You.com has introduced a groundbreaking set of APIs designed to provide real-time access to the open web
You.com In a bid to enhance the capabilities of large language models (LLMs), Priced at $100 per month, these APIs empower LLMs like Meta’s Llama 2 to seamlessly integrate up-to-date information from the internet into their responses to user queries, offering a dynamic and contextually rich conversational experience.
Already adopted by leading entities such as LlamaIndex, Anthropic, and Cohere, You.com’s APIs address a common limitation faced by LLMs. While traditional models are trained on static data, restricting their knowledge to a specific timeframe, these APIs enable LLMs to break free from such constraints by creating an index of long snippets from websites.
Unlike conventional search APIs from Bing and Google, which provide short snippets aimed at enticing clicks, You.com’s APIs allow LLMs to leverage a custom-built index. This index, a key point of differentiation, enables LLMs to identify relevant snippets and summarize them, providing users with more accurate and timely answers.
Richard Socher, CEO and founder of You.com
highlighted the API’s capabilities in enhancing an LLM’s responses. For instance, when queried about recent events, the API can search the web for real-time information, allowing the LLM to incorporate the latest context into its answers
The launch includes three API variants: Web Search, News, and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). While Web Search provides access to the index of long snippets, News delivers exclusive news results. RAG combines You.com’s web search results with LLMs to generate what Socher claims are “more factual” responses.
However, the integration of LLMs with web access raises concerns about potential risks, given the uncurated and less-filtered nature of the live web. Socher acknowledged weaknesses, particularly in localized queries, but reassured that improvements, including location-aware upgrades, are underway.
Looking ahead, You.com plans to merge news and general web search to further streamline the API’s functionality. The aim is to make the integration of the API into various solutions more seamless, ensuring that responses provided by LLMs are not only relevant but also helpful to end users. The APIs are available starting at $100 per month for 14,200 API calls after a 60-day trial, accompanied by 1,000 free monthly calls. Customized packages for larger enterprise deals with annual subscriptions and discounts are also offered. As the landscape of generative AI evolves, the role of search engines backing closed-source LLMs faces potential disruption, with APIs like You.com’s challenging the status quo. While no API is perfect, healthy competition in the space is likely to drive innovation and improvements in AI capabilities.
