Google pulled documentation for a partner-only Web Search Service API, and the pages describing it on developers.google.com now return a 404 error, Search Engine Roundtable reported on September 28, 2026.
The removed pages described a service letting approved partners retrieve Google Search results as JSON over REST or gRPC requests, including result items, timing, and metadata. An archived copy on the Wayback Machine still shows the content. The documentation first surfaced around August 22 and was gone by September 20, according to a LinkedIn post from Manas Panda that Search Engine Roundtable cited. Of the removal, Panda wrote: “Not deprecated. Deleted: a hard 404, no redirect, no note.”
Google has not commented on the removal or confirmed which partners, if any, hold access to the underlying API. Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable speculated that Apple could be one, but offered no confirmation.
Pulling documentation is not the same as shutting down the API itself; the underlying service could still run for existing partners. The episode underscores how deliberately opaque Google keeps programmatic access to its own results, visible to outsiders only when the company’s own publishing slips.
Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz reported the documentation removal on September 28, 2026.
