Web Search

Search the web from a workflow and get the first page of results as a list of titles, links and snippets.

What it does

Web Search runs your Query on the chosen Engine (DuckDuckGo by default, Bing or Brave). It opens the results page in a background tab, so it does not take over your screen, reads the results, then closes the tab.

It returns one item per result, with title, url and snippet. Only the first page of results is read. Max Results keeps the first N; leave it empty or 0 to keep them all. Rows without a title or link are skipped, and DuckDuckGo’s redirect links are turned back into the real addresses.

No API key is needed: the search runs in your own browser, like a search you would type yourself.

When to use it

• Collect sources on a topic for an AI node to read and summarize.
• Watch for new mentions of a name or product on a schedule.
• Find the official page of something, then open it with Tab Control.
• To let an AI agent decide when to search, connect the Web Search tool to it instead.

Inputs and settings

Einstellung	Typ	Was es bewirkt
Query PFLICHT(erforderlich)	Text	The text to search for.
Engine	Choice	Which search engine to query. Options: DuckDuckGo, Bing, Brave. Standard: DuckDuckGo
Max Results	Number	Maximum number of results to return. Leave empty or 0 to return all first-page results.

Query accepts expressions, for example {{ $input.company }} pricing. The usual search operators of the engine (quotes, site:) work as you would type them.

Outputs

• Output

Each run returns a list of items with these fields:

Field	Typ	What it holds
title	Text
url	Text
snippet	Text

Shape of an output item

[
  {
    "title": "…",
    "url": "…",
    "snippet": "…"
  }
]

For example:

[
  { "title": "Example result", "url": "https://example.com", "snippet": "A short description of the result." }
]

Each result is its own item, so the next node runs once per result. Use Aggregate to give all of them to an AI node at once.

Dependencies and credentials

None. This node needs no connection and has no slots for other nodes.

Example workflow

1. A Schedule trigger runs every Monday morning.
2. Web Search with Query = "your product name" review, Engine = DuckDuckGo and Max Results = 10.
3. Remove Duplicates with Also Compare Against Previous Runs on, so only new links continue.
4. Aggregate, then Slack, Message → Send, posts the new results to #mentions.

Common issues

• The output is empty. The engine showed no results, asked to confirm you are human, or changed its page layout. Open the same search in a tab to check, then try another Engine. DuckDuckGo is the most stable; Brave is the most likely to change.
• Fewer results than expected. Only the first page is read, and rows without a title or link are skipped.
• Why is Google not offered? Google blocks automated searches, so it is left out on purpose.
• The node fails outside the extension. This node runs in the browser extension; install it or run the workflow from the extension.

Related nodes

• Web Search tool: the same idea, as a tool an AI agent can call.
• Get All Text from Link: read each result page.
• Remove Duplicates: keep only results you have not seen.