> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://phidatainc-agui.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Web Search

**WebSearchTools** is a versatile toolkit that enables an Agent to search the web using multiple search backends. It uses the DDGS meta-search library which supports backends like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Brave, Yandex, Yahoo, and more.

This is the recommended toolkit for general web search functionality. For DuckDuckGo-specific usage, see [DuckDuckGoTools](/tools/toolkits/search/duckduckgo).

## Prerequisites

The following example requires the `ddgs` library. To install it, run the following command:

```shell theme={null}
uv pip install -U ddgs
```

## Example

```python theme={null}
from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.tools.websearch import WebSearchTools

# Basic usage with auto backend selection
agent = Agent(tools=[WebSearchTools()])
agent.print_response("What's happening in France?", markdown=True)

# Use a specific backend (e.g., google, bing, brave, yandex)
agent_google = Agent(
    tools=[WebSearchTools(backend="google")]
)
agent_google.print_response("Latest AI news", markdown=True)
```

## Toolkit Params

| Parameter           | Type            | Default  | Description                                                                                                                       |
| ------------------- | --------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `enable_search`     | `bool`          | `True`   | Enable web search function.                                                                                                       |
| `enable_news`       | `bool`          | `True`   | Enable news search function.                                                                                                      |
| `backend`           | `str`           | `"auto"` | The backend to use for searching. Options: `"auto"`, `"duckduckgo"`, `"google"`, `"bing"`, `"brave"`, `"yandex"`, `"yahoo"`, etc. |
| `modifier`          | `Optional[str]` | `None`   | A modifier to prepend to search queries.                                                                                          |
| `fixed_max_results` | `Optional[int]` | `None`   | A fixed number of maximum results.                                                                                                |
| `proxy`             | `Optional[str]` | `None`   | Proxy to use for requests.                                                                                                        |
| `timeout`           | `Optional[int]` | `10`     | Maximum seconds to wait for a response.                                                                                           |
| `verify_ssl`        | `bool`          | `True`   | Whether to verify SSL certificates.                                                                                               |
| `timelimit`         | `Optional[str]` | `None`   | Time limit for results. `"d"` (day), `"w"` (week), `"m"` (month), `"y"` (year).                                                   |
| `region`            | `Optional[str]` | `None`   | Region for results (e.g., `"us-en"`, `"uk-en"`, `"ru-ru"`).                                                                       |

## Toolkit Functions

| Function      | Description                                                                                                                                                                          |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `web_search`  | Search the web for a query. Parameters include `query` (str) for the search query and `max_results` (int, default=5) for maximum results. Returns JSON formatted search results.     |
| `search_news` | Get the latest news from the web. Parameters include `query` (str) for the search query and `max_results` (int, default=5) for maximum results. Returns JSON formatted news results. |

## Supported Backends

The `backend` parameter supports the following options:

| Backend      | Description                                |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------ |
| `auto`       | Automatically selects an available backend |
| `duckduckgo` | DuckDuckGo search engine                   |
| `google`     | Google search engine                       |
| `bing`       | Microsoft Bing search engine               |
| `brave`      | Brave Search                               |
| `yandex`     | Yandex search engine                       |
| `yahoo`      | Yahoo search engine                        |

## Developer Resources

* View [Tools](https://github.com/agno-agi/agno/blob/main/libs/agno/agno/tools/websearch.py)
* View [Cookbook](https://github.com/agno-agi/agno/tree/main/cookbook/14_tools/duckduckgo_tools.py)