Breaking news: Google Now requires JavaScript to perform searches!
Yes, you read that right โ does your old reliable automated SERP bot rely on HTTP clients and HTML parsers? 
Totally busted. This change has wreaked havoc on countless SEO tools, causing data delays, outages, and service crashes.
But why did this happen? What might be the reason behind this change and how can you deal with it? Are all tools affected? More importantly, what is the solution? 
Itโs time to find out!
Whatโs the deal with Google requiring JavaScript to perform searches? Hereโs what you need to know!
on Night of January 15thGoogle has pulled the trigger on a major update to how it handles and tolerates automated scripts. 
The culprit? JavaScript!
It is now mandatory to implement JavaScript to access any Google search page. Without it, you will encounter what some users have calledโฆ โwall of textโโ A great page laughing in the face of old school robots. 
The result? Widespread Confusion โ Ranking trackers, SERP data tools, and SEO services everywhere stopped working completely or started experiencing service outages and data lag. 
As Google shared in an email to TechCrunch:
โEnabling JavaScript allows us to better protect our services and our users from bots, sophisticated forms of abuse, and spam.โ
The reason behind this step? According to the same spokesperson, on average, โless than 0.1%โ of Google searches are done by users who have JavaScript disabled.
Sure, this makes sense and 0.1% seems like a pretty small number, until you remember itโs Google. 
Weโre talking about Millions of searches. And guess what? A large portion of this piece will likely come from SEO tools, web scripts, and data aggregation services!
So, is this a direct criticism of SEO tools? Why now, and what is the real story? Letโs dive in and find out! 
Turkish lira; D: No, not really. Google probably did this to protect against LLM degree holders, not SEO tools.
As Patrick Hathaway, co-founder and CEO of Sitebulb, pointed out on LinkedIn, this is unlikely to be an attack on SEO tools:
These products have been around since the early days of search engines and donโt really hurt Googleโs business. But large language models (LLMs) might do just that!
Not surprisingly, ChatGPT and similar services are emerging as competitors to Google, changing the way we search for information. Patrickโs point makes sense, although itโs still unclear exactly why Google made these changes, as the company hasnโt issued an official statement. 
The Scriptwall move isnโt about banning web scraping, itโs about protecting Googleโs ranking system from new competitors (hello, AI companiesโฆ).
Google makes it difficult for these competitors to cite pages and use SERP data, forcing them to create their own internal PageRank systems instead of comparing their results to Googleโs. 
SEO data outage: Fallout from Googleโs latest sabotage campaign
The ramifications of Googleโs new policies are straightforward: many SEO tools are struggling, going offline, or experiencing significant outages and crashes. 
Users are reporting serious data delays in tools like Semrush, SimilarWeb, Rank Ranger, SE Ranking, ZipTie.dev, AlsoAsked, and potentially other tools stuck in the mess. Itโs safe to say Most players in the SEO game have felt the hit. 
If you select X, youโll find plenty of comments from both frustrated users and updates from industry insiders:
A side effect of Googleโs SEO changes? Struggling to get accurate SERP data can mess with how SEO tools track rankings, leading to unreliable results.
Unbelievable? Just take a look at the SEMrush Volatility Index after January 15:
Itโs hard to ignore this sudden rise. 
Was this due to SEO tracking issues or some other change in Googleโs algorithms? Tough callโฆ
Headless browsers are the answer to Googleโs new โwall of text.โ
If youโve reviewed our advanced web scraping guide, you probably already know what the solution is here.
The answer? Simply switch to automated browser tools that can execute JavaScript, which allow you to control the browser directly. After all, requesting JavaScript on web pages is not easy TRUE Mind you (unless Google pairs that with some serious anti-scraping measures 
).
Well, if only it were that easyโฆ
Switching from an HTTP client + HTML parser setup to headless browsers like Playwright or Selenium is easy. Real headache? Browsers are resource-hungry beastsAnd browser automation libraries are not as scalable as lightweight scripts that parse static HTML.
Consequences? Higher costs 
and stricter infrastructure management for anyone collecting SEO data or tracking SERPs.
The real winners? AWS, GCP, Azure, and every data center runs these heavy-weight abstraction setups.
Losers? End users! If you donโt choose the right SEO tool, be prepared for high prices, frequent data delays, and โ yes โ those dreaded outages.
How Bright Dataโs SERP API was able to avoid major outages
While many SEO tools have been phased out due to Googleโs changes, Bright Data stayed ahead of the curve. 
how? Our advanced unlocking technology and rugged construction are designed to handle complex challenges like these. Google isnโt the first to require JavaScript demo for data extraction. While other SEO tools โ focused solely on Google โ scrambled to create a JS offering from scratch, we simply adapted our SERP scraping solution to take advantage of the powerful unlocking capabilities we already have for hundreds of domains. 
Thanks to a top-notch engineering team specializing in web unlocking, we quickly addressed this backup issue. Sure, the update threw the industry into a loop and caused some outages, but Bright Dataโs response was very quick: 
As you can see, the outages were short, lasting only a few minutes. In less than an hour, our team of data mining specialists was able to restore full functionality to Bright Dataโs SERP API.
Bright Dataโs web opening team hit the ground running, stabilizing operations at lightning speed while maintaining strong performance without incurring additional costs to users โ a critical factor as many of our existing users began converting 2-5 times more traffic. Times we go out of our way to meet their requirements. 
How did we pull it off? 
With our advanced alert system, high order scalability, and dedicated R&D team working around the clock, We fixed the problem before any other SEO platform reacted โ and long before customers even noticed! 
Thatโs the power of working with a company that goes beyond basic SERP scraping. With world-class scrapers, professionals and infrastructure, Bright Data guarantees the availability and reliability of its products! 
No surprise here โ Bright Dataโs SERP API ranked #1 on our list of top SERP API services!
Want to know more? Watch the video below:
summary
Google has just rolled out some major changes that are radically changing the way bots collect and track SERP data. JavaScript execution is now required, and this has resulted in outages, data lag, and other issues across most SERP widgets. 
And in all this chaos, Bright data The problem was solved in less than an hour 
, ensuring minimal disruption and continuing to deliver high-quality SERP data.
If you are experiencing challenges with your SEO tools or want to protect your operations from future disruptions, donโt hesitate to reach out to us! We will be happy to help! 
