Research is one of the most time-consuming tasks in any knowledge work. What takes a human researcher 10+ hours can now be done in 10 minutes with CrawlForge's deep_research tool. This guide shows you how.
The Research Problem
Manual research is brutal:
| Task | Manual Time | Manual Steps |
|---|---|---|
| Topic research | 4-8 hours | Search, read, note-take, verify, synthesize |
| Market analysis | 6-12 hours | Find sources, extract data, compare, analyze |
| Due diligence | 10-20 hours | Company research, news, financials, verify |
| Literature review | 20-40 hours | Find papers, read, cite, synthesize |
The pattern is always the same:
- Search for relevant sources
- Read and extract key information
- Verify across multiple sources
- Detect conflicting information
- Synthesize into actionable insights
Each step is tedious. Each step is automatable.
The Deep Research Solution
CrawlForge's deep_research tool handles the entire research pipeline:
What happens behind the scenes:
- Query Expansion - Generates related search queries
- Multi-Source Search - Searches across Google, news, academic sources
- Content Extraction - Scrapes and cleans relevant pages
- Source Verification - Scores credibility of each source
- Conflict Detection - Identifies disagreements between sources
- Synthesis - Generates comprehensive summary with citations
Real-World Example: Market Research
Let's walk through a real research task.
The Request
Research the web scraping tools market in 2025:
- Market size and growth
- Key players and market share
- Pricing trends
- Technology trends
- Predictions for 2026
Manual Approach (Estimated: 8 hours)
- Search Google for "web scraping market size 2025" (30 min)
- Find Statista, Gartner, or similar reports (30 min)
- Search for competitor information (1 hour)
- Visit each competitor's website (2 hours)
- Extract pricing from each (1 hour)
- Search for technology trends (1 hour)
- Verify information across sources (1 hour)
- Synthesize into report (1 hour)
Total: ~8 hours
CrawlForge Approach (Actual: 8 minutes)
Actual time: 8 minutes, 23 seconds Credits used: 10
The Output
ROI Calculation
| Metric | Manual | CrawlForge |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 8 hours | 8 minutes |
| Cost (at $50/hr) | $400 | $0.10 (10 credits) |
| Sources checked | 10-15 | 50 |
| Conflict detection | Manual | Automatic |
| Citations | Manual | Automatic |
Time savings: 60x Cost savings: 4,000x
Configuration Options
Research Approaches
Source Type Filtering
Credibility Threshold
Output Formats
Use Cases
1. Due Diligence
2. Competitive Analysis
3. Technology Assessment
4. Investment Research
5. Academic Literature Review
Conflict Detection Deep Dive
One of deep_research's most valuable features is automatic conflict detection:
What It Detects
| Conflict Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Numerical disagreements | "Market size $5B" vs "$7B" |
| Date discrepancies | "Founded 2020" vs "Founded 2019" |
| Factual contradictions | "Supports X" vs "Does not support X" |
| Opinion divergence | "Will succeed" vs "Will fail" |
How It Works
- Extracts claims from each source
- Normalizes claim formats
- Compares across sources
- Flags disagreements
- Shows source for each position
Example Output
Best Practices
1. Be Specific with Topics
2. Set Appropriate Depth
3. Filter by Recency
4. Verify Critical Information
For high-stakes decisions, always verify critical claims:
Combining with Other Tools
Deep research works best as part of a workflow:
Limitations
Be aware of what deep_research can't do:
| Limitation | Workaround |
|---|---|
| Can't access paywalled content | Use direct URLs if you have access |
| Real-time data (stocks, etc.) | Use specialized APIs |
| Very recent events (< 1 hour) | Use news APIs |
| Private company data | Combine with official filings |
| Subjective judgments | Use as input for human decision |
Getting Started
Ready to try deep research? Here's the fastest path:
Your free tier includes 100 deep research queries (10 credits each).
Related Resources: