Comment by toxic72
20 hours ago
I REALLY struggle with Gemini 3 Pro refusing to perform web searches / getting combative with the current date. Ironically their flash model seems much more likely to opt for web search for info validation.
Not sure if others have seen this...
I could attribute it to:
1. It's known quantity with the pro models (I recall that the pro/thinking models from most providers were not immediately equipped with web search tools when they were released originally)
2. Google wants you to pay more for grounding via their API offerings vs. including it out of the box
Gemini refused to believe that I was using MacOS 26.
when I want it to google stuff, I just use the deep research mode. Not as instant, but it googles a lot of stuff then
Sample of one here, but I get the exact opposite behavior. Flash almost never wants to search and I have to use Pro.