Search API

Why build a search API?
Massive demand. No infrastructure.

Web search is the most fundamental agent capability — every framework ships it on day one. But the existing options are all compromised: Google CSE is expensive and rate-limited, Brave doesn't return Google results, SerpAPI doesn't own its infrastructure, Tavily summarizes away the raw data. We built the search API we wanted to use ourselves — Google-grade results, sub-500ms, 99%+ uptime — on infrastructure we own end-to-end.

Key Metrics

live arena data
Avg Latency
0ms
TinyFish (concurrent engines)
Success Rate
0%
With cascade fallback
Win Rate
0%
vs competitors in arena
Arena Runs
0
Total benchmark runs

Live Leaderboard

#ProviderAvg LatencyWin RateSuccessRuns
1
TinyFish
408ms75.3%94.8%77
2
Firecrawl
926ms10.4%98.5%67
3
Exa
1118ms0%100%67
4
Tavily
1147ms6%100%67
5
Parallel
3621ms0%100%67
6
BrightData
3476ms0%95.5%66
Average Latency (ms)
TinyFish
408ms
Firecrawl
926ms
Exa
1118ms
Tavily
1147ms
BrightData
3476ms
Parallel
3621ms
Data from 77 arena runs
Open Arena →

Latency Comparison

Cascade Fallback

Google and DDG are hit concurrently — whichever returns first wins. If both fail, falls back to vendor API.

RequestconcurrentGooglePrimaryDuckDuckGoConcurrentResultfastestwinsboth failVendor APILast resortWinnerBlocked/SlowFallback path

Architecture

AI AgentAPI CallRust API:8090Gateway:9280GooglePrimaryDDGFallbackBraveAPI

Browser Farm

Five warm Chromium instances with round-robin distribution and auto-recovery watchdog.

Round-robin distributor
Slot 0:500
0 req
Slot 1:501
0 req
Slot 2:502
0 req
Slot 3:503
0 req
Slot 4:504
0 req
Active Dead Respawning

Why We Win

Latency

Warm pool eliminates cold start. Custom binary returns results as soon as DOM parses.

Traditional scraper~3sTinyFish~408ms
Reliability

Concurrent engines + vendor API fallback + auto-recovery watchdog.

WatchdogFallbackConcurrent99%+
Cost

Own the browser, proxy, and infra. No per-query fees.

BrowserOWNEDProxyOWNEDInfraOWNED

Design Principles

1
Use Existing Solutions
Google is the best search engine. We build the fastest way to get its results.
2
Keep It Simple
Title, URL, snippet. That's what agents need. No bloat.
3
Beat the Market
Win on latency, success rate, quality, and cost.
4
Own the Stack
Custom binary, own proxies, own orchestration. Full control.

Competitive Comparison

ProviderApproachQualityCost ModelReliability
TinyFishOwn browser + proxy infraGoogle-gradeOwn infra (no per-query fee)Concurrent engines + vendor fallback
Google CSEOfficial APINative Google$5/1000 queriesRate limited
Brave SearchOwn indexGood, not Google$3/1000 queries99%+
SerpAPIProxy scrapingGoogle-grade$50/5000 queriesProxy dependent
TavilyAI-optimizedAI-summarized$1/1000 queries~95%

Watchdog & Auto-Recovery

Three layers of health monitoring ensure zero-downtime operation:

1
Gateway Recycler (every 10s)
Detects dead browser processes and respawns individually with fresh proxies.
2
start.sh Watchdog (every 10s)
If 0 processes alive for 3 consecutive checks (30s), kills and restarts entire gateway.
3
systemd
Restart=on-failure restarts everything if start.sh exits.

Proxy Infrastructure

ISP-grade proxies on datacenter — ISP reputation with datacenter speed.

ISP on Datacenter
Appears as residential to Google, performs like datacenter.
Per-IP Monitoring
Success rate, block rate, latency tracked in SQLite per IP.
Pool Hydration
2-3x reserve pool size for instant failover.
Smart Rotation
LRU + block-aware scoring. Sticky per browser slot.

Market Context

Search APIs
  • Google CSE — expensive, rate limited
  • Brave Search — good quality, limited control
  • SerpAPI — proxy layer, not infra owner
Our Edge
  • Own the browser — control latency end-to-end
  • Own the proxy — control cost and IP quality
  • Full stack — search + browser + agent in one

Deferred

Deferred

Proprietary Crawling & Indexing

Own search index comes later when we understand query patterns and can justify the investment.

Deferred

Edge Deployment

Edge compute for millisecond latency. Current single-region is sufficient. Requires validated demand.