diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 02b619d3..f53da72e 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
         "@ai-sdk/openai": "^1.1.9",
         "@mendable/firecrawl-js": "^1.16.0",
         "ai": "^4.1.17",
+        "axios": "^1.7.9",
+        "cheerio": "^1.0.0",
         "js-tiktoken": "^1.0.17",
         "lodash-es": "^4.17.21",
         "p-limit": "^6.2.0",
@@ -850,6 +852,12 @@
       ],
       "license": "MIT"
     },
+    "node_modules/boolbase": {
+      "version": "1.0.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/boolbase/-/boolbase-1.0.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-JZOSA7Mo9sNGB8+UjSgzdLtokWAky1zbztM3WRLCbZ70/3cTANmQmOdR7y2g+J0e2WXywy1yS468tY+IruqEww==",
+      "license": "ISC"
+    },
     "node_modules/chalk": {
       "version": "5.4.1",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/chalk/-/chalk-5.4.1.tgz",
@@ -862,6 +870,48 @@
         "url": "https://github.com/chalk/chalk?sponsor=1"
       }
     },
+    "node_modules/cheerio": {
+      "version": "1.0.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/cheerio/-/cheerio-1.0.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-quS9HgjQpdaXOvsZz82Oz7uxtXiy6UIsIQcpBj7HRw2M63Skasm9qlDocAM7jNuaxdhpPU7c4kJN+gA5MCu4ww==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "cheerio-select": "^2.1.0",
+        "dom-serializer": "^2.0.0",
+        "domhandler": "^5.0.3",
+        "domutils": "^3.1.0",
+        "encoding-sniffer": "^0.2.0",
+        "htmlparser2": "^9.1.0",
+        "parse5": "^7.1.2",
+        "parse5-htmlparser2-tree-adapter": "^7.0.0",
+        "parse5-parser-stream": "^7.1.2",
+        "undici": "^6.19.5",
+        "whatwg-mimetype": "^4.0.0"
+      },
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">=18.17"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/cheeriojs/cheerio?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/cheerio-select": {
+      "version": "2.1.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/cheerio-select/-/cheerio-select-2.1.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-9v9kG0LvzrlcungtnJtpGNxY+fzECQKhK4EGJX2vByejiMX84MFNQw4UxPJl3bFbTMw+Dfs37XaIkCwTZfLh4g==",
+      "license": "BSD-2-Clause",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "boolbase": "^1.0.0",
+        "css-select": "^5.1.0",
+        "css-what": "^6.1.0",
+        "domelementtype": "^2.3.0",
+        "domhandler": "^5.0.3",
+        "domutils": "^3.0.1"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/sponsors/fb55"
+      }
+    },
     "node_modules/combined-stream": {
       "version": "1.0.8",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/combined-stream/-/combined-stream-1.0.8.tgz",
@@ -874,6 +924,34 @@
         "node": ">= 0.8"
       }
     },
+    "node_modules/css-select": {
+      "version": "5.1.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/css-select/-/css-select-5.1.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-nwoRF1rvRRnnCqqY7updORDsuqKzqYJ28+oSMaJMMgOauh3fvwHqMS7EZpIPqK8GL+g9mKxF1vP/ZjSeNjEVHg==",
+      "license": "BSD-2-Clause",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "boolbase": "^1.0.0",
+        "css-what": "^6.1.0",
+        "domhandler": "^5.0.2",
+        "domutils": "^3.0.1",
+        "nth-check": "^2.0.1"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/sponsors/fb55"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/css-what": {
+      "version": "6.1.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/css-what/-/css-what-6.1.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-HTUrgRJ7r4dsZKU6GjmpfRK1O76h97Z8MfS1G0FozR+oF2kG6Vfe8JE6zwrkbxigziPHinCJ+gCPjA9EaBDtRw==",
+      "license": "BSD-2-Clause",
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">= 6"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/sponsors/fb55"
+      }
+    },
     "node_modules/debug": {
       "version": "4.4.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/debug/-/debug-4.4.0.tgz",
@@ -916,6 +994,86 @@
       "integrity": "sha512-IayShXAgj/QMXgB0IWmKx+rOPuGMhqm5w6jvFxmVenXKIzRqTAAsbBPT3kWQeGANj3jGgvcvv4yK6SxqYmikgw==",
       "license": "Apache-2.0"
     },
+    "node_modules/dom-serializer": {
+      "version": "2.0.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/dom-serializer/-/dom-serializer-2.0.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-wIkAryiqt/nV5EQKqQpo3SToSOV9J0DnbJqwK7Wv/Trc92zIAYZ4FlMu+JPFW1DfGFt81ZTCGgDEabffXeLyJg==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "domelementtype": "^2.3.0",
+        "domhandler": "^5.0.2",
+        "entities": "^4.2.0"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/cheeriojs/dom-serializer?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/domelementtype": {
+      "version": "2.3.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/domelementtype/-/domelementtype-2.3.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-OLETBj6w0OsagBwdXnPdN0cnMfF9opN69co+7ZrbfPGrdpPVNBUj02spi6B1N7wChLQiPn4CSH/zJvXw56gmHw==",
+      "funding": [
+        {
+          "type": "github",
+          "url": "https://github.com/sponsors/fb55"
+        }
+      ],
+      "license": "BSD-2-Clause"
+    },
+    "node_modules/domhandler": {
+      "version": "5.0.3",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/domhandler/-/domhandler-5.0.3.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-cgwlv/1iFQiFnU96XXgROh8xTeetsnJiDsTc7TYCLFd9+/WNkIqPTxiM/8pSd8VIrhXGTf1Ny1q1hquVqDJB5w==",
+      "license": "BSD-2-Clause",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "domelementtype": "^2.3.0"
+      },
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">= 4"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/fb55/domhandler?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/domutils": {
+      "version": "3.2.2",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/domutils/-/domutils-3.2.2.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-6kZKyUajlDuqlHKVX1w7gyslj9MPIXzIFiz/rGu35uC1wMi+kMhQwGhl4lt9unC9Vb9INnY9Z3/ZA3+FhASLaw==",
+      "license": "BSD-2-Clause",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "dom-serializer": "^2.0.0",
+        "domelementtype": "^2.3.0",
+        "domhandler": "^5.0.3"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/fb55/domutils?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/encoding-sniffer": {
+      "version": "0.2.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/encoding-sniffer/-/encoding-sniffer-0.2.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-ju7Wq1kg04I3HtiYIOrUrdfdDvkyO9s5XM8QAj/bN61Yo/Vb4vgJxy5vi4Yxk01gWHbrofpPtpxM8bKger9jhg==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "iconv-lite": "^0.6.3",
+        "whatwg-encoding": "^3.1.1"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/fb55/encoding-sniffer?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/entities": {
+      "version": "4.5.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/entities/-/entities-4.5.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-V0hjH4dGPh9Ao5p0MoRY6BVqtwCjhz6vI5LT8AJ55H+4g9/4vbHx1I54fS0XuclLhDHArPQCiMjDxjaL8fPxhw==",
+      "license": "BSD-2-Clause",
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">=0.12"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/fb55/entities?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
     "node_modules/esbuild": {
       "version": "0.23.1",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/esbuild/-/esbuild-0.23.1.tgz",
@@ -1037,6 +1195,37 @@
         "node": ">=4"
       }
     },
+    "node_modules/htmlparser2": {
+      "version": "9.1.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/htmlparser2/-/htmlparser2-9.1.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-5zfg6mHUoaer/97TxnGpxmbR7zJtPwIYFMZ/H5ucTlPZhKvtum05yiPK3Mgai3a0DyVxv7qYqoweaEd2nrYQzQ==",
+      "funding": [
+        "https://github.com/fb55/htmlparser2?sponsor=1",
+        {
+          "type": "github",
+          "url": "https://github.com/sponsors/fb55"
+        }
+      ],
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "domelementtype": "^2.3.0",
+        "domhandler": "^5.0.3",
+        "domutils": "^3.1.0",
+        "entities": "^4.5.0"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/iconv-lite": {
+      "version": "0.6.3",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/iconv-lite/-/iconv-lite-0.6.3.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-4fCk79wshMdzMp2rH06qWrJE4iolqLhCUH+OiuIgU++RB0+94NlDL81atO7GX55uUKueo0txHNtvEyI6D7WdMw==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "safer-buffer": ">= 2.1.2 < 3.0.0"
+      },
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">=0.10.0"
+      }
+    },
     "node_modules/isows": {
       "version": "1.0.6",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/isows/-/isows-1.0.6.tgz",
@@ -1156,6 +1345,18 @@
         "node": "^10 || ^12 || ^13.7 || ^14 || >=15.0.1"
       }
     },
+    "node_modules/nth-check": {
