# Google Search

The Google Search tool connects your AI agent directly to Google's real-time web search index, grounding responses in up-to-the-minute facts and verified sources.

Tool Identifier: `search-google`

## Why Use Search Grounding?

Large language models have a fixed knowledge cutoff date. When users ask about today's events, breaking news, recent product updates, or real-time sports scores, an ungrounded model will either apologize or hallucinate plausible-sounding guesses.

With **Google Search Grounding**:

- **Real-Time Freshness**: Retrieve news, announcements, and events happening right now.
- **Fact Verification**: Reduce hallucinations by anchoring generated text in authoritative web search results.
- **Source Citations**: Responses include inline reference links so users can inspect and trust the primary sources.

## How to Enable

### In the UI

When configuring an agent in the [Agent Builder](/agents/new) or editing an existing agent, check the box for:
☑️ **Google Search 🔎**

### In Agent YAML

Add `search-google` to the `tools` array:

```yaml
tools:
  - search-google
```

## Example Prompts & Use Cases

- **Market Intelligence**: _"What were the key announcements from Google I/O this year?"_
- **Current Events**: _"What is happening in the world today?"_
- **Competitive Analysis**: _"Compare the latest pricing plans of popular cloud hosting services."_
- **Fact Checking**: _"When is the next solar eclipse visible from Central Europe?"_

## Try It in Practice

The default [Google Gemini Agent](/chat/agent/demo/gemini) has Google Search grounding pre-enabled.

1. Open [Chat with Google Gemini](/chat/agent/demo/gemini).
2. Click the quick-start prompt: _"What's new in the world today?"_.
3. Notice how the agent searches the web, summarizes current headlines, and cites its sources!

## Related Tools

- 🌐 **[Web Fetch Tool (HTTP)](fetch.md)**: Once search finds relevant URLs, fetch full page contents for deep analysis.
- 🗺️ **[Google Maps](maps.md)**: For local queries and geographic lookups.
- 📖 **[Connected Tools Overview](index.md)**