Where the information comes from
On this page
Every part of 4Search draws on its own sources, and each page credits them where the data appears. This page lists them in one place, service by service, with how fresh each one is.
#Search
| What you see | Where it comes from | How fresh |
|---|---|---|
| News results | The 4Search index: articles 4Search has gathered from many outlets | New articles arrive throughout the day; each card shows its age |
| Web results | Google-hosted web results; Google decides what is listed and in which order | As Google returns them |
| Websites | A directory of websites, one entry per site | A profile's numbers follow the date window you choose |
| Images and Videos | The pictures and videos that come with articles in the 4Search index | As the articles arrive |
| Tone, length and topic path on a card | Worked out automatically by 4Search for each article | With the article |
The index is large but not complete: a story from an outlet 4Search does not read will not appear in the News column. See How 4Search finds and orders results and The Web column.
#AI answers
The AI Overview and AI Mode are written by an outside AI provider, named on the AI Transparency Notice. AI Mode searches the site's own news index for each message and reads up to six of the best-matching articles, which it lists under Sources; a sentence without a citation comes from the model's general knowledge. Answers are written when you ask, from the articles available then. They can be wrong, out of date or incomplete, and say so. See Sources and citations and Accuracy, limits and your privacy.
#Topics and the front page
Each site's topics are set up by 4Search for that site's subject, and articles are filed into them from the 4Search index. The front page shows recent stories from the last few days, and its groups are rebuilt about every ten minutes. See Topics and your front page.
#Finance
| What you see | Where it comes from | How fresh |
|---|---|---|
| Prices, charts and key statistics | Public market-data sources | May be delayed up to 15 minutes; a few foreign exchanges lag longer |
| Financial statements and filings | Reports companies file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | When the company files |
| Inflation, jobs, interest rates and growth | The official U.S. agencies that publish them | When they publish, usually monthly |
| News, coverage counts and sentiment | The 4Search news index | Throughout the day |
| Fund holdings | The fund companies' own daily holdings files | Daily; the card gives the date |
| Prediction-market odds | Kalshi and Polymarket | Every few minutes; the page says how long ago |
Finance does not offer real-time prices, and nothing on it is investment advice. See How fresh the data is.
#Politics
| What you see | Where it comes from | How fresh |
|---|---|---|
| Roll-call votes | The House Clerk and the U.S. Senate | Usually within about ten minutes of being published |
| Bill status, actions and cosponsors | The Library of Congress, through GovInfo | Every 15 minutes |
| Bill summaries | The Congressional Research Service | Can trail a bill by weeks |
| Members and committees | The congress-legislators project, an open public dataset | About once a day |
| Executive orders, rules and proposed rules | The Federal Register | A few hours after publication |
| Prediction-market odds | Kalshi and Polymarket | Every few minutes |
| Headlines and mention counts | The 4Search news index | The last few hours, or the period you choose |
Party-line marks and figures such as "voted with their party" are worked out by Politics from the roll calls. The official sources govern. See Where the Politics information comes from.
#Predictions
The odds and the money traded come from four venues: Kalshi, Polymarket, ForecastEx and Crypto.com. They are read every few minutes, and each page says how long ago. Money on Kalshi and ForecastEx is counted in contracts and shown as an estimate in dollars. The news comes from the 4Search news index, and prices of stocks, rates and coins come from 4Search Finance. See The venues Predictions brings together.
#Weather
| What you see | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| U.S. forecasts, current conditions and alerts | The National Weather Service (NOAA) |
| Radar | NOAA's radar mosaic |
| Satellite pictures | NASA and NOAA's GOES satellites |
| Air quality | AirNow, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its partners |
| Hurricanes and tropical outlooks | The National Hurricane Center |
| Normals, records and the monthly calendar | NOAA's regional climate centers |
| Forecasts outside the U.S., days 8 to 10 for U.S. places, the UV index | MET Norway |
| Current conditions outside the U.S. | Airport reports |
| Weather news | The 4Search news index |
Weather copies this information on a schedule, so a page can be a little behind. Most figures say how old they are, and radar gets a new picture about every two minutes. For warnings that affect your safety, follow your local National Weather Service office. See Where the weather comes from and how fresh it is.
#Maps
| What you see | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Streets, buildings, businesses, addresses and opening hours | OpenStreetMap, the world map made by volunteers |
| Cities, towns, U.S. ZIP codes and country facts | GeoNames |
| Summaries and photos of places | Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons |
| Satellite and aerial pictures | NASA, the European Space Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey and national mapping agencies |
| Street-level photos | Panoramax contributors |
| Live maps | NOAA (radar), the U.S. Geological Survey (earthquakes), the National Interagency Fire Center (wildfires) and AirNow (air quality) |
| Directions and travel times | Worked out by 4Search on OpenStreetMap's roads and paths, assuming normal traffic |
Corrections made in OpenStreetMap usually reach Maps within about a week. See Map data and credits.
#Shopping
Prices, shipping, stock and pictures come from the stores themselves, read from what each store shows its own shoppers, at the moment you search or shortly before. Every offer shows when it was checked, in Eastern Time, and a product's comparison page checks the stores again each time it opens. Ratings are the store's own, credited to it. The store's price at checkout is the one that applies. See How fresh the prices are.
#Common questions
Is any of this live?
Nothing is guaranteed to be instant. Each service copies or reads its sources on its own schedule, and most figures show their age. Use the official source when timing matters.
Does 4Search change what the sources say?
No. Forecasts, records, odds and prices are shown as the sources give them. 4Search converts units, works out a few figures of its own (such as a member's votes with their party) and labels them.
Where do I report something that looks wrong?
See Contact support. For a map error, use Report a map error, which opens OpenStreetMap.