Introducing Webz.io News Answers API: Direct Answers from the News, with Sources

News APIs typically return a list of articles. Sometimes you just need an answer. You’ve got to read the articles, figure out what’s new, compare reports, and piece together what happened. Well, now we have the Webz.io News Answers API. You can ask a question in natural language and get an answer drawn from relevant news coverage, along with citations to the original reporting.

The News Answers API is now available in the Webz.io Playground.

From Finding News to Understanding It

Between discovering news and understanding it, there is often a big gap. A single event can be reported on by dozens of news outlets. Each story can cover the event from a different angle and at a different point in time. A search engine helps locate those news reports. It doesn’t, however, show how those stories connect to each other. News Answers is designed for this last step. It takes the reporting done by various news outlets and condenses it into a readable answer, with citations showing where that answer came from.

Ask the Question You Would Ask a Colleague

Examples of questions include:

• “What supply chain disruptions happened this week?”
• “Which companies announced layoffs this month following a merger?”
• “What new AI regulations have been announced in Europe?”

These aren’t carefully constructed keyword searches. They’re the questions that an analyst, researcher, or product manager would ask when something is happening and they need to understand it. News Answers provides a synthesized response instead of making you scour article titles for the answers.

Answers with Sources Attached

With rapidly changing news, confidence in an answer isn’t enough. News Answers cites the reporting it uses. That way, you can see which articles support the answer, read the original reporting, and check a fact if needed.

This makes the output useful in research and intelligence applications. With an uncited AI summary, it’s often difficult to tell where a particular statement came from. News Answers gives users a way to go back to the underlying reporting and draw their own conclusions.

Built on Webz.io’s Global News Coverage

Webz.io processes millions of news articles daily, with coverage extending from major global publications to local news outlets. Important details about a business, event, or market may first appear in local reporting.

News Answers builds on this news data to answer questions that aren’t easily addressed by a single article. It synthesizes relevant news reports and helps users quickly catch up on a story, then follow the sources that matter to them.

From News Feeds to Answers in Your Application

News Answers is an API, not just a search box. Developers can use it to build news-related research tools, market and competitive intelligence applications, monitoring products, and question-answering assistants that provide information about current events.

Instead of providing a news feed and making users interpret it, an application can return an answer with links to the original reporting.

For developers who need to retrieve and process the articles themselves, Webz.io’s News Search API remains available. The two APIs address different needs: one retrieves relevant news content, while the other turns that content into a direct answer.

Try News Answers API Today

News Answers API is available now in the Webz.io Playground. Open the Playground, enter a news-related question, and examine the answer along with its cited sources.

A good starting point is:

“What supply chain disruption events happened this week?”

It’s the kind of question that might require checking multiple publications and connecting several separate developments.

You can now ask it directly and see what the news has to say.

Try News Answers API in the Webz.io Playground