can async task work with visual selection?

[ri-aje]

I checked out the macro section and don't see anything specifying visual selection, is there anyway to invoke a task and pass the current visual selection to it? for example, to search it on some website or invoke some script with it. VIM_CWORD is the closest I can find, but it's much less flexible than visual selection. async task seems heavily file oriented, I think it can be more useful by working with other vim elements, such as visual selection. thanks.