Google has initiated legal action against SerpApi, a company that has monetized Googleās search results. Google claims that SerpApi bypasses established legal standards and violates Googleās terms by scraping and reselling its search engine results pages (SERPs). This recent lawsuit may indicate Google's stronger stance on protecting the integrity of its search data.
Companies like SerpApi occupy a legal gray area due to the lack of an official API for Googleās search results, which are extremely sought after in the AI era. For instance, AI-powered chatbots need access to reliable web links, which has led some, like Perplexity, to purchase SerpApiās data. This has resulted in Reddit also filing a lawsuit against SerpApi and Perplexity for using its data obtained from Google's results.
Google echoes Reddit's concerns that were highlighted in their lawsuit from earlier this year. The tech giant asserts that its legal action is not only for self-protection but also meant to safeguard the interests of websites indexed by Google. In Googleās blog about the lawsuit, it argues that SerpApi infringes upon rights holders' decisions regarding who should access their content.
Notably, Google maintains a partnership with Reddit, allowing for seamless data integration into its Gemini platform, often resulting in Reddit sources being cited in AI responses. Google stresses that it adheres to āindustry-standard crawling protocolsā when collecting data for its SERPs, a standard not followed by SerpApi, which instead scrapes data from Google without site permissions. Thus, while Google's lawsuit aims to protect the rights of web publishers, it also clearly defends Googleās commercial interests.