diff --git a/backend/functions/src/cloud-functions/crawler.ts b/backend/functions/src/cloud-functions/crawler.ts
index 46412e8..907265d 100644
--- a/backend/functions/src/cloud-functions/crawler.ts
+++ b/backend/functions/src/cloud-functions/crawler.ts
@@ -776,7 +776,9 @@ ${suffixMixins.length ? `\n${suffixMixins.join('\n\n')}\n` : ''}`;
 
     getUrlDigest(urlToCrawl: URL) {
         const normalizedURL = new URL(urlToCrawl);
-        normalizedURL.hash = '';
+        if (!normalizedURL.hash.startsWith('/')) {
+            normalizedURL.hash = '';
+        }
         const normalizedUrl = normalizedURL.toString().toLowerCase();
         const digest = md5Hasher.hash(normalizedUrl.toString());
 
diff --git a/backend/functions/src/cloud-functions/searcher.ts b/backend/functions/src/cloud-functions/searcher.ts
index 6f1daf8..031a4a8 100644
--- a/backend/functions/src/cloud-functions/searcher.ts
+++ b/backend/functions/src/cloud-functions/searcher.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import {
     objHashMd5B64Of,
 } from 'civkit';
 import { singleton } from 'tsyringe';
-import { AsyncContext, CloudHTTPv2, Ctx, InsufficientBalanceError, Logger, OutputServerEventStream, RPCReflect } from '../shared';
+import { AsyncContext, CloudHTTPv2, Ctx, InsufficientBalanceError, Logger, OutputServerEventStream, Param, RPCReflect } from '../shared';
 import { RateLimitControl, RateLimitDesc } from '../shared/services/rate-limit';
 import _ from 'lodash';
 import { Request, Response } from 'express';
@@ -83,6 +83,8 @@ export class SearcherHost extends RPCHost {
             res: Response,
         },
         auth: JinaEmbeddingsAuthDTO,
+        @Param('count', { default: 5, validate: (v) => v >= 3 && v <= 10 })
+        count: number,
         crawlerOptions: CrawlerOptions,
         braveSearchExplicitOperators: BraveSearchExplicitOperatorsDto,
     ) {
@@ -157,7 +159,7 @@ export class SearcherHost extends RPCHost {
         const searchQuery = braveSearchExplicitOperators.addTo(ctx.req.path.slice(1));
         const r = await this.cachedWebSearch({
             q: searchQuery,
-            count: 10
+            count: Math.floor(count * 2)
         }, crawlerOptions.noCache);
 
         if (!r.web?.results.length) {
@@ -226,7 +228,7 @@ export class SearcherHost extends RPCHost {
                 if (_.some(scrapped, (x) => this.pageQualified(x))) {
                     setEarlyReturnTimer();
                 }
-                if (!this.searchResultsQualified(scrapped)) {
+                if (!this.searchResultsQualified(scrapped, count)) {
                     continue;
                 }
                 if (earlyReturnTimer) {
@@ -274,7 +276,7 @@ export class SearcherHost extends RPCHost {
                 setEarlyReturnTimer();
             }
 
-            if (!this.searchResultsQualified(scrapped)) {
+            if (!this.searchResultsQualified(scrapped, count)) {
                 continue;
             }
 
@@ -425,8 +427,8 @@ ${suffixMixins.length ? `\n${suffixMixins.join('\n')}\n` : ''}`;
             formattedPage.html;
     }
 
-    searchResultsQualified(results: FormattedPage[]) {
-        return _.every(results, (x) => this.pageQualified(x)) && results.length >= this.targetResultCount;
+    searchResultsQualified(results: FormattedPage[], targetResultCount = this.targetResultCount) {
+        return _.every(results, (x) => this.pageQualified(x)) && results.length >= targetResultCount;
     }
 
     async cachedWebSearch(query: WebSearchQueryParams, noCache: boolean = false) {
diff --git a/backend/functions/src/services/brave-search.ts b/backend/functions/src/services/brave-search.ts
index c07dde1..2fe7ffc 100644
--- a/backend/functions/src/services/brave-search.ts
+++ b/backend/functions/src/services/brave-search.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { AsyncService, AutoCastable, DownstreamServiceFailureError, Prop, RPC_CALL_ENVIRONMENT, marshalErrorLike, retry } from 'civkit';
+import { AsyncService, AutoCastable, DownstreamServiceFailureError, Prop, RPC_CALL_ENVIRONMENT, delay, marshalErrorLike } from 'civkit';
 import { singleton } from 'tsyringe';
 import { Logger } from '../shared/services/logger';
 import { SecretExposer } from '../shared/services/secrets';
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ export class BraveSearchService extends AsyncService {
         this.braveSearchHTTP = new BraveSearchHTTP(this.secretExposer.BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY);
     }
 
-    @retry(3, Math.ceil(500 + 500 * Math.random()))
     async webSearch(query: WebSearchQueryParams) {
         const ip = this.threadLocal.get('ip');
         const extraHeaders: WebSearchOptionalHeaderOptions = {};
@@ -65,16 +64,25 @@ export class BraveSearchService extends AsyncService {
             encoded.q = (Buffer.from(encoded.q).toString('ascii') === encoded.q) ? encoded.q : encodeURIComponent(encoded.q);
         }
 
-        try {
-            const r = await this.braveSearchHTTP.webSearch(encoded, { headers: extraHeaders as Record<string, string> });
+        let maxTries = 11;
 
-            return r.parsed;
-        } catch (err: any) {
-            this.logger.error(`Web search failed: ${err?.message}`, { err: marshalErrorLike(err) });
+        while (maxTries--) {
+            try {
+                const r = await this.braveSearchHTTP.webSearch(encoded, { headers: extraHeaders as Record<string, string> });
 
-            throw new DownstreamServiceFailureError({ message: `Search failed` });
+                return r.parsed;
+            } catch (err: any) {
+                this.logger.error(`Web search failed: ${err?.message}`, { err: marshalErrorLike(err) });
+                if (err?.status === 429) {
+                    await delay(500 + 1000 * Math.random());
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                throw new DownstreamServiceFailureError({ message: `Search failed` });
+            }
         }
 
+        throw new DownstreamServiceFailureError({ message: `Search failed` });
     }
 
 }