Web search
When a chatbot looks things up online for this answer, instead of relying only on what it learned in training.
Without search, a chatbot answers from training data that stops at its knowledge cutoff. With search, the app runs web searches, hands the results to the model, and the model writes its answer from them, usually with links to the pages it used.
Search is what you want for anything current or changeable: opening hours, prices, laws, timetables, recent events. It doesn't make the answer automatically right. The model can work from short search snippets rather than whole pages, pick a weak source, or misreport what a page says. The links are there so you can check the one claim that matters.
For example
"Is the pharmacy on Elm Street open on Sunday?" needs a search; "Explain how compound interest works" doesn't.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet web search in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
Daily Bytes Plus is in the Android app.