Real-Time URL Search for Live Content
Search Websites
The Search websites card lets the chatbot fetch a page live, in the middle of a conversation, instead of relying on content you indexed earlier. Use it for things that change constantly, such as current prices, availability, opening hours or today's offers. When a visitor asks something that matches one of your groups, for example "How much is a ticket today?", the bot pulls those pages fresh and answers from what it just read.
Everything else should stay in your normal data sources, because they're faster and cheaper. Searching websites is the exception for content that goes stale by the hour.
Configuration
Open Dashboard → your assistant → Functions. The Search websites card is in the group Know more. Its settings appear once the switch next to the card title is on. The card was formerly called URL Search.
| Field | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Switch next to Search websites | Activates real-time website searching for this chatbot. | Off |
URL Groups
URLs are organized into groups, one group per topic. Each group has a name, a rule that tells the chatbot when to search it, and its URLs.
You can create up to 10 groups per chatbot with Add group. The bin icon next to a group removes it, as long as more than one group exists.
Group Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Group name | A descriptive name for this group (e.g. "Weather", "Stock Prices", "Support Articles"). |
| When should this group be searched? | Instructions for when the chatbot should search these URLs (e.g. "Search these URLs when the user asks about current weather conditions"). The AI uses this rule to decide when to search the group. |
| URLs (one per line) | Only http:// and https:// URLs are accepted. Up to 10 URLs per group. Only these exact pages are fetched, no crawling. |
If you leave the URLs of a group empty, the group runs in live mode: the chatbot fetches the URL the visitor names in the chat.
Example Configuration
Group: Product Prices
- Name: Product Prices
- When should this group be searched? Search these URLs when the visitor asks about current prices, pricing, or product costs.
- URLs:
https://shop.example.com/pricing https://shop.example.com/products
Group: Support Articles
- Name: Support Articles
- When should this group be searched? Search these URLs when the visitor has a technical issue or asks about troubleshooting.
- URLs:
https://help.example.com/faq https://help.example.com/troubleshooting
How It Works
- The visitor asks a question
- The chatbot evaluates the question against each group's rule
- If a group matches, the chatbot fetches the URLs in real-time
- The fetched content is used to generate the answer
- The visitor gets an answer based on the latest content
Search Websites vs. Standard Data Sources
| Feature | Search Websites | Standard Data Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Content freshness | Always current (fetched in real-time) | Updated on re-index |
| Response speed | Slightly slower (needs to fetch) | Fast (pre-indexed) |
| Best for | Dynamic, frequently changing content | Static or rarely changing content |
| Cost | Uses more tokens per query | Pre-processed, lower per-query cost |
Best Practices
- Use for dynamic content only: Static content is better served by standard data sources
- Write clear rules: The rule under When should this group be searched? determines when the chatbot uses each group
- Limit URLs per group: Fewer URLs means faster responses
- Combine with data sources: Search websites for dynamic data and use standard sources for static content