# search ## Table of Contents - [A type](#a-type) - [Search](#search) - [Page extras](#page-extras) - [News](#news) - [Images](#images) - [Videos](#videos) - [Places](#places) - [Maps](#maps) - [Shopping](#shopping) - [Scholar](#scholar) - [Patents](#patents) - [Autocomplete](#autocomplete) - [Options](#options) - [Pagination](#pagination) - [Content expansion](#content-expansion) --- Google results as structured data. Unlike the other methods, `search` takes a query instead of a URL and requires an [`apiKey`](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/getting-started/overview#authentication) on every request: ```js constmicrolink=createClient({apiKey:process.env.MICROLINK_API_KEY}) constpage=awaitmicrolink.search('Lotus Elise S2') console.log(page.results) ``` The resolved page carries `results` — the shape of each item depends on `type` — plus page extras such as `knowledgeGraph` when the vertical returns them. Every example on this page assumes the `microlink` client above. ## A type `type` routes the query to a Google surface. Each one has its own result shape: | Type | What you get | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [search ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#search) | Web results, knowledge graph, related questions, related searches (default) | | [news ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#news) | Articles with publisher, date, and thumbnail | | [images ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#images) | Full-resolution image URLs with dimensions | | [videos ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#videos) | Video metadata with duration and channel | | [places ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#places) | Local listings with coordinates and contact info | | [maps ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#maps) | Rich place data with hours, ratings, and pricing | | [shopping ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#shopping) | Product listings with parsed prices | | [scholar ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#scholar) | Academic papers with citations and PDF links | | [patents ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#patents) | Patent filings with ISO 8601 dates | | [autocomplete ✓](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#autocomplete) | Query suggestions | Omit `type` and you get [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#search). Start with the lightest surface that answers the question. ## Search Type: 'search'\ Default: 'search' Web results with knowledge graph, related questions, and related searches. This is the default surface of [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search) when `type` is omitted: ```js constpage=awaitmicrolink.search('technical seo checklist') ``` Each result carries `title`, `url`, and `description`: ```js page.results[0] // { // title: 'Full Technical SEO Checklist (from Start to Finish) - Semrush', // url: 'https://www.semrush.com/blog/technical-seo-checklist/', // description: 'The full technical SEO checklist covers crawling and indexing issues…' // } ``` ## Page extras The page can also return these top-level fields alongside `results`: | Field | Type | Description | | ----------------- | --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | `knowledgeGraph` | `object?` | Entity panel with `title`, `type`, `website`, `image`, `description`, `descriptionSource`, `descriptionLink`, and `attributes` | | `peopleAlsoAsk` | `array?` | Related questions with `question`, `snippet`, `title`, and `link` | | `relatedSearches` | `array?` | Suggested follow-up queries with `query` | ```js constpage=awaitmicrolink.search('apple inc') page.knowledgeGraph.attributes // { Headquarters: 'Cupertino, CA', Founded: 'April 1, 1976, Los Altos, CA', … } page.relatedSearches.map(s=>s.query) // ['Apple Inc full form', 'Apple Inc address', 'Apple Inc stock'] ``` See the [web search guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/search) for knowledge-graph and query-expansion workflows. ## News Type: 'news' Recent articles with publisher, date, and thumbnail. Pass `type: 'news'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('artificial intelligence',{ type:'news' }) results[0] // { // title: 'Artificial Intelligence Floods Court Dockets with Home-Brewed Lawsuits', // url: 'https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/us/politics/artificial-intelligence-courts.html', // description: 'For years, courts have welcomed cases brought by self-represented litigants…', // date: '2026-05-25T15:13:08.232Z', // publisher: 'The New York Times', // image: { url: 'https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:…' } // } ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ------------- | ---------- | ------------------------- | | `title` | `string` | Article headline | | `url` | `string` | Publisher URL | | `description` | `string` | Article snippet | | `date` | `string` | ISO 8601 publication date | | `publisher` | `string` | Source name | | `image` | `{ url }?