Home / Business and Economy / Google Wages War on Web Scrapers
Google Wages War on Web Scrapers
20 Dec
Summary
- Google sues SerpApi for allegedly scraping and reselling search results.
- AI's demand for data intensifies the conflict over Google's search index.
- Google claims protecting its data also safeguards indexed websites' rights.
Google has initiated legal proceedings against SerpApi, alleging the company unlawfully scrapes and resells its search engine results pages (SERPs). This move signifies a potentially more aggressive stance by Google in safeguarding its proprietary search data. The scarcity of official APIs for Google's extensive web index makes its SERPs highly sought after, especially for AI applications.
The lawsuit echoes concerns previously raised by Reddit, which also took legal action against SerpApi and Perplexity for data acquisition. Google contends that SerpApi's actions violate website owners' choices regarding content access. While Google partners with entities like Reddit to integrate data into its AI models, it insists that third-party scraping of this data from its SERPs is unauthorized.
While Google frames its action as a defense of publisher rights, it also clearly protects its business interests. The company claims SerpApi employs deceptive tactics, such as spoofing user agents and overwhelming sites with bots, exacerbating the issue. This legal push may be emboldened by Google's recent successes in antitrust cases, which have shielded its data from forced access by competitors.