+      "version": "2.1.1",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/nth-check/-/nth-check-2.1.1.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-lqjrjmaOoAnWfMmBPL+XNnynZh2+swxiX3WUE0s4yEHI6m+AwrK2UZOimIRl3X/4QctVqS8AiZjFqyOGrMXb/w==",
+      "license": "BSD-2-Clause",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "boolbase": "^1.0.0"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/fb55/nth-check?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
     "node_modules/p-limit": {
       "version": "6.2.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/p-limit/-/p-limit-6.2.0.tgz",
@@ -1171,6 +1372,43 @@
         "url": "https://github.com/sponsors/sindresorhus"
       }
     },
+    "node_modules/parse5": {
+      "version": "7.2.1",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/parse5/-/parse5-7.2.1.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-BuBYQYlv1ckiPdQi/ohiivi9Sagc9JG+Ozs0r7b/0iK3sKmrb0b9FdWdBbOdx6hBCM/F9Ir82ofnBhtZOjCRPQ==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "entities": "^4.5.0"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/inikulin/parse5?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/parse5-htmlparser2-tree-adapter": {
+      "version": "7.1.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/parse5-htmlparser2-tree-adapter/-/parse5-htmlparser2-tree-adapter-7.1.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-ruw5xyKs6lrpo9x9rCZqZZnIUntICjQAd0Wsmp396Ul9lN/h+ifgVV1x1gZHi8euej6wTfpqX8j+BFQxF0NS/g==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "domhandler": "^5.0.3",
+        "parse5": "^7.0.0"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/inikulin/parse5?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/parse5-parser-stream": {
+      "version": "7.1.2",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/parse5-parser-stream/-/parse5-parser-stream-7.1.2.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-JyeQc9iwFLn5TbvvqACIF/VXG6abODeB3Fwmv/TGdLk2LfbWkaySGY72at4+Ty7EkPZj854u4CrICqNk2qIbow==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "parse5": "^7.0.0"
+      },
+      "funding": {
+        "url": "https://github.com/inikulin/parse5?sponsor=1"
+      }
+    },
     "node_modules/picocolors": {
       "version": "1.1.1",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/picocolors/-/picocolors-1.1.1.tgz",
@@ -1220,6 +1458,12 @@
         "url": "https://github.com/privatenumber/resolve-pkg-maps?sponsor=1"
       }
     },
+    "node_modules/safer-buffer": {
+      "version": "2.1.2",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/safer-buffer/-/safer-buffer-2.1.2.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-YZo3K82SD7Riyi0E1EQPojLz7kpepnSQI9IyPbHHg1XXXevb5dJI7tpyN2ADxGcQbHG7vcyRHk0cbwqcQriUtg==",
+      "license": "MIT"
+    },
     "node_modules/secure-json-parse": {
       "version": "2.7.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/secure-json-parse/-/secure-json-parse-2.7.0.tgz",
@@ -1304,6 +1548,15 @@
       "integrity": "sha512-dFSOFBKV6uwaloBCCUhxlD3Pr/P1a/tJdcmPrTXCHlEFD3faj0mztjcGn6VBAhQ0/Bdy8K3VWrrqwbt/ffsYsg==",
       "license": "MIT"
     },
+    "node_modules/undici": {
+      "version": "6.21.1",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/undici/-/undici-6.21.1.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-q/1rj5D0/zayJB2FraXdaWxbhWiNKDvu8naDT2dl1yTlvJp4BLtOcp2a5BvgGNQpYYJzau7tf1WgKv3b+7mqpQ==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">=18.17"
+      }
+    },
     "node_modules/undici-types": {
       "version": "6.20.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/undici-types/-/undici-types-6.20.0.tgz",
@@ -1320,6 +1573,27 @@
         "react": "^16.8.0 || ^17.0.0 || ^18.0.0 || ^19.0.0"
       }
     },
+    "node_modules/whatwg-encoding": {
+      "version": "3.1.1",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/whatwg-encoding/-/whatwg-encoding-3.1.1.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-6qN4hJdMwfYBtE3YBTTHhoeuUrDBPZmbQaxWAqSALV/MeEnR5z1xd8UKud2RAkFoPkmB+hli1TZSnyi84xz1vQ==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "dependencies": {
+        "iconv-lite": "0.6.3"
+      },
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">=18"
+      }
+    },
+    "node_modules/whatwg-mimetype": {
+      "version": "4.0.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/whatwg-mimetype/-/whatwg-mimetype-4.0.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-QaKxh0eNIi2mE9p2vEdzfagOKHCcj1pJ56EEHGQOVxp8r9/iszLUUV7v89x9O1p/T+NlTM5W7jW6+cz4Fq1YVg==",
+      "license": "MIT",
+      "engines": {
+        "node": ">=18"
+      }
+    },
