diff --git a/pages/api/sources.ts b/pages/api/sources.ts
index 7b4c14e..dca01bd 100644
--- a/pages/api/sources.ts
+++ b/pages/api/sources.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@ const searchHandler = async (req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse<Data>) =>
     const sourceCount = 4;
 
     // GET LINKS
-    const response = await fetch(`https://www.google.com/search?q=${query}`);
+    const encodedQuery = encodeURIComponent(query);
+    const response = await fetch(`https://www.google.com/search?q=${encodedQuery}`);
     const html = await response.text();
     const $ = cheerio.load(html);
     const linkTags = $("a");
@@ -38,13 +39,25 @@ const searchHandler = async (req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse<Data>) =>
       }
     });
 
-    const filteredLinks = links.filter((link, idx) => {
-      const domain = new URL(link).hostname;
-
-      const excludeList = ["google", "facebook", "twitter", "instagram", "youtube", "tiktok"];
-      if (excludeList.some((site) => domain.includes(site))) return false;
-
-      return links.findIndex((link) => new URL(link).hostname === domain) === idx;
+    const filteredLinks = links.filter((link) => {
+      try {
+        const url = new URL(link);
+        const domain = url.hostname;
+
+        const excludeList = ["google", "facebook", "twitter", "instagram", "youtube", "tiktok"];
+        if (excludeList.some((site) => domain.includes(site))) return false;
+
+        return links.findIndex((l) => {
+          try {
+            return new URL(l).hostname === domain;
+          } catch {
+            return false;
+          }
+        }) === links.indexOf(link);
+      } catch (error) {
+        console.error("Invalid URL:", link);
+        return false;
+      }
     });
 
     const finalLinks = filteredLinks.slice(0, sourceCount);
@@ -52,29 +65,32 @@ const searchHandler = async (req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse<Data>) =>
     // SCRAPE TEXT FROM LINKS
     const sources = (await Promise.all(
       finalLinks.map(async (link) => {
-        const response = await fetch(link);
-        const html = await response.text();
-        const dom = new JSDOM(html);
-        const doc = dom.window.document;
-        const parsed = new Readability(doc).parse();
-
-        if (parsed) {
-          let sourceText = cleanSourceText(parsed.textContent);
-
-          return { url: link, text: sourceText };
+        try {
+          const response = await fetch(link);
+          const html = await response.text();
+          const dom = new JSDOM(html);
+          const doc = dom.window.document;
+          const parsed = new Readability(doc).parse();
+
+          if (parsed) {
+            let sourceText = cleanSourceText(parsed.textContent);
+
+            return { url: link, text: sourceText };
+          }
+        } catch (error) {
+          console.error("Error scraping:", link, error);
         }
       })
-    )) as Source[];
-
-    const filteredSources = sources.filter((source) => source !== undefined);
+    )).filter((source): source is Source => source !== undefined);
 
-    for (const source of filteredSources) {
-      source.text = source.text.slice(0, 1500);
-    }
+    const filteredSources = sources.map(source => ({
+      ...source,
+      text: source.text.slice(0, 1500)
+    }));
 
     res.status(200).json({ sources: filteredSources });
   } catch (err) {
-    console.log(err);
+    console.error(err);
     res.status(500).json({ sources: [] });
   }
 };