Web search and research
It searches the web for what it cannot know and shows its sources.
The operator searches the web when a question needs something it could not already know: a price, a recent event, a schedule, a listing, a public page. It reads the pages a search turns up, answers in its own words with the facts it found, and shows the sources under the reply. One focused search answers a fact. A study takes several.
When the operator searches
A question about the world gets an answer from what the operator knows, or from a search when the answer changes over time. A question about your own things gets a search of your tasks and notes instead, which is covered in search in Roma. Something public that one of your connected apps could not read for it, such as a page on the open web or a public code repository, is a web search too: the operator searches for it and reads the page rather than telling you it could not reach it, and it never asks you to connect something public it could have read itself.
Reading the public web is always a search, however much of it there is. An article, a set of docs, a whole repository, everything about a subject: the operator runs as many focused searches as the ask needs. A site that has to be operated, signed into or filled in, is a job for the operator's browser instead. The operator reads a page only when you gave it the address or a search turned the page up.
The operator never pretends to browse when it cannot. When a search finds nothing, it tries another way in before saying so: the name alone, another source, another wording. When it does say "not found", it names what it searched.
Research inside a task
Ask the operator on a task to research it and it searches the web and brings the findings back. "Research this and add what you find" puts them into the task's body, as an addition that keeps every word already there. "What are my options for a standing desk under 400?" puts the comparison in the chat, because you asked to see it rather than to save it, and the operator offers to add it to the task when it belongs there. The rule is one test: did you ask to save it? Research you did not ask to keep never lands in a body on its own. How the conversation on a task works is in the conversation on a task or note.
A web address the operator writes into a body is always a labelled link, never a bare address, with the label taken from the page's own title or the site's name. A link you labelled yourself keeps your label.
Mara has a task called Book a venue for the offsite. In its chat she writes "research three venues near the office for 20 people and add what you find". The operator searches, reads the pages, and adds three venues with a line each and a link to the task's body, then says in a sentence what it found and asks the one question that is left: which weekend.
What shows under the answer
Under a settled answer, a row labelled Sources lists the sites the search drew on, one chip per site with its icon and domain, and a tap on a chip opens the page. The row scrolls sideways and never wraps, so a long study still takes one line. Pictures a search found show as a grid of tiles above the sources, and a tap opens one full size. When the operator places a picture in the answer itself (a product, a place) it puts the picture under the words it belongs to, and Roma keeps its own copy. A closing question ("Want me to compare the two?") sits under the sources as its own message, so it reads as the operator speaking again.
Weather, places and posts on X
Some lookups come back as a card, and every number on it comes from the service itself rather than from the operator. Ask for the forecast for a place and you get a weather card. Ask for restaurants, bars, shops or venues near a place and you get the results on a map with a strip of cards, each with a rating, and a way to open directions. Ask what an account posted on X, or what people are saying about a subject there, and the operator reads public posts on X. Reading X is included with Roma and does not use an X account of yours. Switch it off under Settings and Connections if you would rather it did not.
A list filled from the web
When you add a public thing to a list you keep, the operator fills in the list's properties from one web search. "Add this film to my watchlist" lands a film with its year and rating filled in. Films, books, restaurants and products are looked up this way. A private list such as workouts, weight, expenses or contacts is never looked up, because nothing on the web knows those. More on properties in properties.
Questions people ask
Does the operator browse websites like a person would?
For reading, no. A search reads the pages it finds, however many there are, and answers from them. The browser is for a site that has to be operated: signed into, filled in, clicked through to something only that site shows for you.
Can I see where an answer came from?
Yes. Every answer that drew on a web search carries a Sources row under it, one chip per site, and each chip opens the page. Pictures the search found show above the sources.
Will research be written into my task without asking?
No. Research you asked to see stays in the chat, and the operator offers to add it when it belongs in the task you have open. "Research this and add what you find" is the ask that writes it in, and even then it adds to the notes and never replaces them.
Why did the operator say it could not reach a page?
A page the operator was never given and no search turned up is not followed, and some pages refuse automated readers. It tries another route first, such as a search for the page's own words, and tells you what it searched when nothing works.