` | Thumbnail image | Narrow the window with `period`, or the region with `location`: ```js awaitmicrolink.search('tech acquisitions',{type:'news',period:'week'}) awaitmicrolink.search('regulatory update',{ type:'news', location:'de', period:'day' }) ``` See the [news guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/news) for monitoring patterns. ## Images Type: 'images' Full-resolution image URLs with dimensions. Pass `type: 'images'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('northern lights',{ type:'images' }) results[0] // { // title: 'Northern lights (aurora borealis) — What they are and how to see them | Space', // url: 'https://www.space.com/15139-northern-lights-auroras-earth-facts-sdcmp.html', // creator: 'Frank Olsen', // image: { url: 'https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/57jQMDN5MZLYfV8ps8HuZQ.jpg', width: 2121, height: 1193 }, // thumbnail: { url: 'https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:…', width: 300, height: 168 } // } ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ----------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------- | | `title` | `string` | Image title or alt text | | `url` | `string` | Source page URL | | `image` | `{ url, width, height }` | Full-resolution image | | `thumbnail` | `{ url, width, height }` | Smaller preview | | `google` | `{ url }?` | Google Images viewer link | | `creator` | `string?` | Image creator attribution | | `credit` | `string?` | Image credit or copyright | See the [images guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/images) for asset-discovery workflows. ## Videos Type: 'videos' Video metadata with duration and channel. Pass `type: 'videos'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('node.js streams',{ type:'videos' }) results[0] // { // title: 'Learn Node.js Streams in 25 minutes', // channel: 'Dipesh Malvia', // url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcznOgzOdxI', // description: 'In this video we will understand what are streams…', // date: '2024-08-22T12:00:00.000Z', // publisher: 'YouTube', // duration: 1502000, // duration_pretty: '25m' // } ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ----------------- | ---------- | ----------------------------------------- | | `title` | `string` | Video title | | `url` | `string` | Video page URL | | `description` | `string` | Video description snippet | | `image` | `{ url }?` | Video thumbnail | | `video` | `{ url }?` | Direct video URL if available | | `duration` | `number?` | Duration in milliseconds | | `duration_pretty` | `string?` | Human-readable duration (`'25m'`, `'1h'`) | | `publisher` | `string?` | Platform name | | `channel` | `string?` | Channel or creator name | | `date` | `string?` | ISO 8601 publish date | See the [videos guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/videos) for tutorial-discovery workflows. ## Places Type: 'places' Local listings with coordinates and contact info. Pass `type: 'places'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('coworking spaces barcelona',{ type:'places' }) results[0] // { // title: 'Betahaus | Coworking Barcelona', // address: 'Carrer de Vilafranca, 7, 08024 Barcelona, Spain', // latitude: 41.406982, // longitude: 2.1567652, // rating: 4.8, // ratingCount: 417, // category: 'Coworking space', // phone: { number: '+34 655 62 71 49' }, // url: 'https://www.betahaus.es/…', // cid: '15533147541347981884' // } ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ------------- | ------------- | --------------------- | | `title` | `string` | Business name | | `address` | `string` | Street address | | `latitude` | `number` | Geographic latitude | | `longitude` | `number` | Geographic longitude | | `rating` | `number?` | Average rating | | `ratingCount` | `number?` | Number of reviews | | `category` | `string?` | Business category | | `phone` | `{ number }?` | Phone number | | `url` | `string?