SerpApi is asking a federal court to dismiss Google’s lawsuit, arguing the company is misusing copyright law to restrict access to public search results.

• The motion was filed Feb. 20, according to a blog post by SerpApi CEO and founder Julien Khaleghy.
• Google sued SerpApi in December, alleging it bypassed technical protections to scrape and resell content from Google Search.

The details: SerpApi argues Google is improperly invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). According to Khaleghy:

• The DMCA protects copyrighted works, not websites or ad businesses.
• Google doesn’t own the underlying content displayed in search results.
• Accessing publicly visible pages isn’t “circumvention” under the statute.

Google’s complaint alleged SerpApi:

• Circumvented bot-detection and crawling controls.
• Used rotating bot identities and large bot networks.
• Scraped licensed content from Search features, including images and real-time data.

SerpApi said it doesn’t decrypt systems, disable authentication, or access private data. Khaleghy said SerpApi retrieves the same information available to any user in a browser, without requiring a login.

Khaleghy also argued Google admitted its anti-bot systems protect its advertising business — not specific copyrighted works — which he said undermines the DMCA claim.

SerpApi cites the Ninth Circuit’s hiQ v. LinkedIn decision warning against “information monopolies” over public data. It also cites the Sixth Circuit’s Impression Products v. Lexmark ruling to argue that public-facing content can’t be shielded by technical measures alone.

Catch up quick: The lawsuit follows months of escalating legal fights over scraping and AI data use.

• Oct. 22: Reddit sued SerpApi, Perplexity, Oxylabs, and AWMProxy in federal court, alleging they scraped Reddit content indirectly from Google Search and reused or resold it. Reddit claimed the companies hid their identities and scraped at “industrial scale.” Reddit said it set a “trap” post visible only to Google’s crawler that later appeared in Perplexity results. Reddit is seeking damages and a ban on further use of previously scraped data.
• Oct. 29: SerpApi said it would “vigorously defend” itself, calling Reddit’s language “inflammatory” and arguing public search data should remain accessible.
• Dec. 19: Google sued SerpApi, alleging it bypassed security protections, ignored crawling directives, and scraped licensed Search content for resale. SerpApi responded that it operates lawfully and that accessing public search data is protected by the First Amendment.

By the numbers: SerpApi claims that, under Google’s interpretation of the DMCA, statutory damages could theoretically total $7.06 trillion — a figure it said exceeds U.S. GDP. The number reflects SerpApi’s calculation of potential per-violation penalties, not an actual damages demand.

What’s next. The case now moves to the court’s decision on whether Google’s claims can proceed.

Why we care: The outcome could reshape how SEO platforms, AI tools, and competitive intelligence software access SERP data. A win for Google could make third-party search data harder or riskier to obtain. A win for SerpApi could strengthen arguments that publicly accessible search results can be scraped and collected.

The blog post. Google v. SerpApi: We’re filing a Motion to Dismiss. Here’s why we’re in the right.

Dig deeper. Inside SearchGuard: How Google detects bots and what the SerpAPI lawsuit reveals

Organic search clicks are shrinking across major verticals — and it’s not just because of Google’s AI Overviews.

• Classic organic click share fell sharply across headphones, jeans, greeting cards, and online games queries in the U.S., new Similarweb data comparing January 2025 to January 2026 shows.
• The biggest winner: text ads.

Why we care. You aren’t just competing with AI Overviews. You’re competing with Google’s aggressive expansion of paid search real estate. Across every vertical analyzed, text ads gained more click share than any other measurable surface. In product categories, paid listings now capture roughly one-third of all clicks. As a result, several brands that are losing organic visibility are increasing their paid investment.

By the numbers. Across four verticals, text ads showed the most consistent, measurable click-share gains.

• Classic organic lost 11 to 23 percentage points of click share year over year.
• Text ads gained 7 to 13 percentage points in every case.
• Paid click share doubled in major product categories.
• AI Overviews SERP presence rose ~10 to ~30 percentage points, depending on the vertical.

Classic organic is down everywhere. Year-over-year classic organic click share declined across all four verticals. Headphones saw the steepest drop. Even online games — historically organic-heavy — lost double digits. In two verticals (headphones, jeans), total clicks also fell.

