SKILL / Research
Plans: Pro & AgencyEnhanced Public Web Search
Discover different types of web references and examine available original sources behind relevant results.
Read the step-by-step user guideEnhanced Public Web Search answers a practical question: what kinds of public web references exist for this subject, and what do the original pages actually say? Instead of a flat list of links, this agentic OSINT Skill in Nexus returns references grouped by type, so you can see the shape of a subject’s public footprint at a glance. For the references that matter to your objective, Nexus examines the original source itself, and each finding links to that evidence.
What you get
A structured brief of categorized web references, with the original sources behind the relevant ones.
Using Enhanced Public Web Search in an investigation
Grouping by type — for example news coverage, profiles, company pages, documents or discussion threads — shows where a subject appears. The distinction between a reference and an examined source matters just as much in casework. A search result tells you that a page mentions a name; only the page itself tells you in what context, on what date and whether it refers to your subject at all. Enhanced Public Web Search keeps that distinction visible: references that have been examined at source are marked as supported findings, while unexamined references remain leads. Findings sit in the case, where you can add people, organizations and identifiers to the relationship graph, record observations in notes and carry the evidence into a brief or report.
Use Enhanced Public Web Search when Public-Source Research has given you a first picture and you need a more organized view of the public web specifically: which outlets have covered a person, which sites present a company, which documents mention a project. It pairs well with Federated and Regional Search when the subject is likely to appear outside mainstream search results, and with Deep Public Research when the objective calls for a fuller cited investigation.
Example objectives
Run the Skill directly, or describe the objective in your own words — these are the kinds of questions it is built to answer.
Ask Nexus
“What types of public web references exist for this consultancy, and what do the original pages say about its services?”
Ask Nexus
“Which news articles, profiles and documents mention this project name, and which of them refer to the same project?”
Ask Nexus
“Find the original sources behind the top references for this individual and tell me which ones actually concern my subject.”
How Enhanced Public Web Search fits the investigation
A Skill is one move inside a case. The findings stay in the case file, where the evidence behind them can be checked, graphed and reported.
- 01
Choose or describe
Pick the Skill from the Skill Library, or describe the objective in your own words and let Nexus work out which Skills fit the question.
- 02
Review the evidence
Open the evidence record behind any finding and read the original public source before you rely on what it says.
- 03
Add to the case graph
Promote the people, organizations and identifiers you accept into the case relationship graph, straight from their evidence records.
- 04
Brief and report
Turn the case into a BLUF situation brief and, on Pro and Agency, into a structured PDF report with chain of custody.
Evidence before conclusions
What Enhanced Public Web Search cannot establish
Nexus keeps supported findings, possible matches, contradictions and information gaps apart instead of blending them into one narrative. These are the boundaries Enhanced Public Web Search states up front.
- A search reference is a lead until the original source has been examined. Enhanced Public Web Search marks which references have been checked at source and which have not.
- Discovery is limited to publicly indexed material. A no-result does not mean the subject has no web presence, and a page that mentions a matching name is not proof that it refers to your subject.
- Categorization describes the type of page, not its reliability. Assessing the credibility of a source remains the investigator’s judgment.
Best for
Teams that reach for Enhanced Public Web Search most often.
Related OSINT concepts
The vocabulary this Skill works in, defined in the glossary.
Related Skills
Skills investigators commonly run next, in the same case.
Frequently asked questions
What does Enhanced Public Web Search deliver?
Enhanced Public Web Search delivers a structured brief of public web references about a subject, grouped by type such as news coverage, profiles, company pages, documents and discussion threads. For references relevant to the objective, Nexus examines the original page and links the finding to that evidence. References that have not been examined at source are shown as leads rather than findings, so the difference is always visible.
How does Enhanced Public Web Search differ from Public-Source Research?
Public-Source Research is the broad first pass: it gathers and compares public information from many kinds of sources and is included in every Nexus plan. Enhanced Public Web Search focuses on the public web specifically and organizes references by type, then examines the original pages behind the relevant ones. Run Public-Source Research first, then use Enhanced Public Web Search when you need a more organized view of a subject’s web footprint.
Which Nexus plan includes Enhanced Public Web Search?
Enhanced Public Web Search is included on the Pro plan (43 of the 47 investigative Skills) and the Agency plan (all 47). Where Public-Source Research gives a broad first pass, Enhanced Public Web Search adds type-grouped references and source examination, together with the rest of the specialized Skill Library.
Why does Enhanced Public Web Search examine the original page?
A search result shows only a short excerpt, often without the date, context or surrounding text an investigator needs. Enhanced Public Web Search treats such excerpts as discovery references only. For the references that matter, Nexus examines the original page so the finding rests on what the source actually says, and the evidence record preserves where it came from. That is what makes the finding usable in a report.