` | Website URL | | `cid` | `string` | Google CID identifier | Choose `places` for simple listings. Choose [maps](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search/maps) when you need opening hours, price levels, or place IDs. See the [places guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/places) for local lookup workflows. ## Maps Type: 'maps' Richer place data than [places](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search/places) — opening hours, price levels, place types, and thumbnails. Pass `type: 'maps'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('restaurants madrid',{ type:'maps' }) results[0] // { // title: 'Rosi La Loca', // address: 'C. de Cádiz, 4, Centro, 28012 Madrid, Spain', // latitude: 40.4158037, // longitude: -3.7029837, // rating: 4.7, // ratingCount: 25007, // type: 'Restaurant', // types: ['Restaurant', 'Lounge bar'], // price: { level: '€20–40' }, // phone: { number: '+34 915 32 66 81' }, // opening: { hours: { Monday: '12:30 PM–1:30 AM', … } }, // url: 'http://www.rosilaloca.com/', // place: { id: 'ChIJgwIBTHkoQg0RD1lm5kc2tWI' }, // cid: '7112650868937611535' // } ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ------------- | ------------- | --------------------- | | `title` | `string` | Place name | | `address` | `string` | Full address | | `latitude` | `number` | Geographic latitude | | `longitude` | `number` | Geographic longitude | | `rating` | `number?` | Average rating | | `ratingCount` | `number?` | Number of reviews | | `price` | `{ level }?` | Price level indicator | | `type` | `string?` | Primary place type | | `types` | `string[]?` | All place types | | `url` | `string?` | Website URL | | `phone` | `{ number }?` | Phone number | | `description` | `string?` | Place description | | `opening` | `{ hours }?` | Opening hours by day | | `thumbnail` | `{ url }?` | Place thumbnail image | | `cid` | `string` | Google CID identifier | | `fid` | `string?` | Google FID identifier | | `place` | `{ id }?` | Google Place ID | See the [maps guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/maps) for entity and local lookup workflows. ## Shopping Type: 'shopping' Product listings with parsed prices and structured ratings. Pass `type: 'shopping'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('macbook pro',{type:'shopping'}) results[0] // { // title: '14-inch MacBook Pro Apple M5 chip CPU and GPU', // url: 'https://www.google.com/search?ibp=oshop&q=macbook+pro&prds=…', // publisher: 'Apple', // price: { symbol: '$', amount: 1699 }, // rating: { score: 4.8, total: 5, reviews: 2400 }, // id: '1293272249390991376' // } ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ----------- | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | `title` | `string` | Product name | | `url` | `string` | Merchant URL | | `publisher` | `string` | Merchant or retailer name | | `price` | `{ symbol, amount }` | Parsed price with currency symbol and numeric amount | | `image` | `{ url }?` | Product image | | `rating` | `{ score, total, reviews? }?` | Rating with score, total (scale), and review count | | `id` | `string?` | Product identifier | `price.amount` is already a number, so you can filter and average without parsing currency strings: ```js constaffordable=results.filter(r=>r.price.amount<500) ``` See the [shopping guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/shopping) for price-monitoring workflows. ## Scholar Type: 'scholar' Academic papers with citation counts and PDF links. Pass `type: 'scholar'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('attention is all you need',{ type:'scholar' }) results[0] // { // title: 'Attention is all you need', // url: 'https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2017/hash/3f5ee243547dee91fbd053c1c4a845aa-Abstract.html', // description: '…to attend to all positions in the decoder…', // publisher: 'A Vaswani, N Shazeer, N Parmar… - Advances in neural …, 2017', // year: 2017, // citations: 249883, // pdf: { url: 'https://proceedings.neurips.cc/paper/2017/file/3f5ee243547dee91fbd053c1c4a845aa-Paper.pdf' }, // id: '5Gohgn6QFikJ' // } ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ------------- | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | `title` | `string` | Paper title | | `url` | `string` | Paper or abstract URL | | `description` | `string` | Paper snippet | | `publisher` | `string` | Authors, journal, and year in publisher line format | | `year` | `number` | Publication year | | `citations` | `number` | Citation count | | `pdf` | `{ url }?` | Direct PDF link when available | | `id` | `string` | Google Scholar ID | Sort or filter by `citations` to surface the most impactful papers. Use `pdf.url` when the workflow needs the full document. See the [scholar guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/scholar) for research and citation workflows. ## Patents Type: 'patents' Patent filings with ISO 8601 dates, figures, and PDF links. Pass `type: 'patents'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('compiler optimization',{ type:'patents' }) results[0] // { // title: 'Prefetching associated with predicated load instructions', // inventor: 'Douglas C. Burger', // assignee: 'Microsoft Technology Licensing, Llc', // language: 'en', // url: 