• Headphones: Down from 73% to 50%
• Jeans: Down from 73% to 56%
• Greeting cards: Down from 88% to 75%
• Online games: Down from 95% to 84%

Text ads are the biggest winner. Text ads gained share in every vertical; no other surface showed this level of consistent growth:

• Headphones: Up from 3% to 16%
• Online games: Up from 3% to 13%
• Jeans: Up from 7% to 16%
• Greeting cards: Up from 9% to 16%

In product categories, PLAs compounded the shift:

• Headphones: Up from 16% to 36%
• Jeans: Up from 18% to 34%
• Greeting cards: Up from 10% to 19%

AI Overviews surged unevenly. The presence of Google AI Overviews expanded sharply, but varied by vertical:

• Headphones: 2.28% → 32.76%
• Online games: 0.38% → 29.80%
• Greeting cards: 0.94% → 21.97%
• Jeans: 2.28% → 12.06%

Zero-click searches are high — and mostly stable. Except for online games, zero-click rates didn’t change dramatically:

• Headphones: 63% (flat)
• Jeans: Down from 65% to 61%
• Online games: Up from 43% to 50%
• Greeting cards: Up from 51% to 53%

Brands losing organic traffic are buying it back. In headphones:

• Amazon increased paid clicks 35% while losing organic volume.
• Walmart nearly 6x’d paid clicks.
• Bose boosted paid 49%.

In jeans:

• Gap grew paid clicks 137% to become the top paid player.
• True Religion entered the paid top tier without top-10 organic presence.

In online games:

• CrazyGames quadrupled paid clicks while organic declined.
• Arkadium entered paid after losing 68% of organic clicks.

The result? We’re seeing a self-reinforcing cycle, according to the study’s author, Aleyda Solis:

• Organic share declines.
• Competition intensifies.
• More brands increase paid budgets.
• Paid surfaces capture more clicks.

About the data. This analysis used Similarweb data to examine SERP composition and click distribution for the top 5,000 U.S. queries in headphones, jeans, and online games, and the top 956 queries in greeting cards and ecards. It compares January 2025 to January 2026, tracking how clicks shifted across classic organic results, organic SERP features, text ads, PLAs, zero-click searches, and AI Overviews.

The study. Search Isn’t Just Turning to AI, it’s being Re-Monetized: Text Ads Are Taking a Bigger Share of Google SERP Clicks (Data)

ChatGPT heavily favors the top of content when selecting citations, according to an analysis of 1.2 million AI answers and 18,012 verified citations by Kevin Indig, Growth Advisor.

Why we care. Traditional search rewarded depth and delayed payoff. AI favors immediate classification — clear entities and direct answers up front. If your substance isn’t surfaced early, it’s less likely to appear in AI answers.

By the numbers. Indig’s team found a consistent “ski ramp” citation pattern that held across randomized validation batches. He called the results statistically indisputable:

• 44.2% of citations come from the first 30% of content.
• 31.1% come from the middle (30–70%).
• 24.7% come from the final third, with a sharp drop near the footer.

At the paragraph level, AI reads more deeply:

• 53% of citations come from the middle of paragraphs.
• 24.5% come from first sentences.
• 22.5% come from last sentences.

The big takeaway. Front-load key insights at the article level. Within paragraphs, prioritize clarity and information density over forced first sentences.

Why this happens. Large language models are trained on journalism and academic writing that follow a “bottom line up front” structure. The model appears to weight early framing more heavily, then interpret the rest through that lens.

• Modern models can process massive token windows, but they prioritize efficiency and establish context quickly.

What gets cited. Indig identified five traits of highly cited content:

• Definitive language: Cited passages were nearly twice as likely to use clear definitions (“X is,” “X refers to”). Direct subject-verb-object statements outperform vague framing.
• Conversational Q&A structure: Cited content was 2x more likely to include a question mark. 78.4% of citations tied to questions came from headings. AI often treats H2s as prompts and the following paragraph as the answer.
• Entity richness: Typical English text contains 5% to 8% proper nouns. Heavily cited text averaged 20.6%. Specific brands, tools, and people anchor answers and reduce ambiguity.
• Balanced sentiment: Cited text clustered around a subjectivity score of 0.47 — neither dry fact nor emotional opinion. The preferred tone resembles analyst commentary: fact plus interpretation.
• Business-grade clarity: Winning content averaged a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 16 versus 19.1 for lower-performing content. Shorter sentences and plain structure beat dense academic prose.

About the data. Indig analyzed 3 million ChatGPT responses and 30 million citations, isolating 18,012 verified citations to examine where and why AI pulls content. His team used sentence-transformer embeddings to match responses to specific source sentences, then measured their page position and linguistic traits such as definitions, entity density, and sentiment.

Bottom line. Narrative “ultimate guide” writing may underperform in AI retrieval. Structured, briefing-style content performs better.

• Indig argues this creates a “clarity tax.” Writers must surface definitions, entities, and conclusions early—not save them for the end.

The report. The science of how AI pays attention