Welcome to this week’s Pulse: Updates affect the legal basis of the SERP tools you rely on, the value of keeping your content in Google’s index, and where search revenue goes.
This is what matters to you and your work.
Search revenue increases by 17%; Pichai points to Gemini 4
Alphabet reported its results for the second quarter of 2026, with Google search and other revenues up 17% year over year to $63.27 billion. The growth rate fell from 19% in the first quarter, the first slowdown after four quarters of acceleration. During the earnings call, Pichai highlighted Gemini 4, currently in pre-training, as the model Google needs to compete on the frontier.
Highlights: In the publication of resultsCEO Sundar Pichai said the company’s “popular AI features are driving search query growth,” and Chief Commercial Officer Philipp Schindler attributed the increase to strong vertical performance, led by retail. Alphabet also raised its 2026 capital spending forecast from $195 billion to $205 billion. In the call’s Q&A session, Pichai singled out coding and agent coding as areas where Google needs to improve.
Why it matters
Search continues to grow by billions per quarter, and Google credits its surfaces to AI. The slowdown is just a data point, not a trend, but it comes with another increase in spending aimed at making AI the engine of a company that’s been growing just slightly slower. How this bet plays out will determine which surfaces you optimize for and which ad formats will reach your audience.
Read our full coverage:
Google search revenue growth softens after a year of acceleration
Pichai says Google needs Gemini 4 to compete on the frontier
Court rejects Google’s DMCA claims against SerpApi
A federal judge has dismissed Google’s DMCA claims against SerpApi, ruling that blocking automated access to public search results does not constitute copyright circumvention when those results contain no copyrighted content.
Highlights: The judge granted SerpApi’s motion to dismiss the two anti-circumvention claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Claims based on results without copyrighted content were rejected without permission to edit, while claims involving licensed images in the results were rejected with Google’s permission to edit within 21 days. The court rejected SerpApi’s argument that Google had no standing to sue and found it plausible that Google had alleged circumvention of its SearchGuard system.
Why it matters
Many tools that practitioners rely on, from ranking trackers to SERP monitors, depend on retrieved search results, and this cycle has largely gone their way. The court held that circumventing an access control does not constitute a violation of the DMCA when the results underlying it do not contain any copyrighted material. Google can always modify its more specific requests, and a district court order is not binding on other courts. For now, the ruling provides language to cite for scraping-based tools.
What people say
Rand Fishkin, co-founder and CEO of SparkToro, written the:
“If you explore the web or rely on a product that does, you should be deeply grateful to @serp_api today.”
Independent SEO Consultant Nick LeRoy posted on:
“I’m not as anti-Google as most, but this is a fantastic win for the industry (thanks @serp_api)”
Lily Ray, founder of Algorythmic, reacted on LinkedIn:
“Wow, Google’s lawsuit against SerpAPI was dismissed 🤯 I wonder if we’ll now see more Google takedowns from LLMs and tracking tools… And a lot more noise in our GSC reports 😕”
Read our full coverage: Court rejects Google’s DMCA claims against SerpApi
Publishers impose conditions to stay in Google search
USA Today Co. CEO Mike Reed said the company is prepared to delist from Google in the next six to 12 months. according to Adweek. Several major publishers are questioning whether remaining in the index is still worth the trade.
Highlights: A Wall Street Journal report this week says Reddit is reevaluating its $60 million-a-year licensing deal with Google, Politico and Reuters are considering limiting Google’s crawler, and People Inc. described blocking Google altogether as an option.
Why it matters
Big publishers are now saying publicly what it would take to leave. If licensing becomes the answer, the value of content in Google’s index turns into a negotiated number instead of a supposed exchange of traffic, and these negotiations could shape the terms that small publishers benefit from.
What people say
Cyrus Shepard, founder of Zyppy, wrote on LinkedIn after reading the Journal report:
“The reward given to publishers is no longer there and continues to diminish.”
Jack Neff, former editor-in-chief of Ad Age, react on LinkedIn to Adweek’s previous report on July 10, raised the cost side:
“If publishers block Google’s crawlers becomes more widespread, I’m really concerned that the quality of AI previews will deteriorate as Gemini’s access to professional content is further limited.”
Read the full Adweek report: Once unimaginable, publishers prepare to withdraw from Google search
EU imposes first DMA fines on Google, with data sharing conditions already set
The European Commission Google was fined 890 million euros on July 23, its first sanctions against the company under the Digital Markets Act, a week after the adoption of binding decisions requiring Google to share anonymized search data with its competitors.
Highlights: The Commission fined €460 million for favoring Google’s shopping, hospitality, transportation and sports results over comparable third-party services, and fined €430 million for preventing developers from directing users outside of Google Play. The separate July 16 rulings require Google to share anonymized query, click, view and search position data with eligible competitors, including search engine-class AI chatbots, and to open Android to competing assistants.
Why it matters
The self-preferring result subjects the layout of EU results pages to a compliance deadline, so how Google displays its services compared to third-party listings could change within 60 days. Data sharing decisions could potentially expand the number of search engines and chatbots that can create competitive search systems, and thus cite sources and send referral traffic. Neither decision changes rankings on its own, and what becomes visible will depend on how Google complies with them.
Read our full coverage: Google must share anonymized search data with competitors
Theme of the week: everyone is renegotiating with Google
Google faces pressure from three directions
A court ruling, negotiations with publishers and EU enforcement are putting pressure on Google in three directions.
Dismissal of Google’s DMCA claims for search results without copyrighted content.
Legal pressure
↓
USA Today Co. says it could exit Google Search within six to 12 months. Others evaluate crawler limitations or licensing requirements.
Commercial pressure
→
$63.27 billionSecond quarter research and other revenue+17% over one year
$195 to $205 billionInvestment forecast for 2026
←
Google received 890 million euros in DMA fines. Separate decisions define requirements for sharing research and Android data.
Regulatory pressure
Every story this week is about a party redrawing its deal with Google. A federal court has clarified the legal tools Google can use against companies that collect its results. Publishers transform their presence in the index into negotiation. The EU is changing the way Google presents its results page while requiring its search data to be distributed externally. And the results show what’s on Google’s side, a $63 billion quarter from search with record AI spending.
The exchange that defined the open web for two decades, content and access in exchange for traffic, is being reevaluated in all directions at once.
Top stories of the week:
More resources:
