time. Haven't used Claude enough to get a sense of where it would fit in.

Where does Perplexity Deep Research fit into this list?

Re: Claude can now search the web

#184

Post by pixl97 »

hansmayer wrote: post #151
magackame wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google search is crap. It seems to be a sentiment among many HNers, but is it really that bad? I mostly use it for programming, so documentation/forums and it works out greatly. For some queries it even returns personal blogs (which people seem to bash google for not happening). Of course there are some queries that return purely AI blogspam, but reformatting the query with a bit more thought usually solves it. I won…

I mean, for those of us who used it since way before the '20s, it's not really a sentiment - it's a fact. You used to be able to type in 3 words and whatever error message your stack trace was showing, and the first 3 links returned were very likely a definitive source to solving your problem.Written by a human, and believe my word for it - it was much better back then than the crap you get out of torturing whatever…

Eh, this said google is suffering from its own popularity.

Google in the past was written by a human because that was really the only option. Once other humans figured out to how automate producing trace Google has gone downhill simply because of the bullshit asymmetry effect. Even if google was totally customer based, it would still be much worse than the past because of the total amount of crap that exists.

This is also why no other competitor just completely blows them away either.

Re: Claude can now search the web

#185

Post by _2d30 »

Sargos wrote: post #179
mvdtnz wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No thank you, when I define a robots.txt file I expect all automated systems to respect it.

Any AI tool I make will ignore robots.txt on principle. Artificial humans should have equal rights as real humans.

> Artificial humans should have equal rights as real humans.

This is ridiculous and plain evil.

Re: Claude can now search the web

#186

Post by artembugara »

Search the web is apparently using SERP.

It’s just breaks my head. We’ve build LLMs that can process millions of pages at a time. But what we give them is a search engine that is optimized for humans.

It’s like giving a humanoid robot access to a keyboard with a mouse to chat with another humanoid robot.

Disclaimer: I might be biased as we’re kind of building the fact search engine for LLMs.

Re: Claude can now search the web

#187

Post by lclc »

rustc wrote: post #144
Beijinger wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is google search bad? Click here to find ten reasons why it is bad and 10 reasons why you should still use it. Yes, it is that bad. Website of Nike? Website of Starbucks? Likely position number one. Every product, category etc., e.g. what rice cooker should I buy? Is diseased by link and affiliate spam. There is a reason why people put +reddit on search terms.

What kind of results does Kagi give for "What rice cooker should I buy?"? (Not asking you specifically, but if any Kagi user could compare.)

If you enter a question into Kagi, by default, you get a 'Quick Answer' (https://help.kagi.com/kagi/getting-started/index.html#quick-...) on the top (an AI-generated text answer before the search result). In this case, it tells me which factors to consider and some that are considered to be the best depending on the use case (all sources the AI used for the answer are linked below the answer).

Then, the following two links appear as normal search results: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/best-rice-cookers and https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/review/best-rice-cookers (I don't know those websites, so I can't judge them).

Followed by Listicles (a short-form writing that uses a list as its thematic structure). All just one entrance, in this case, Best rice cooker 2024: Top tried and tested models for perfect results expertreviews.com 9 Best Rice Cookers | The Strategist - New York Magazine nymag.com The 8 Best Rice Cookers of 2025, Tested and Approved - The Spruce Eats thespruceeats.com 6 Best Rice Cookers 2025 Reviewed - Food Network foodnetwork.com Best rice cookers 2025, tested for perfect grains - The Independent independent.co.uk 29 Rice cooker meals ideas | rice cooker recipes, cooking recipes... de.pinterest.com 43 Crockpot ideas | cooking recipes, rice cooker recipes, cooker... de.pinterest.com

Followed by Quick Peek (questions with hidden answers that you can display).

Followed by normal search results again: ryukoch.com, reddit/r/Coooking, expertreviewsbestricecooker.com, tiktok, and then many more 'normal' websites.

This search reminded me that I have yet to configure my Kagi account to ignore tiktok.

Re: Claude can now search the web

#188

Post by blackeyeblitzar »

tcdent wrote: post #102

Searching the web is a great feature in theory, but every implementation I've used so far looks at the top X hits and then interprets it to be the correct answer. When you're talking to an LLM about popular topics or common errors, the top results are often just blogspam or unresolved forum posts, so the you never get an answer to your problem. More of an indicator that web search is more unusable than ever, but inte…

For me LLMs have basically removed any need to visit search engines. I was already not using Google due to how bad its interface had become, but I feel like LLMs at least are more efficient as an interface even if they’re still looking at the same blogspam or unresolved forum posts. My anecdotal experience though, is that I get better answers from LLMs, perhaps because I am able to give them really detailed prompts that seem to improve the answers based how specific I get. Generic search engines don’t seem to do that, in my experience.

Re: Claude can now search the web

#189

Post by lukan »

hansmayer wrote: post #151
magackame wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google search is crap. It seems to be a sentiment among many HNers, but is it really that bad? I mostly use it for programming, so documentation/forums and it works out greatly. For some queries it even returns personal blogs (which people seem to bash google for not happening). Of course there are some queries that return purely AI blogspam, but reformatting the query with a bit more thought usually solves it. I won…

I mean, for those of us who used it since way before the '20s, it's not really a sentiment - it's a fact. You used to be able to type in 3 words and whatever error message your stack trace was showing, and the first 3 links returned were very likely a definitive source to solving your problem.Written by a human, and believe my word for it - it was much better back then than the crap you get out of torturing whatever…

"and believe my word for it - it was much better back then than the crap you get out of torturing whatever your LLM of choice is"

I was around as well and my memories do not confirm this. But google search definitely degraded a lot.

Re: Claude can now search the web

#190

Post by adverbly »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #125
Almondsetat wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>looks at the top X hits and then interprets it to be the correct answer. LLMs are truly reaching human-like behavior then

The longer I've been in the workforce, the more I realize most humans actually kind of suck at their jobs. LLMs being more human like is the opposite of what I want.

Do they suck at their jobs or do their jobs suck?
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