> Source: https://builder-docs.ema.ai/agent-reference/core/deep-web-search
> Title: Deep Web Search Agent

# Deep Web Search Agent

The Deep Web Search agent performs multi-strategy web searches using AI to find, evaluate, and synthesize information from the public internet. It goes beyond simple keyword search by trying multiple query formulations and evaluating result quality.

## Use Cases

-   Your workflow needs real-time information from the internet that is not in your knowledge base.
-   You want to supplement internal knowledge with public data (market research, competitor analysis, news).
-   The user's question requires up-to-date information that may not exist in pre-indexed sources.

## Inputs

Input

Type

Required

Description

Query

Text with Sources

Yes

The main search query. Can be a question, topic, or specific information request.

Instructions

Text

No

Optional guidance prepended to the query (for example, "Focus on official sources" or "Find recent news about").

## Outputs

Output

Type

Description

Web Search Results

Search Results (array)

Web research results. Each result contains the source URL, title, and scraped content. Results may include both AI-synthesized answers and directly scraped web content, combined and reranked for relevance.

## Configurations

Parameter

Description

Default

Maximum Sources

Maximum number of web sources returned.

5

Number of days to filter by to find the latest results

Only return results from within this many days. When set, forces normal web search and disables AI search.

0 (no filtering)

Allow Google Search

When on, uses Google as the search engine. When off, uses DuckDuckGo with SearXNG as fallback.

Off

Ensure Ema always cites source web links

When on, disables AI search so every result comes from a scraped web source with an explicit URL.

Off

Return relevant links with brief summaries; skip full scraping

When on, returns titles, URLs, and snippets only (fast). When off, scrapes full page content for each result (slower, more comprehensive).

Off

Enable query preprocessing and classification

When on, runs LLM preprocessing to classify the query and extract site filters before searching. Turn off to search the query as-is.

On

## How to Use This Agent

A competitive intelligence AI Employee that combines internal data with web research:

```
chat_trigger -> knowledge_search  ->\
                                     combine_search_results -> respond_using_search_results -> workflow_output
             -> deep_web_search   ->/
```

## Related Agents

-   [Agentic Search and Respond](/legacy-docs/agent-reference/core/agentic-search-and-respond): can invoke web search as part of its iterative research; use this for autonomous research.
-   [Knowledge Search](/legacy-docs/agent-reference/core/knowledge-search): for internal knowledge base search.
-   [Combine Search Results](/legacy-docs/agent-reference/core/combine-search-results): for merging web and internal results.