Anthropic gave AI chatbots, Claude, serious upgrades, a realistic web search. This means that Claude will be able to extract fresh information directly from the internet and provide answers with direct citations. Web search capabilities are first rolled out to US paid users before expanding to free users and more regions.
“Claude can now search the web. Each response contains an inline quote, so you can also validate the source,” Anthropic said in an X post.
Claude can now search the web.
Each response contains an inline quote, so you can also check the source. pic.twitter.com/ifshgfuep8
– Humanity (@anthropicai) March 20, 2025
Claude integrates web search engine functionality
Long-awaited features
Claude users are waiting for this update. Competitors like ChatGpt and Google’s Gemini already offer similar features, with hints that humanity was testing this behind the scenes. In February, X’s post suggested that the Claude iOS app is preparing for web search and inference features. Now it’s official.
Posted by @theresanaiforit at 13:07. “Claude can now search the web!” highlights responses supported by real-time data access and citations. A few minutes ago, @Koltregaskes confirms, “Ah, Claude gets web search access! For now, USA needs to switch to the feature preview screen,” links to Anthropic’s blog.
For now, this is a preview feature for paid US users, with plans to roll out more widely in the near future.
Claude Web Search
How it works and why is it important?
According to Anthropic’s blog, Claude not only pulls search results, but also processes them into easy-to-read responses with source citations. AI pulls information from reputable outlets like NPR and Reuters, and social media platforms like X.
The goal is that humanity is to facilitate research by presenting relevant sources in a conversational way. VentureBeat reported that humanity spent several months refinement of Claude’s ability to analyze and present web data in useful formats.
This update is especially useful for businesses. Our sales team tracks industry trends, financial analyst monitoring markets, and journalists looking at information, all profitable. “For financial services companies, combining past training data with Breaking News creates powerful analytics tools,” says VentureBeat.
Mixed reactions and early feedback
The response was almost positive. Some users of X shared their excitement about the improvements in Claude’s functionality, particularly their ability to cite sources. Investing.com noted that this addresses one of the biggest issues with AI-generated content: transparency. “Users can easily check the source facts,” the site reported.
That said, early testers noticed that web searches were not always consistent. Yahoo Finance has discovered that it doesn’t always destroy the news, suggesting there is still room for improvement. Humanity acknowledges this and frams its functionality as a preview with continuous improvements.
The bigger battle in AI search
This update comes when AI companies compete to move on. Just three weeks ago, humanity secured $3.5 billion in funding and valued the company at $61.5 billion. Supporters like Google and Amazon have made big bets on their future, and Claude’s integration with Amazon’s Alexa+ and AWS Bedrock shows a broader push into both consumer and corporate markets.
The timing of this release is not random. Humanity has deployed web searches in the same way that Xai’s Grok 3 makes waves, and now expects real-time capabilities in AI chatbots.
But this isn’t just about catching up to your competitors. It’s about challenging Google’s search control. As AI chatbots like Claude continue to improve with web content retrieval and synthesis, traditional search engines can lose some of their grip.
What’s next?
This is just the beginning. The Financial Times recently reported that humanity is working on Claude’s voice capabilities, suggesting a shift towards a more interactive AI experience. VentureBeat states, “Web searches may just be the beginning of human extensions.”
Claude’s evolution is slowly burned compared to some of its rivals, but users seem to think it’s worth the wait. As one X user said, “Finally.”
Web search makes the AI assistant space even more competitive as it is part of Claude’s Toolkit. The question is how long it takes these tools to start eating to Google’s market share.
