---
title: Websearch
id: websearch-api
description: Web search engine for Haystack.
---
# Module serper\_dev
## SerperDevWebSearch
Uses [Serper](https://serper.dev/) to search the web for relevant documents.
See the [Serper Dev website](https://serper.dev/) for more details.
Usage example:
```python
from haystack.components.websearch import SerperDevWebSearch
from haystack.utils import Secret
websearch = SerperDevWebSearch(top_k=10, api_key=Secret.from_token("test-api-key"))
results = websearch.run(query="Who is the boyfriend of Olivia Wilde?")
assert results["documents"]
assert results["links"]
# Example with domain filtering - exclude subdomains
websearch_filtered = SerperDevWebSearch(
top_k=10,
allowed_domains=["example.com"],
exclude_subdomains=True, # Only results from example.com, not blog.example.com
api_key=Secret.from_token("test-api-key")
)
results_filtered = websearch_filtered.run(query="search query")
```
#### SerperDevWebSearch.\_\_init\_\_
```python
def __init__(api_key: Secret = Secret.from_env_var("SERPERDEV_API_KEY"),
top_k: Optional[int] = 10,
allowed_domains: Optional[list[str]] = None,
search_params: Optional[dict[str, Any]] = None,
*,
exclude_subdomains: bool = False)
```
Initialize the SerperDevWebSearch component.
**Arguments**:
- `api_key`: API key for the Serper API.
- `top_k`: Number of documents to return.
- `allowed_domains`: List of domains to limit the search to.
- `exclude_subdomains`: Whether to exclude subdomains when filtering by allowed_domains.
If True, only results from the exact domains in allowed_domains will be returned.
If False, results from subdomains will also be included. Defaults to False.
- `search_params`: Additional parameters passed to the Serper API.
For example, you can set 'num' to 20 to increase the number of search results.
See the [Serper website](https://serper.dev/) for more details.
#### SerperDevWebSearch.to\_dict
```python
def to_dict() -> dict[str, Any]
```
Serializes the component to a dictionary.
**Returns**:
Dictionary with serialized data.
#### SerperDevWebSearch.from\_dict
```python
@classmethod
def from_dict(cls, data: dict[str, Any]) -> "SerperDevWebSearch"
```
Serializes the component to a dictionary.
**Returns**:
Dictionary with serialized data.
#### SerperDevWebSearch.run
```python
@component.output_types(documents=list[Document], links=list[str])
def run(query: str) -> dict[str, Union[list[Document], list[str]]]
```
Use [Serper](https://serper.dev/) to search the web.
**Arguments**:
- `query`: Search query.
**Raises**:
- `SerperDevError`: If an error occurs while querying the SerperDev API.
- `TimeoutError`: If the request to the SerperDev API times out.
**Returns**:
A dictionary with the following keys:
- "documents": List of documents returned by the search engine.
- "links": List of links returned by the search engine.
# Module searchapi
## SearchApiWebSearch
Uses [SearchApi](https://www.searchapi.io/) to search the web for relevant documents.
Usage example:
```python
from haystack.components.websearch import SearchApiWebSearch
from haystack.utils import Secret
websearch = SearchApiWebSearch(top_k=10, api_key=Secret.from_token("test-api-key"))
results = websearch.run(query="Who is the boyfriend of Olivia Wilde?")
assert results["documents"]
assert results["links"]
```
#### SearchApiWebSearch.\_\_init\_\_
```python
def __init__(api_key: Secret = Secret.from_env_var("SEARCHAPI_API_KEY"),
top_k: Optional[int] = 10,
allowed_domains: Optional[list[str]] = None,
search_params: Optional[dict[str, Any]] = None)
```
Initialize the SearchApiWebSearch component.
**Arguments**:
- `api_key`: API key for the SearchApi API
- `top_k`: Number of documents to return.
- `allowed_domains`: List of domains to limit the search to.
- `search_params`: Additional parameters passed to the SearchApi API.
For example, you can set 'num' to 100 to increase the number of search results.
See the [SearchApi website](https://www.searchapi.io/) for more details.
The default search engine is Google, however, users can change it by setting the `engine`
parameter in the `search_params`.
#### SearchApiWebSearch.to\_dict
```python
def to_dict() -> dict[str, Any]
```
Serializes the component to a dictionary.
**Returns**:
Dictionary with serialized data.
#### SearchApiWebSearch.from\_dict
```python
@classmethod
def from_dict(cls, data: dict[str, Any]) -> "SearchApiWebSearch"
```
Deserializes the component from a dictionary.
**Arguments**:
- `data`: The dictionary to deserialize from.
**Returns**:
The deserialized component.
#### SearchApiWebSearch.run
```python
@component.output_types(documents=list[Document], links=list[str])
def run(query: str) -> dict[str, Union[list[Document], list[str]]]
```
Uses [SearchApi](https://www.searchapi.io/) to search the web.
**Arguments**:
- `query`: Search query.
**Raises**:
- `TimeoutError`: If the request to the SearchApi API times out.
- `SearchApiError`: If an error occurs while querying the SearchApi API.
**Returns**:
A dictionary with the following keys:
- "documents": List of documents returned by the search engine.
- "links": List of links returned by the search engine.