Anthropic announced this week a major update for Claude, its AI chatbot. The platform can now search for results on the web in real time to provide up-to-date information, making it even more useful for research.Claude can now search the web in real timeAs detailed in a blog post, Claude now has access to the latest events and information, which improves the accuracy of tasks that benefit from more recent data. Until now, Claude relied on large language models that were updated from time to time, so the chatbot had no knowledge of recent events.The platform will show direct quotes attributed to their respective sources, so that users can check whether the information is true.When Claude incorporates information from the web into its responses, it provides direct citations so you can easily fact check sources. Instead of finding search results yourself, Claude processes and delivers relevant sources in a conversational format. This enhancement expands Claudes extensive knowledge base with real-time insights, providing answers based on more current information, the company says.Anthropic notes that Claudes web search can be especially useful for researchers, financial analysts with current market data, and even buyers who want to compare product features and prices across multiple sources.Users can choose whether or not to search the web when using Claude, similar to ChatGPT Search which is also optional.Web search is now available in beta for all paid Claude users in the US. Anthropic says it plans to expand the feature to more countries and also to free users in the future. If youre a subscriber in the US, all you need to do is enable web search in your profile settings and start a conversation with the Claude 3.7 model.More details can be found on Claudes website.Gadgets I recommend:Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel