Search Growth Slows, Publishers Weigh Leaving Google – SEO Pulse

Alphabet reported Q2 2026 earnings with Google Search & other revenue up 17% year over year to $63.27 billion, a slowdown from 19% growth in Q1. CEO Sundar Pichai pointed to Gemini 4, now in pretraining, as the model Google needs to compete at the frontier. Separately, a federal judge dismissed Google's DMCA claims against SerpApi, ruling that blocking automated access to public search results isn't copyright circumvention when those results contain no copyrighted content.

Welcome to the week’s Pulse: updates affect the legal footing of the SERP tools you rely on, what it’s worth to keep your content in Google’s index, and where the revenue behind Search is heading. Here’s what matters for you and your work. Search Revenue Grows 17%; Pichai Points To Gemini 4 Alphabet reported Q2 2026 earnings, with Google Search & other revenue up 17% year over year to $63.27 billion. The growth rate eased from 19% in Q1, the first slowdown after four quarters of acceleration. On the earnings call, Pichai pointed to Gemini 4, now in pretraining, as the model Google needs to compete at the frontier. Key facts: In the earnings release https://s206.q4cdn.com/479360582/files/doc news/2026/Jul/22/attachments/2026q2-alphabet-earnings-release.pdf , CEO Sundar Pichai said the company’s “popular AI features are driving Search query growth,” and Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler attributed the increase to strong vertical performance, led by retail. Alphabet also raised its 2026 capital spending forecast to $195 billion to $205 billion. In the call’s Q&A, Pichai named coding and agentic coding as areas where Google needs to improve. Why This Matters Search is still growing by billions a quarter, and Google credits its AI surfaces. The slowdown is one data point, not a trend, but it lands alongside another raise in spending meant to make AI the engine of a business that just grew slightly slower. How that bet plays out will shape which surfaces you optimize for and which ad formats reach your audience. Read our full coverage: Google Search Revenue Growth Eases After A Year Of Acceleration https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-revenue-growth-eases-after-a-year-of-acceleration/583181/ Pichai Says Google Needs Gemini 4 To Compete At The Frontier https://www.searchenginejournal.com/pichai-says-google-needs-gemini-4-to-compete-at-the-frontier/583214/ Court Dismisses Google’s DMCA Claims Against SerpApi A federal judge dismissed Google’s DMCA claims against SerpApi, ruling that blocking automated access to public search results isn’t copyright circumvention when those results contain no copyrighted content. Key facts: The judge granted SerpApi’s motion to dismiss both anti-circumvention claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Claims based on results without copyrighted content were dismissed without leave to amend, while claims involving licensed images in results were dismissed with permission for Google to amend within 21 days. The court rejected SerpApi’s argument that Google lacked the right to sue, and found Google plausibly alleged circumvention of its SearchGuard system. Why This Matters Many of the tools practitioners rely on, from rank trackers to SERP monitors, depend on scraped search results, and this round mostly went their way. The court held that getting past an access control isn’t a DMCA violation when the results behind it contain no copyrighted content. Google can still amend its narrower claims, and a district court order doesn’t bind other courts. For now, the decision gives scraping-based tools language to cite. What People Are Saying Rand Fishkin, co-founder and CEO of SparkToro, wrote on X https://x.com/randfish/status/2079823169125556575 : “If you crawl the web, or rely on any product that does, you should be deeply grateful to @serp api today.” Independent SEO consultant Nick LeRoy posted on X https://x.com/NickLeRoy/status/2079942378463346976 : “I’m not as anti-Google as most, but this is a fantastic victory for the industry thanks @serp api ” Lily Ray, founder of Algorythmic, reacted on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lily-ray-44755615 google-v-serpapi-the-court-granted-our-activity-7485468450086215680-t7yX : “Wow, the Google lawsuit against SerpAPI was dismissed 🤯 I wonder if we will see more Google scraping from the LLMs and tracking tools now… And a lot more noise in our GSC reporting 😕” Read our full coverage: Court Dismisses Google’s DMCA Claims Against SerpApi https://www.searchenginejournal.com/court-dismisses-googles-dmca-claims-against-serpapi/583033/ Publishers Put Conditions On Staying In Google Search USA Today Co. CEO Mike Reed says the company is prepared to delist from Google in the next six to twelve months, according to Adweek https://www.adweek.com/media/publishers-opt-out-google-search/ . Several large publishers are weighing whether staying in the index is still worth the exchange. Key facts: A Wall Street Journal report this week said Reddit is reevaluating its $60 million per year licensing deal with Google, Politico and Reuters are considering limits on Google’s crawler, and People Inc. described blocking Google entirely as an option. Why This Matters Major 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 an assumed trade for traffic, and those negotiations could shape the terms smaller publishers get. What People Are Saying Cyrus Shepard, founder of Zyppy, wrote on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cyrusshepard reddit-has-discussed-shutting-off-googles-activity-7485920726630227969-7e9K after reading the Journal report: “The reward to publishers is no longer there, and still declining.” Former Ad Age editor Jack Neff, reacting on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jack-neff-47b2313 publishers-are-preparing-to-opt-out-of-google-activity-7481457527541493760-AHT0 to Adweek’s earlier report on July 10, raised the cost side: “If publishers blocking Google crawlers becomes widespread, I do truly fear how much worse the quality of AI Overviews can become as Gemini access to professional content gets further throttled.” Read Adweek’s full report: Once Unimaginable, Publishers Are Preparing To Opt Out Of Google Search https://www.adweek.com/media/publishers-opt-out-google-search/ EU Issues First DMA Fines Against Google, With Data-Sharing Terms Already Set The European Commission fined Google €890 million https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/commission-fines-google-eur890-million-breaches-digital-markets-act-2026-07-23 en on July 23, its first penalties against the company under the Digital Markets Act, one week after adopting binding decisions that require Google to share anonymized search data with rivals. Key facts: The Commission issued a €460 million fine for favoring Google’s own shopping, hotel, transport, and sports results over comparable third-party services, and a €430 million fine for restricting developers from steering users outside Google Play. The separate July 16 decisions require Google to share anonymized query, click, view, and results-position data with eligible rivals, including AI chatbots that qualify as search engines, and to open Android to competing assistants. Why This Matters The self-preferencing finding puts EU results-page layout under a compliance deadline, so how Google displays its services against third-party listings could change there within 60 days. The data-sharing decisions could eventually widen which search engines and chatbots can build competitive retrieval systems, and with that, who cites sources and sends referral traffic. Neither decision changes rankings on its own, and what becomes visible will depend on how Google complies. Read our full coverage: Google Must Share Anonymized Search Data With Rivals https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-must-share-anonymized-search-data-with-rivals/582922/ Theme Of The Week: Everyone Is Renegotiating With Google Every story this week is a party redrawing its deal with Google. A federal court narrowed which legal tools Google can use against companies that collect its results. Publishers are turning their presence in the index into a negotiation. The EU is fining how Google lays out its results page while compelling its search data outward. And the earnings show what sits on Google’s side of the table, a $63 billion quarter from Search with record spending riding on AI. The exchange that defined the open web for two decades, content and access in return for traffic, is being repriced from every direction at once. Top Stories Of The Week: Google Search Revenue Growth Eases After A Year Of Acceleration https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-revenue-growth-eases-after-a-year-of-acceleration/583181/ Pichai Says Google Needs Gemini 4 To Compete At The Frontier https://www.searchenginejournal.com/pichai-says-google-needs-gemini-4-to-compete-at-the-frontier/583214/ Court Dismisses Google’s DMCA Claims Against SerpApi https://www.searchenginejournal.com/court-dismisses-googles-dmca-claims-against-serpapi/583033/ Once Unimaginable, Publishers Are Preparing To Opt Out Of Google Search https://www.adweek.com/media/publishers-opt-out-google-search/ Google Must Share Anonymized Search Data With Rivals https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-must-share-anonymized-search-data-with-rivals/582922/ More Resources: