Claude Accused of Faking Web Searches

DoubleOhGadget · reddit · 2026-07-14

The author reports frequent issues when using Claude to search the web: whether using Sonnet, Opus, or the tested fable, the models sometimes "pretend to search," and when called out, they often insist multiple times that they have already searched.

The author tried prompts like "research this," "do a search," and "search the web," but the models still seem reluctant to execute the search. Ultimately, users have to manually search, take screenshots, and feed them back to the model to keep things moving. The author wants to confirm if this is a widespread phenomenon.

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