• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 20, 2025

Anthropic launched a web search product on Thursday, allowing its chatbot Claude to display real-time search results to a subset of users.

Gaining real-time search results from the web will boost Claude’s accuracy rates on tasks and when answering questions. The engine and its users will benefit from the most recent data. Claude’s responses from Web content help it to provide direct citations so users can fact-check sources.

Based on the most recent data, shoppers can compare product features, prices, inventory, and reviews across multiple sources to make more informed purchase decisions. Financial analysts can assess current market data, earnings reports, and industry trends.

Anthropic plans to expand the feature to free users and additional countries in the coming weeks. The search function is only available with Anthropic’s latest model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet.

"Its another big step forward for them as the lines between engines, agents, and assistants for both enterprises and consumers blur and converge," said BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu. "There had been pressure to offer the feature. You can expect some unique selling propositions in the company months, maybe voice."

Yu said it looks like the initial move toward an entire AI solution, not just content and coding.

Anthropic's launch of web search comes at a pivotal time. Anthropic secured $3.5 billion in Series E funding at a post-money valuation of $61.5 billion, underscoring high stakes in AI. Lightspeed Venture Partners as well as Google, which holds a 14% stake, and Amazon -- which has integrated Claude into its Alexa+ service -- have major investments in the company and its future. 

OpenAI last fall launched a search engine supported by ChatGPT as the entire search industry continues to evolve. Those changes are affecting Google and Microsoft, as well. Each rewriting search and their respective advertising platforms.

Advertising platforms are the one thing missing from newcomers Anthropic and Perplexity, which brands likely will see later this year.

Perplexity, an AI search engine startup competing with Google and Microsoft, reportedly is in early talks for a new funding round that would double its valuation to $18 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The person told Bloomberg that Perplexity’s annual recurring revenue has reached $100 million. The company founded in 2022 has discussed raising as much as $500 million to $1 billion in the round.