'https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170083338A1/en', // pdf: { url: 'https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/…/US20170083338A1.pdf' }, // priority: { date: '2015-09-19T00:00:00.000Z' }, // filing: { date: '2016-03-04T00:00:00.000Z' }, // publication: { date: '2017-03-23T00:00:00.000Z', number: 'US20170083338A1' }, // figures: [{ image: { url: 'https://…' }, thumbnail: { url: 'https://…' } }] // } ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ------------- | ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------- | | `title` | `string` | Patent title | | `description` | `string` | Patent abstract or summary | | `url` | `string` | Google Patents URL | | `inventor` | `string` | Inventor name | | `assignee` | `string` | Assignee organization | | `language` | `string` | Patent language code | | `priority` | `{ date }` | Priority date (ISO 8601) | | `filing` | `{ date }` | Filing date (ISO 8601) | | `grant` | `{ date }?` | Grant date (ISO 8601) | | `publication` | `{ date, number }` | Publication date and number | | `pdf` | `{ url }?` | Direct PDF link | | `thumbnail` | `{ url }?` | Patent figure thumbnail | | `figures` | `array?` | Patent figures with `image` and `thumbnail` objects | | `id` | `string?` | Patent identifier | See the [patents guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/patents) for prior-art workflows. ## Autocomplete Type: 'autocomplete' Query suggestions as the user types. Pass `type: 'autocomplete'` to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search): ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('javascript debounce',{ type:'autocomplete' }) results.map(({value})=>value) // [ // 'javascript debounce', // 'javascript debounce function', // 'javascript debounce vs throttle', // … // ] ``` | Field | Type | Description | | ------- | -------- | ---------------------- | | `value` | `string` | Suggested query string | Lightweight enough to run before a heavier surface. Use it to discover what people are actually searching for, then route those expanded queries to [search](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search/search), [news](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search/news), or [scholar](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search/scholar). See the [autocomplete guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/autocomplete) for query-expansion workflows. ## Options - [type](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/methods/search#a-type) `` — the search vertical. One of the values above (default: `'search'`). - `limit` `` — the maximum number of results per page. - `location` `` — a two-letter country code geo-targeting the results, e.g. `'us'` or `'es'`. - `period` `` — restricts results by recency: `'hour'`, `'day'`, `'week'`, `'month'`, or `'year'`. - `page` `` — the results page to fetch (default: `1`). - `html` `` — eagerly fetches the HTML of the results page and of every result (default: `false`). - `markdown` `` — eagerly fetches the Markdown of the results page and of every result (default: `false`). ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('open source llm',{ type:'news', period:'week', location:'us', limit:10 }) ``` `search` issues its requests through its own transport, so the [shared options](https://microlink.io/docs/sdk/getting-started/options) for browser and page control don't apply; `timeout` does. ## Pagination Every page exposes `next()`, which resolves to the following page of the same query with the same options: ```js constfirst=awaitmicrolink.search('node.js frameworks') constsecond=awaitfirst.next() ``` Or jump straight to a page with the `page` option: ```js const{results}=awaitmicrolink.search('node.js frameworks',{page:3}) ``` ## Content expansion Results that carry a `url` can expand themselves lazily: `result.markdown()` and `result.html()` fetch the linked page through Microlink and resolve to its content, so an agent can read only the results worth reading. Autocomplete results expose only `value` and have nothing to expand. The page itself exposes the same `markdown()` and `html()` for the results page: ```js constpage=awaitmicrolink.search('web performance budgets',{limit:3}) for(constresultofpage.results){ constmarkdown=awaitresult.markdown() console.log(result.title,markdown.length) } ``` Pass `markdown: true` or `html: true` to fetch everything up front instead; the functions then resolve immediately with the prefetched content. Those options apply to URL-backed results only. See the [search guide](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search) for workflow-first pages per surface and [integration patterns](https://microlink.io/docs/guides/search/patterns) for agents, RAG, and monitoring.