Focus Modes

Route searches to specialized sources like web, shopping, AI engines, news, and social media.

Focus modes allow you to specialize search queries to retrieve results from specific sources and platforms. Each focus mode uses one or more Web Search Agents (WSA) to gather results optimized for different use cases

Available Focus Modes

Focus Mode	Description	Best For
general (default)	Web search engine (e.g., Google, Bing)	General information, broad topics, web pages
news	News sources (e.g., Google News)	Current events, breaking stories, journalistic analysis
location	Local business search engine (e.g., Google Maps)	Places, businesses, geographic information
coding	Developer resources and code	Finding code examples, debugging help, API documentation
academic	Scholarly sources and papers	Scientific research, peer-reviewed studies, scholarly citations
shopping	E-commerce platforms (Amazon, Walmart, Target, ...)	Product comparison, price discovery, merchant reviews
geo	Generative Engine Optimization - AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, ...)	AI-generated answers, search optimization strategies, synthetic insights
social	Social media platforms (TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, ...)	Social content, influencers, trending topics

Basic Usage

Specify a focus mode using the focus parameter:

curl -X POST "https://nimble-retriever.webit.live/search" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "best laptops 2026",
    "focus": "shopping",
    "max_results": 10
  }'

Quick Examples

General web search:

{
  "query": "artificial intelligence trends",
  "focus": "general",
  "deep_search": true
}

News search:

{
  "query": "climate policy",
  "focus": "news"
}

Product search:

{
  "query": "wireless headphones",
  "focus": "shopping",
  "max_subagents": 5
}

AI search engines:

{
  "query": "how to optimize for AI search",
  "focus": "geo"
}

Social media search:

{
  "query": "AI tutorials",
  "focus": "social",
  "max_results": 20
}

Key Parameters

focus

Type: string Default: "general"

Specify which focus mode to use:

{"focus": "shopping"}

max_subagents

Type: integer Default: 3 Range: 1-5

Controls how many Web Search Agents (WSA) execute in parallel for focus modes with multiple agents.

{
  "focus": "shopping",
  "max_subagents": 5
}

Higher values = more diverse results but slower response.

deep_search

Type: boolean Default: true

Extract full page content for each result. Disable for faster responses when only metadata is needed.

{
  "focus": "general",
  "deep_search": false
}

include_answer

Type: boolean Default: false

Generate an AI summary of search results.

{
  "query": "what is quantum computing",
  "focus": "general",
  "include_answer": true
}

Best Practices

Choose the right focus mode:

• Product research → shopping

• Current trends → geo or social

• Technical docs → coding

• Academic research → academic

• Breaking news → news

Optimize performance:

• Lower max_subagents (1-2) for faster responses

• Disable deep_search when only metadata needed

• Choose focused modes for specific use cases

Maximize quality:

• Higher max_subagents (4-5) for diverse results

• Enable deep_search for comprehensive content

• Adjust max_results to get more comprehensive data

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Need help? Check the main Search API documentation or contact [email protected].