     "node_modules/ws": {
       "version": "8.18.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/ws/-/ws-8.18.0.tgz",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 456ec7c4..c7bea428 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@
     "@ai-sdk/openai": "^1.1.9",
     "@mendable/firecrawl-js": "^1.16.0",
     "ai": "^4.1.17",
+    "axios": "^1.7.9",
+    "cheerio": "^1.0.0",
     "js-tiktoken": "^1.0.17",
     "lodash-es": "^4.17.21",
     "p-limit": "^6.2.0",
diff --git a/src/deep-research.ts b/src/deep-research.ts
index 1505c4af..0c1a032a 100644
--- a/src/deep-research.ts
+++ b/src/deep-research.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import FirecrawlApp, { SearchResponse } from '@mendable/firecrawl-js';
+import search from './duckduckgo-search';
 import { generateObject } from 'ai';
 import { compact } from 'lodash-es';
 import pLimit from 'p-limit';
@@ -206,12 +207,24 @@ export async function deepResearch({
     serpQueries.map(serpQuery =>
       limit(async () => {
         try {
-          const result = await firecrawl.search(serpQuery.query, {
+          let result = await firecrawl.search(serpQuery.query, {
             timeout: 15000,
             limit: 5,
             scrapeOptions: { formats: ['markdown'] },
           });
 
+          // If the result is empty, use the DuckDuckGo search as a fallback
+          if (result.data.length === 0) {
+            log(
+              `No results found for ${serpQuery.query}, falling back to DuckDuckGo search`,
+            );
+            result = await search(serpQuery.query, {
+              timeout: 15000,
+              limit: 5,
+              scrapeOptions: { formats: ['markdown'] },
+            });
+          }
+
           // Collect URLs from this search
           const newUrls = compact(result.data.map(item => item.url));
           const newBreadth = Math.ceil(breadth / 2);
diff --git a/src/duckduckgo-search.ts b/src/duckduckgo-search.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c13a4af3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/duckduckgo-search.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+import axios from 'axios';
+import * as cheerio from 'cheerio';
+import { SearchResponse, FirecrawlDocument } from '@mendable/firecrawl-js';
+
+async function search(query: string, params: {
+  timeout?: number;
+  limit?: number;
+  scrapeOptions?: { formats: string[] };
+} = {}): Promise<SearchResponse> {
+  const { timeout = 15000, limit = 5 } = params;
+  const baseUrl = 'https://duckduckgo.com/html/';
+  
+  try {
+    const response = await axios.get(baseUrl, {
+      params: {
+        q: query,
+      },
+      headers: {
+        'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
+        'Accept': 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/avif,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8',
+      },
+      timeout,
+    });
+
+    const $ = cheerio.load(response.data);
+    const results: FirecrawlDocument[] = [];
+
+    // Find all search results with class 'result'
+    $('.result').each((i, element) => {
+      if (i >= limit) return false;
+
+      const $element = $(element);
+      const title = $element.find('.result__title').text().trim();
+      const url = $element.find('.result__url').text().trim();
+      const snippet = $element.find('.result__snippet').text().trim();
+
+      // Get the actual URL from the href attribute
+      const linkHref = $element.find('.result__a').attr('href');
+      let actualUrl = '';
+      if (linkHref) {
+        // Extract the actual URL from DuckDuckGo's redirect URL
+        const match = linkHref.match(/uddg=([^&]+)/);
+        if (match && match[1]) {
+          actualUrl = decodeURIComponent(match[1]);
+        }
+      }
+
+      const document: FirecrawlDocument = {
+        url: actualUrl || url,
+        title,
+        markdown: `# ${title}\n\n${snippet}`,
+        actions: undefined as never
+      };
+
+      results.push(document);
+    });
+
+    return {
+      success: true,
+      data: results
+    };
+
+  } catch (error) {
+    console.error('Search error:', error);
+    if (axios.isAxiosError(error) && error.code === 'ECONNABORTED') {
+      return {
+        success: false,
+        data: [],
+        error: 'Timeout'
+      };
+    }
+    
+    return {
+      success: false,
+      data: [],
+      error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error occurred'
+    };
+  }
+}
+
+export default search;
\ No newline at end of file